From the pandemic to global warming: why we need Sustainable Development Goals

The recent assertion on the streets of Washington, D.C., and Toronto by libertarians and Donald Trump supporters of the right to behave as they wish—irrespective of their responsibility to fellow citizens in the face of a deadly pandemic that has killed more than a quarter of a million in the U.S. and almost 12,000 in Canada—is not only stupidity on steroids, but also an affront to the UN Agenda for 2030, it’s Sustainable Development Goals, and to the Universal Declaration on Human Rights. That basic principle of international law stipulates that individual rights (political and civil) are inseparable and equal to collective rights, implying that governments must give equal importance to an individual’s right to behave as he or she wishes (within the law) as it would give to the well-being and health of society as a whole. Though there is often a delicate balance to strike between the two, when the exercise of the individual right is the source multiplier of a pandemic fatal to an unprecedented number of people in society, it is clear that government must act in favour of the collective (such as no smoking on an aircraft). Unfortunately, for the libertarians in our society, this may well be an unwelcome portent of more to come. While global pandemics can have devastating effects on public health and economies, they are limited in their impact when compared with global warming—a tsunami, which until now, has been seen as only a distant threat requiring little regulating of our individual behaviour by governments. For many, that distance shortened this year, with the tsunami now bearing down on us with alarming speed. A record of 31 named storms in 2020 have brought destruction to those inhabiting coastal areas of the Gulf of Mexico, the southern U.S., and large parts of east and southern Asia. As well, 2020 and 2019 were the two hottest years on record, with the highest air temperature ever recorded on the planet reaching a sizzling 54.4 C in California. Wildfires consumed large swaths of forest and entire communities in several western U.S. states, and, in June, the Arctic recorded an historic high of 38 C. Widespread drought threatens ever-larger areas of Africa, certain to accelerate migration to Europe and North America. The loudest canaries in the mine, however, were atmospheric sensors that in May measured an atmosphere of 417 parts per million of carbon dioxide, “higher than anything in at least three million years.” It is CO2 that creates the greenhouse effect that is rapidly warming our world. And all this is happening when the global average temperature has risen by only 1 C above its level prior to the industrial revolution. With scientists predicting a likely temperature rise of at least 3.5 C later this century—and this based on the commitments already made as part of the 2015 Paris Climate Accords—how will governments be able to limit the rise in the earth’s temperature to no more than 1.5 C, considered a tipping point beyond which irreversible damage could threaten the liveability of large parts of our planet – especially in areas of widespread poverty? In the same way that COVID-19 has revealed itself to be a threat that ultimately requires a co-ordinated global response, addressing the warming of our planet will require national policy responses based on a globally co-ordinated strategy fed by the best data from leading natural and social scientists. This will necessitate dramatic adjustments to the structures of our economies. But the impulse for such change cannot be left to the same market forces that got us here in the first place. Instead, the role of governments, public policies, and public-private partnerships will need enhancing. Individuals will need to behave in a manner that puts the collective well-being back into a more-sustainable equilibrium with individual political and civil rights. This will mean creating more resilient, egalitarian economies through reductions in per capita consumption, new and more efficient public versus private transport modes, as well as revised building codes and energy efficient heating and cooling systems. And it will likely produce howls of opposition from the libertarians and nationalists asserting that co-ordinating such an approach globally shouldn’t and can’t be done since it would not only violate individual rights, but move us closer to “socialism” and world government. Yet if we are to sustain human civilization, not only must we make these changes at an accelerated pace, we must also recognize that they are within our reach. A global compact for doing so already exists in the form of the UN Agenda 2030 and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which, in 2015, Canada and 192 other UN member governments signed. The SDGs effectively integrate social, economic, and environmental dimensions of sustainable progress, as well as peace, good governance, and effective justice. They are being applied according to the needs and resources of each member government, with 169 targets and 230 performance indicators. And because they are universal in nature, the SDGs are governed by the overarching principle that no individual, no community, no country is to be left behind. Unfortunately, national performance in achieving the goals has been disappointing to date, thanks in part to opposition by Trump-like political leadership, vested interests, and an absence of political will. Because of the fragility of our economies and the natural environment exposed by a global pandemic and the destructive forces unleashed by global warming, a growing share of the public is, however, demanding from leaders not just political and civil rights, but equally the economic, social, and cultural rights and responsibilities we possess as inhabitants of a shrinking and damaged planet. In realizing those rights, we can conserve a nature that recognizes neither the individual nor the collective, but does sustain our existence on the planet. The SDGs are the instruments and performance platform that can help us strike the critical balance that both nature and humanity require if they are to co-exist. Joseph Ingram is the chairman of Capitalis Partners, a former president of the North South Institute, and a former World Bank special representative to the United Nations and the World Trade Organization. He is an expert adviser to the Global Growth Dialogue and a fellow of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute. The Hill Times

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From the pandemic to global warming: why we need Sustainable Development Goals

If we are to sustain human civilization, not only must we make changes at an accelerated pace, we must also recognize that they are within our reach.

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