Spaiser, V orcid.org/0000-0002-5892-245X, Ranganathan, S, Bali Swain, R et al. (1 more author) (2017) The Sustainable Development Oxymoron: Quantifying and Modelling the Incompatibility of Sustainable Development Goals. International Journal of Sustainable Development and World Ecology, 24 (6). pp. 457-470. ISSN 1350-4509
Abstract
In 2015, the UN adopted a new set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to eradicate poverty, establish socioeconomic inclusion and protect the environment. Critical voices such as the International Council for Science, however, have expressed concerns about the potential incompatibility of the SDGs, specifically the incompatibility of socio-economic development and environmental sustainability. In this paper we test, quantify and model the alleged inconsistency of SDGs. Our analyses show which SDGs are consistent and which are conflicting. We measure the extent of inconsistency and conclude that the SDG agenda will fail as a whole if we continue with business as usual. We further explore the nature of the inconsistencies using dynamical systems models, which reveal that the focus on economic growth and consumption as a means for development underlies the inconsistency. Our models also show that there are factors which can contribute to development (health programs, government investment in education) on the one hand and ecological sustainability (renewable energy) on the other, without triggering the conflict between incompatible SDGs.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2016 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium |
Keywords: | Sustainable Development Goals; sustainable development; dynamical systems modeling; factor analysis; feature selection; UN data revolution |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Education, Social Sciences and Law (Leeds) > School of Politics & International Studies (POLIS) (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 08 Sep 2016 09:26 |
Last Modified: | 11 May 2020 14:49 |
Published Version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13504509.2016.1235624 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Taylor & Francis |
Identification Number: | 10.1080/13504509.2016.1235624 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:104415 |