As 2020 edges closer, we are fast-approaching the last decade to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).  Almost five years since the SDGs were announced, it’s important to ask: where are we now?

We have achieved some success: there has been a decline in extreme poverty, and indicators such as the under-five mortality rate (which fell 49% between 2000 and 2017) illustrate that we are making progress globally on health and wellbeing. However, the 2019 Global SDG Report shows that despite considerable efforts, we are not on track to achieve the SDGs by 2030, and that we must ‘dramatically step up the pace of implementation’ as we enter a ‘decisive decade for people and the planet’.

Despite some progress towards the goals of No Poverty and Quality Education, some of the other SDGs are actually spiralling further out of reach. Rising inequality, climate change, and increasing waste are issues that have become significantly worse since the outset of the SDGs. These disturbing trends take us closer to the point-of-no-return that we see continuously making the  headlines. Interpretations of the latest scientific studies estimate that we have from 11 years to just 18 months until we are on the other side of the tipping point — one in which life as we know it becomes very, very different. Once we reach this point, the systems we have built, and the natural ones in which we live, will not support the aspirations of the SDGs. 

Rather than feeling defeated, many people are experimenting with new ideas and processes, embracing the notion that things will only stop getting worse if we stop making them worse, and proposing alternative and radical ways of doing things. 

This urgency to change how we are moving towards the SDGs is felt by young people all over the world. In November 2019, 1000 of these people, from 162 countries, gathered in Shenzhen, China to participate in UNLEASH, a global innovation lab for the SDGs. The starting point for this innovation was that those with knowledge of the problem are best positioned to solve it. 

Here are some of the change-making initiatives accelerated during UNLEASH, for possible solutions to global problems.

Xplor 

Problem: Tourism is promoted as a tool for local development. However, over-tourism is a problem for local communities because it degrades the environment and culture of local communities, while excluding other towns from the benefits of tourism which contributes to rising inequality. 

Solution: Xplor is an online platform allowing travellers to see  how crowded a place is, and get recommendations for similar alternatives. Using real-time data about crowds, we can avoid repeating the problem of over-tourism by nudging travellers away from overly visited areas through the platform, and redistributing the benefits of tourism within a region.

Solutions like Xplor work within existing conditions to transform them into more sustainable and equitable realities. It is easy to feel overwhelmed by the enormity and scale of issues such as local economic development or the climate crisis, but the UNLEASH innovation process pushed people to get as tangible as possible, getting closer to a solvable issue and work from there. 

Infinity Chip 

Problem: Globally, 73% of clothes are burned or end up in a landfill and only 13% are being recycled or repurposed. Clothing that ends up in landfills can sit there for over 200 years and emits methane as it decomposes. On top of this, producing new clothes rather than simply reusing clothing and textiles is energy-intensive and polluting. While many take-back schemes exist, they fail to create the intended impact due to a lack of traceability and the inability to report on where the clothes end up- ultimately, not appropriately addressing the issue of increased clothing waste.  

Solution: An Infinity Chip with RFID technology is embedded in fast fashion clothing items, and ensures that clothes eventually reach a recycling facility. The aim of the chip is to increase the percentage of clothes being recycled by promoting the demand for recycled clothes among fast fashion consumers. 

As the participants of UNLEASH noted, the types of problems facing communities around the world are similar — and just as the problems are interconnected, so are the solutions. Reducing inequalities produces more sustainable cities and communities. Promoting resilient and inclusive infrastructure allows for sustainable water management. Tackling climate change requires shifting production and consumption patterns. 

Fellowship for Environmental Journalism on Climate Change in the Arab World

Problem: The Middle East, like other regions, is already experiencing the effects of climate change: sinking cities, flooding, extreme heat, and drought. As the media in many countries of the Arab world are controlled by royal governments and leaders with ties to the oil industry, local reporting on climate change is limited as it may easily touch on sensitive issues, and so much of the climate change reporting in the region is sourced from international news agencies. This leads to climate change being covered as foreign news with a focus on international negotiations and agreements, and little relevance for regional audiences. This limits people’s environmental awareness, and interest and ability to participate locally in facing climate change. 

Solution: A fellowship program offering environmental journalism training on climate change issues for youth and adults in media who will cover climate change issues in the Arab world. The Fellowship will instill a culture of news innovation and experimentation on climate change stories in the Arab world through new methods of environment and climate news gathering, storytelling, editorial workflow, audience engagement and viewership models. The initiative will form a network of professionals that will seed a culture of climate news for the Arab region. 

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Although many of the ideas and solutions proposed and accelerated at UNLEASH will evolve and take shape out in the world, it is not the five-day old solutions alone that build power towards the SDGs. What holds weight are the connections and networks forged to make change at scale, and the ability to call on and mobilize people already working to make the SDGs a reality in the little time we have left. The more we are connected and able to collaborate, the more collective power we hold to advance the global SDGs. 

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