[Paper Review] The sustainome of global goal interactions varies by country income and is disproportionately influenced by inequalities

David Lusseau, Francesca Mancini|arXiv (Cornell University)|Apr 24, 2018

Sustainability and Climate Change Governance31 references49 citations

TL;DR

The paper estimates the sustainome, a global map of SDG interactions, and shows how their contributions and conflicts vary by country income and are shaped by inequalities.

ABSTRACT

We interact with each other and our environment in rich and complex ways. These interactions form socioecological systems in which human, economic, or natural resources are used and replenished. In 2015, the United Nations set seventeen sustainable development goals (SDGs) to attempt to change the way we live and create by 2030 a sustainable future balancing equitable prosperity within planetary boundaries. We have tended to tackle SDGs in isolation and now we realise that a key hurdle to SDG implementation are conflicts arising from SDG interactions. We estimate here for the first time the sustainome, a global picture of those interactions, and determine the main hurdles to maximising SDG implementation. We show that the relative contribution of SDGs to global sustainable success differ by country income. SDG conflicts within the sustainome mean that we must find new ways to address the impacts of climate change, approaches to reducing inequalities and responsible consumption. Focussing on poverty alleviation and reducing inequalities will also have compounded positive effects on the sustainome. This network approach to sustainability provides a way to prioritise SDG and contextualise targets.

Motivation & Objective

• Motivate integrated SDG analysis by highlighting interactions among goals rather than treating them in isolation.
• Quantify how the sustainome varies with country income levels.
• Identify key SDG conflicts and hubs that hinder overall sustainable progress.
• Assess the role of inequalities in shaping the sustainome to inform policy prioritization.

Proposed method

• Adopt a network approach to model SDG interactions as a sustainome.
• Estimate global interactions among SDGs and assess their relative contributions to sustainable success.
• Analyze variation of sustainome structure across countries with different income classifications.
• Identify major SDG conflicts related to climate change, inequality reduction, and responsible consumption.

Experimental results

Research questions

• RQ1 How do SDG interactions (the sustainome) differ across countries with different income levels?
• RQ2 What SDGs contribute most to or hinder global sustainable progress within the sustainome across income groups?
• RQ3 How do inequalities influence the structure and conflicts within the sustainome?

Key findings

• SDG interactions form a network where certain goals conflict or reinforce each other, shaping overall sustainable progress.
• The relative contribution of SDGs to global sustainable success differs by country income.
• SDG conflicts within the sustainome indicate the need for integrated approaches to climate, inequality, and consumption.
• Focusing on poverty alleviation and reducing inequalities yields compounded positive effects on the sustainome.