Ethics of sustainable development: the moral imperative for the effective implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, anchored on its ambitious 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and their corresponding 169 targets, was adopted unanimously by the 193 Member States at the United Nations General Assembly in September 2015. The Agenda heralds a historic milestone in United Nations-led global efforts to achieve sustainable development through cooperative multilateralism. The commencement of the implementation of this transformative Agenda in January 2016, which will continue through 2030, has already generated immense interest and enthusiasm throughout the world from various stakeholders, including governments, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), the private sector, and United Nations agencies, as well as regional and international organizations. They seek to substantively contribute to fulfilling the SDGs. Notwithstanding this unprecedentedly remarkable blueprint accord, a degree of trepidation persists regarding possible obstacles, barriers and challenges to its implementation. A well-coordinated and integrated approach to governance for enforcement, monitoring, assessing the effectiveness and reporting at all levels, genuine political will, resource mobilization, and incentives for the private sector are among such perceived barriers and challenges. World leaders have rightly asserted in the 2030 Agenda that the 17 SDGs and their corresponding 169 targets are “integrated” and “indivisible”. The 2030 Agenda stipulates transcendently: “The interlinkages and integrated nature of the Sustainable Development Goals are of crucial importance in ensuring that the purpose of the new Agenda is realized. If we realize our ambitions across the full extent of the Agenda, the lives of all will be profoundly improved and our world will be transformed for the better”. Any effective implementation plan, hence, must avoid a silo approach, and instead should consider all SDGs to be equally important. For instance, SDG# 11 on sustainable cities can only be achieved if SDG# 6 on water and sanitation, SDG# 7 on energy, SDG# 9 on resilient infrastructure and SDG# 3 on health are harmoniously implemented. Furthermore, none of the 17 SDGs could be achieved unless SDG# 8 on sustained, inclusive, and sustainable economic growth and decent work for all, and SDG# 16 on peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, are implemented in tandem. Out of the three dimensions of sustainable development — economic growth, social development and environmental protection — the main challenge, in my view, originates from adequately and effectively attempting to secure the environmental and social dimensions, so as to ensure the “integration” of the latter with economic growth. This is because economic growth remains the primary objective of all governments and policy-makers, by virtue of their mandated responsibilities. The challenging question, therefore, is “how can we better motivate policy-makers, and society as a whole, to take action toward achieving those two relatively neglected dimensions, in order to implement the SDGs in their entirety and in an integrated manner?” The “economic case”, based on self-interest discourse, seems to be the prevalent argument for rationalizing the importance and benefits of implementing the SDGs for all. The argument is premised on the assumption that each stakeholder — such as governments and the private sector — could benefit economically from implementing the SDGs through, for instance, the generation of new, albeit environmentally benign-by-design and green employment