European Union presents its progress towards sustainable development

The United Nations High-Level Political Forum for Sustainable Development in New York, on the 18 of july, the EU reaffirmed its strong commitment to deliver on the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development – a shared global roadmap for a peaceful and prosperous world, with human well-being on a healthy planet at its core.

A dedicated event hosted by the European Union and the Finnish Presidency assessed the progress made in implementing the Agenda 2030’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) within Europe and through the EU’s international cooperation.

The European Union has already embarked on a transition towards a low-carbon economy that is climate neutral, resource-efficient and circular – while ensuring social equality and inclusiveness. The EU has also put the SDGs at the heart of its external action and has aligned all development activities with UN 2030 Agenda through its new European Consensus on Development.

However, many sustainability challenges have become increasingly pressing, and new ones have emerged, putting human well-being, economic prosperity, our society and our environment at risk. To accelerate the achievement of the ambitious and interlinked SDGs, the EU highlights its commitment to systematically review the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and follow-up respectively.

The first Joint Synthesis Report on the implementation of the European Consensus on Development, presented officially at today’s event, shows how the EU and its Member States have advanced sustainable development through their development cooperation with partner countries, whilst strengthening their partnerships with the United Nations and other multilateral organisations, civil society and the private sector. For instance, it reports significant progress in helping reducing extreme poverty through more joint-up EU action, in promoting gender equality, and in improving health services for millions of people across the world. It also highlights that the EU and its Member States contributed over €20 billion in 2017 alone to support developing countries in their efforts to tackle and adapt to climate change. EU support to sustainable energy is on course to achieving energy access for about 40 million people, with annual CO2 emissions savings of around 15 million tons.

The ‘Eurostat Monitoring Report on progress towards the SDGs in an EU context’ is a key tool for evaluating how well the EU and its Member States are advancing on the SDGs, helping also to highlight the cross- cutting and interconnected nature of the SDGs.

The 2019 EU report on Policy Coherence for Development showcases EU’s progress on formulating policies which take into account from the outset the impacts on developing countries, a central aspect to the effective implementation of the 2030 Agenda.

For More Information

Press release

Factsheet

Joint Synthesis Report

The EU and the Sustainable Development Goals webpage

UN High Level Political Forum (HLPF)

2019 EU report on Policy Coherence for Development