In the face of megatrends such as globalisation, climate and demographic change, digitalisation and urbanisation, many cities and regions are grappling with critical challenges to preserve social inclusion, foster economic growth and transition to the low carbon economy. The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set the global agenda for the coming decade to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. A Territorial Approach to the Sustainable Development Goals argues that cities and regions play a critical role in this paradigm shift and need to embrace the full potential of the SDGs as a policy tool to improve people’s lives. The report estimates that at least 105 of the 169 SDG targets will not be reached without proper engagement of sub-national governments. It analyses how cities and regions are increasingly using the SDGs to design and implement their strategies, policies and plans; promote synergies across sectoral domains; and engage stakeholders in policy making.
The report proposes an OECD localised indicator framework that measures the distance towards the SDGs for more than 600 regions and 600 cities in OECD and partner countries. The report concludes with a Checklist for Public Action to help policy makers implement a territorial approach to the SDGs.
SDG 15 for “Life on land”
The index for SDG 15 about life on land combines the indicators of tree cover loss (from 1992 to 2015, in percentage points) and terrestrial protected areas as a percentage of total area. Both indicators reflect the main purpose of SDG 15, which is to protect and restore territorial ecosystems, by combatting deforestation and desertification. While the indicator of tree cover loss intends to capture the extent of deforestation (Haščič and Mackie, 2018), the second indicator seizes the efforts to protect biodiversity (see Mackie et al., 2017). These two indicators are available for both regions and cities.
Only eight OECD regions have achieved the end values for 2030 in SDG 15, related to life on land, of having at least 37% of their terrestrial area being protected and an increase in tree cover from 1992 to 2015 of at least 2.4 percentage points. Figure 3.29 shows that while OECD lagging regions are on average 40 percentage points away from the suggested end
values for 2030 in SDG 15, all the regions of Korea, Sweden and Switzerland still have to travel around two-thirds of the way or more before reaching the end values for this goal.
Regional gaps in the achievement of the end value are the highest within the United States, Mexico and Germany, where the difference between the best performing and the worst-off region of each country exceeds the 77 percentage points. In these countries, the worst-off regions are Massachusetts (United States), Colima (Mexico) and Berlin (Germany), which
are close to 80 percentage points away to achieving the intended end values, while Alaska (United States), Campeche (Mexico) and Saarland (Germany) stand at the other extreme of the distribution with an average distance to travel to the end value lower than 7.5 percentage points.
Only ten cities in Poland, Germany, Mexico and France have achieved the suggested end values for SDG 15, which consist of having experienced an increase of at least 3 percentage points in tree cover in the last 2 decades and of protecting more than 38% of their local terrestrial area. The remaining 98% of cities that have not yet reached these end values still have to travel on average 43.5% of the way before 2030 to meet the proposed end values (Figure 3.30). The change in tree cover and the protection of life on land are subject to recurrent within-countries inequalities. The largest gaps in the distances towards SDG 15 are recorded in Spain, Mexico and the United States. For instance, the cities of Córdoba (Mexico), Coruna (Spain) and Worcester (United States) display the lowest outcomes in these indicators, while the cities of Matamoros (Mexico), Las Palmas (Spain) and Merced (United States) are among the best performing cities towards the suggested end values for SDG 15.
>At least 80% of regions from OECD countries have not achieved the suggested end values for 2030 in any of the 17 goals.
>Not a single region in the OECD has achieved the suggested end values for SDG 13 on “Climate action” and SDG 5 on “Gender equality”;
>Only 20% of OECD regions have achieved the end values for SDG 10 on “Reduced inequalities” and SDG 12 on “Responsible consumption”;
>Goals 14 (Life below water), 9 (Industry and innovation) and 7 (Clean energy) display the largest distances to the end values for the lagging regions, with an average distance of around 50% of the total way.
>At least 70% of cities from OECD countries have not yet achieved the end values suggested for 2030 in 15 out of the 17 SDGs.
>The SDGs where most cities lag behind relate to the environment (SDGs 13 about “Climate action” and 15 about “Life on land”) and gender equality (SDG 5), where at least 95% of cities have not met the suggested end values.
>Goal 7 on “Clean energy” displays high disparities in distances to the objectives across cities.
While 30% of the cities have reached the end values for this goal (i.e. more than 81% of their electricity production coming from renewable sources with no use of coal or fossil fuels), the remaining 70% of cities are halfway from achieving the recommended outcomes.