to implement the sdgs. reporting on progress overall status reports by the united nations (for example the un global sustainable development report in 2019) and by other organizations who are tracking progress on the sdgs have repeatedly pointed out that the world is unlikely to achieve most of the targets by 2030: 41 (or earlier for those targets that have an earlier target yet). this is called the world is not on track.: 41 of particular concern - which cut across many of the sdgs - are rising inequalities, ongoing climate change and increasing biodiversity loss.: 41 in addition, there is a trade-off between the planetary boundaries of earth and aspiration for wealth and well-being; this has been worded as follows: "the world's social and natural biophysical systems cannot support the aspirations for universal human well-being embedded in the sdgs.": 41 due to various economic and social issues, many countries are seeing a major decline in the progress made. in asia for example, data shows a loss of progress on goals 2, 8,10,11, and 15. recommended approaches to still achieve the sdgs are: "set priorities, focus on harnessing the environmental dimension of the sdgs, understand how the sdgs work as an indivisible system, and look for synergies". assessing the political impact of the sdgs a scientific assessment released in 2022 analysed the political impacts of the sdgs. it reviewed over 3,000 scientific articles, mainly from the social sciences. the study looked at possible discursive, normative and institutional effects. the presence of all three types of effects throughout a political system is defined as transformative impact, which is the eventual goal of the 2030 agenda. discursive effects relate to changes in global and national debates that make them more aligned with the sdgs. normative effects would be adjustments in legislative and regulatory frameworks and policies in line with, and because of, the sdgs. institutional effects would be the creation of new departments, committees, offices or programs linked to the achievement of the sdgs or the realignment of existing institutions. the review found that the sdgs have had only limited transformative political impact thus far. they have had mainly discursive effects only. for example, the broad uptake of the principle of leaving no one behind in pronouncements by policymakers and civil society activists is a discursive effect. the sdgs have also led to some isolated normative and institutional reforms. however, there is widespread doubt that the sdgs can steer societies towards more ecological integrity at the planetary scale. this is because countries generally prioritize the more socioeconomic sdgs (e.g. sdgs 8 to 12) over the environmentally oriented ones (e.g. sdgs 13 to 15), which is in alignment with their long-standing national development policies. impacts of covid-19 pandemic the covid-19 pandemic in 2020 had impacts on all 17 goals. it has become "the worst human and economic crisis in a lifetime".: 2 the pandemic threatened progress made in particular for sdg 3 (health), sdg 4 (education), sdg 6 (water and sanitation for all), sdg 10 (reduce inequality) and sdg 17 (partnerships). uneven priorities of goals in 2019 five progress reports on the 17 sdgs were published. three came from the united nations department of economic and social affairs (undesa), one from the bertelsmann foundation and one from the european union. a review of the five reports analyzed which of the 17 goals were addressed in priority and which ones were left behind. in explanation of the findings, the basel institute of commons and economics said biodiversity, peace and social inclusion were "left behind" by quoting the official sdgs motto "leaving no one behind". it has been argued that governments and businesses actively prioritize the social and economic goals over the environmental goals (such as goal 14 and 15) in both rhetoric and practice. sdg preferences in the world's five major sdg reports in 2019 sdg topic rank average rank mentions health 1 3.2 1814 energyclimate water 2 4.0 132813281784 education 3 4.6 1351 poverty 4 6.2 1095 food 5 7.6 693 economic growth 6 8.6 387 technology 7 8.8 855 inequality 8 9.2 296 gender equality 9 10.0 338 hunger 10 10.6 670 justice 11 10.8 328 governance 12 11.6 232 decent work 13 12.2 277 peace 14 12.4 282 clean energy 15 12.6 272 life on land 16 14.4 250 life below water 17 15.0 248 social inclusion 18 16.4 22 costs cost estimates the united nations estimates that for africa, considering the continent's population growth, yearly funding of $1.3 trillion would be needed to achieve the sustainable development goals in africa. the international monetary fund also estimates that $50 billion may be needed only to cover the expenses of climate adaptation. estimates for providing clean water and sanitation for the whole population of all continents have been as high as us$200 billion. the world bank says that estimates need to be made country by country, and reevaluated frequently over time. in 2014, unctad estimated the annual costs to achieving the un goals at us$2.5 trillion per year. another estimate from 2018 (by the basel institute of commons and economics, that conducts the world social capital monitor) found that to reach all of the sdgs this would require between us$2.5 and $5.0 trillion per year. allocation of funds in 2017 the un launched the inter-agency task force on financing for development (un iatf on ffd) that invited to a public dialogue. the top-5 sources of financing for development were estimated in 2018 to be: real new sovereign debt oecd countries, military expenditures, official increase sovereign debt oecd countries, remittances from expats to developing countries, official development assistance (oda). the rockefeller foundation asserted in 2017 that "the key to financing and achieving the sdgs lies in mobilizing a greater share of the $200+ trillion in annual private capital investment flows toward development efforts, and philanthropy has a critical role to play in catalyzing this shift." large-scale funders participating in a rockefeller foundation-hosted design thinking workshop concluded that "while there is a moral imperative to achieve the sdgs, failure is inevitable if there aren't drastic changes to how we go about financing large scale change". a meta-analysis published in 2022 found that there was scant evidence that governments have substantially reallocated funding to implement the sdgs, either for national implementation or for international cooperation. the sdgs do not seem to have changed public budgets and financial allocation mechanisms in any important way, except for some local governance contexts. national budgets cannot easily be reallocated.: 81 sdg-driven investment capital stewardship is expected to play a crucial part in the progressive advancement of the sdg agenda to "shift the economic system towards sustainable investment by using the sdg framework across all asset classes". the notion of sdg driven investment gained further ground amongst institutional investors in 2019. in 2017, 2018 and early 2019, the world pensions council (wpc) held a series of esg-focused (environmental, social and governance) discussions with pension board members (trustees) and senior investment executives from across g20 nations. many pension investment executives and board members confirmed they were in the process of adopting or developing sdg-informed investment processes, with more ambitious investment governance requirements – notably when it comes to climate action, gender equality and social fairness. some studies, however, warn of selective implementation of sdgs and political risks linked to private investments in the context of continued shortage of public funding. communication and advocacy katherine maher, then-executive director of the wikimedia foundation, talks about "the role of free knowledge in advancing the sdgs" in stockholm, 2019 a proposal to visualize the 17 sdgs in a thematic pyramid. un agencies which are part of the united nations development group decided to support an independent campaign to communicate the new sdgs to a wider audience. this campaign, project everyone, had the support of corporate institutions and other international organizations. using the text drafted by diplomats at the un level, a team of communication specialists developed icons for every goal. they also shortened the title the 17 sustainable development goals to global goals, then ran workshops and conferences to communicate the global goals to a global audience. the aarhus convention is a united nations convention passed in 2001, explicitly to encourage and promote effective public engagement in environmental decision making. information transparency related to social media and the engagement of youth are two issues related to the sustainable development goals that the convention has addressed. advocates in 2019 and then in 2021, united nations secretary-general antónio guterres appointed 17 sdg advocates. the role of the public figures is to raise awareness, inspire greater ambition, and push for faster action on the sdgs. they are: co-chairs mia mottley, prime minister of barbados. justin trudeau, prime minister of canada. members queen mathilde of the belgians muhammadu sanusi ii, emir of kano. sheikha moza bint nasser, founder of the education above all foundation. blackpink , girl k-pop group richard curtis, screenwriter, producer and film director. ms. hindou oumarou ibrahim, environmental and indigenous rights activist. graça machel, founder of graça machel trust. dia mirza, actress, film producer, and un environment program goodwill ambassador for india. valentina muñoz rabanal , chilean stem activist. edward ndopu, founder of global strategies on inclusive education. kailash satyarthi , indian childrens' rights activist brad smith , vice chairman and president, microsoft. jeffrey sachs, director of the center for sustainable development at columbia university. forest whitaker, actor, founder and ceo of whitaker peace & development initiative. hamdi ulukaya, founder of chobani global events global goals week logo global goals week is an annual week-long event in september for action, awareness, and accountability for the sustainable development goals. it is a shared commitment for over 100 partners to ensure quick action on the sdgs by sharing ideas and transformative solutions to global problems. it first took place in 2016. it is often held concurrently with climate week nyc. the arctic film festival is an annual film festival organized by hf productions and supported by the sdgs' partnership platform. held for the first time in 2019, the festival is expected to take place every year in september in longyearbyen, svalbard, norway. history the sustainable development goals are a un initiative. work of the statistical commission pertaining to the 2030 agenda for sustainable development containing the targets and indicators, july 2017 (un resolution a/res/71/313) un sdg consultations in mariupol, ukraine the post-2015 development agenda was a process from 2012 to 2015 led by the united nations to define the future global development framework that would succeed the millennium development goals. the sdgs were developed to succeed the millennium development goals (mdgs) which ended in 2015. in 1983, the united nations created the world commission on environment and development (later known as the brundtland commission), which defined sustainable development as "meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs". in 1992, the first united nations conference on environment and development (unced) or earth summit was held in rio de janeiro, where the first agenda for environment and development, also known as agenda 21, was developed and adopted. in 2012, the united nations conference on sustainable development (uncsd), also known as rio+20, was held as a 20-year follow up to unced. colombia proposed the idea of the sdgs at a preparation event for rio+20 held in indonesia in july 2011. in september 2011, this idea was picked up by the united nations department of public information 64th ngo conference in bonn, germany. the outcome document proposed 17 sustainable development goals and associated targets. in the run-up to rio+20 there was much discussion about the idea of the sdgs. at the rio+20 conference, a resolution known as "the future we want" was reached by member states. among the key themes agreed on were poverty eradication, energy, water and sanitation, health, and human settlement. in january 2013, the 30-member un general assembly open working group (owg) on sustainable development goals was established to identify specific goals for the sdgs. the owg submitted their proposal of 8 sdgs and 169 targets to the 68th session of the general assembly in september 2014. on 5 december 2014, the un general assembly accepted the secretary general's synthesis report, which stated that the agenda for the post-2015 sdg process would be based on the owg