From 2014 to 2019, about 100 million hectares of healthy land were degraded annually, contributing to issues such as soil erosion. Efforts to manage and restore terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems are encapsulated in Targets 15.
It was proven in April of 2022 that ever since the COVID-19 pandemic started in early 2020, it has infected more than 500 million people and killed more than 6.2 million universally. The coronavirus caused extreme interference with necessity including essential health services, shortened life expectancy and many more. Additionally, immunization coverage dropped for the first time in 10 years and deaths from tuberculosis and malaria increased by 4.5%.
Target 3.9 thrives to reduce the number of deaths, diseases and illnesses from hazardous chemicals and air pollution, including water and soil contamination. As of 2022 and 2023, there are not many confirmed updates regarding the progress made other than that annually, there are around 8.9-9.2 million deaths due to these concerns. Considering the state of our world’s environment, this number is predicted to rise to roughly 15 million by 2030 if no action is taken.
Throughout the years 2010-2023, successful HIV treatment has cut AIDS related deaths by more than half with the help of all targets including support on financial issues regarding treatments (health coverage), funding of production and development of treatments, as well as universal access to healthcare and healthcare services.
Over the span of 2 years (2019-2021), the amount of minors missing out on important routine immunizations increased by 24%. Target 3.b supports and occasionally funds the development as well as research of medication and vaccines. In 2023, it was proven that there is not much progress being made regarding the percentage of children that received three doses of vaccine for DTP3 (diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis). In fact, it has declined causing the largest sustained decline in childhood vaccinations in around 30 years.
Life On Land
Targets 15.1 and 15.2 aimed to ensure, manage and specifically restore, the conservation of terrestrial and inland freshwater ecosystems along with their services including forests, wetlands and mountains. As of 2023, the world’s forest areas have decreased by roughly 100 million hectares from 31.9% to 31.2%.
About 100 million hectares of healthy land was degraded yearly from 2014-2019. Forest losses, land degradation threaten people and the planet by causing inconveniences such as soil erosion.
Target 15.4 is progressing towards making sure the conservation of mountain ecosystems enhance their capacity to provide benefits that are necessities for the sustainable development of countries, ecosystems and more.
It has been proven that as of 2023, we have been facing the deadliest animal endangerment and extinction occurrence since dinosaurs went extinct, possibly due to poaching, trafficking as well as diseases. The objective of Target 15.7 is to put an end to this issue by taking immediate action on making it illegal to poach protected species of flora and fauna as well as mention anything illegally related to animal endangerment.
Climate Change
In mid 2023, UNDESA and UNFCCC Secretariat assembled “The expert group of climate and SDG energy”. This group was given the task to develop the first global report on climate and SDG energies in an attempt to expand on insights regarding the topic as well as offering a broader overview of what we have to achieve by 2030. As of now, it seems they are working on enhancing synergistic actions which are essentially mixed chemicals, drugs that provide a stronger effect/reaction.
Target 13.3 helped spread awareness regarding climate change and how it affects the living. An analysis made for this target determined that 47% of people don't mention climate change or anything related to it. This number cannot continue to rise if we want to establish this goal by 2030. Target 13.3 is now aiming to raise awareness on institutional capacities on climate change mitigation, adaptation, impact reduction and early warning. In 2022, 95% of all teachers are familiar with this subject but only roughly 31% are able to explain this topic with effectiveness as well as clarity.
Climate change is not only affecting the environment but also impacting the world's economics. If action is not taken, global warming finance flows for developing countries will eventually reach an average of 6 trillion dollars annually in 2030.
Over the years, climate change has resulted in sea leveling practically doubling which can result in many difficulties including 15x higher mortality rates from disasters and flooding. If action is not taken, our world will exceed 1.5 degrees celsius by 2035. If we still refuse to do anything by then, our world will face 2.5 degree celsius warming by 2100.
Clean Water And Sanitation
In 2020, target 6.6 attempted to restore and protect water as well as related ecosystems. These may include mountains, forests, wetlands, rivers, lakes and aquifers. In 2023, it was proven that many surface water bodies like rivers experienced unusual and rapid fluctuations during the last 5 years. Common fluctuations for river-basins may include faster draining and temperature fluctuations.
As of 2022, roughly 2.4 billion people live in water-stressed countries. Qatar, Israel and Lebanon are by far the most water-stressed countries mainly due to agriculture as well as agricultural uses and issues such as domestic production and groundwater resources.
Targets 6.1 and 6.3 aim to change our water quality and amount of healthy, bacteria-free drinking water. As of 2023, there has been a good amount of progress made on target 6.1 but more than 2.2 billion individuals around the world still lack access to healthy drinking water. As of target 6.3, minimal progress was made with major impacts considering in 2022, 58% of wastewater generated by households was safely treated.
As of 2022, only 22 countries have made substantial progress regarding water and water-resource management with roughly 2.2 billion people around the world lacking safely managed drinking water and more than 3.5 billion people lacking basic sanitation. In order to reach the water and sanitation goal, 5x better sanitation is needed as well as 6x more safe drinking water available.
Life Underwater
Overfishing not only affects the type of fish that is captured but also its natural predator as it can now run out on its source of food and potentially starve to death. The governments have taken action and protected certain species by making them illegal to fish for but this has not helped much considering the rate of overfishing has increased 1.7% since 2017. Fun fact! More than a third of global fish stocks are overfished!
Plastic pollution by far causes the most issues underwater and to life there as well. By 2021, there were roughly 17 million metric tons of plastic pollution in the depths of the oceans and it is estimated that by 2040, there will be 3-4x more. Many citizens have recognized this problem, its impacts to our world, in attempts to resolve this issue, people are starting to arrange beach clean-ups.
Ocean warming is mainly caused by rising amounts of greenhouse gasses such as carbon dioxide. This disaster is generating sea level rise which is resulting in floods around the world. Ocean warming also has major negative impacts on the marine ecosystem, including acidification, an increase in toxic gasses which heavily pollutes the water. Target 14.3 was created in hopes to minimize acidification but as of 2023, the co2 levels are rising due to increasing commissions and will continue to rise until the ocean is 40% more acidic than pre-industrial times. Fun Fact! Over the course of 3 years, ocean acidifications were so extreme that the reporting stations for it tripled! (2021 - 178, 2022 - 308, 2023 - 539)
Coastal eutrophication is causing algal blooms and dead zones which are areas with limited oxygen, preventing life such as seals to survive there as it will result in suffocation. In addition, they are also causing crustacean walk-outs, meaning mass amounts of crustaceans are being washed up at shore.
