Corporate report

[Withdrawn] Implementing the Sustainable Development Goals - December 2017

Updated 15 July 2021

The UK is committed to the delivery of the Sustainable Development Goals. The most effective way to do this is by ensuring that the Goals are fully embedded in planned activity of each Government department. The most effective mechanism for coordinating implementation is the departmental planning process.

Implementing the Sustainable Development Goals

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is a historic global agreement to eradicate extreme poverty, fight inequality and injustice and leave no one behind. Agreed by world leaders at the UN in 2015, the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) succeed the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The SDGs are universal with all signatories expected to contribute to them internationally and deliver them domestically.

The UK was at the forefront of negotiating the SDGs and will be at the forefront of delivering them. The UK lobbied hard to make sure the SDGs support the continuation of work undertaken through the MDGs.

Below you can see some of the ways that the Government is supporting the delivery of the Sustainable Development Goals.

Goal 1. End poverty in all its forms everywhere

How we will achieve this
Strive to eliminate extreme poverty by 2030
Support economic growth and improved productivity by ensuring work always pays and people are supported to find and progress in work
Help reduce the disadvantages faced by disabled people and people with health conditions through the welfare system and labour market
Promote fairness in the labour market and improved working conditions

Goal 2. End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture

How we will achieve this
Support the world’s poorest people to ensure that every person has access to basic needs
Deliver DFID’s global nutrition strategy Saving lives, investing in future generations and building prosperity: the UK’s Global Nutrition position paper
Ensure a resilient and secure agri-food supply chain

Goal 3. Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages

How we will achieve this
Protect people’s health
No community left behind
High Quality post-16 education choices for all young people
Develop policy levers to improve mental health and wellbeing, to maximise their positive impact upon society

Goal 4. Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all

How we will achieve this
Close the word gap in the early years
Close the attainment gap in school while raising standards for all
Creating high quality technical education options to improve the choice for young people at age 16

Goal 5. Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls

How we will achieve this
Everyone achieving their full potential in rewarding careers
Working to reduce the gender pay gap and tackling gender inequality in society
Working with the Hampton-Alexander Review to increase the proportion of women in senior leadership positions

Goal 6. Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all

How we will achieve this
Support the world’s poorest people to ensure that every person has access to basic needs
Deliver our global nutrition strategy
Ensure cleaner, healthier, more productive and biologically diverse seas; and support a sustainable food sector

Goal 7. Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all

How we will achieve this
Ensure the UK has a reliable, low cost and clean energy system
Deliver affordable energy for households and businesses
Manage our energy legacy safely and responsibly

Goal 8. Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all

How we will achieve this
Ensure the stability of the macroeconomic environment and financial system
Support economic growth and improved productivity by ensuring work always pays and people are supported to find and progress in work
Help reduce the disadvantages faced by disabled people and people with health conditions through the welfare system and labour market

Goal 9. Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialisation and foster innovation

How we will achieve this
Invest in science, research and innovation
We will maintain our excellent science and research base to ensure that the UK can become the world’s most innovative economy. We will ensure the UK continues to support world leading science and invests public money in the best possible way
Promote digital skills and inclusion

Goal 10. Reduce inequality within and among countries

How we will achieve this
Expand our global efforts to combat extremism, terror, and the perpetration of violence against people because of their faith, gender or sexuality
Create more and better jobs, increase trading opportunities, and make it easier to channel private sector investment to the world’s poorest countries to help grow economies and eradicate extreme poverty
Deliver reforms to children’s social care and social work to improve the quality of services, including targeted support and challenge to any local authorities that have been graded inadequate or those ‘at risk’ of being so
Create high quality technical education options to improve the choice for young people

Goal 11. Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable

How we will achieve this
Grow local economies
Build integrated communities
Ensure cleaner air for healthier people and ecosystems

Goal 12. Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns

How we will achieve this
Manage our energy legacy safely and responsibly
We will deliver safe, cost effective and environmentally sensitive decommissioning of offshore oil and gas infrastructure in the North Sea, while making sure that the UK benefits from the job opportunities this will create

Goal 13. Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts

How we will achieve this
Support for efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change
Take action on climate change and low-cost decarbonisation
Better protect against flooding and coastal erosion; and ensure strong preparedness to respond to flooding emergencies

Goal 14. Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development

How we will achieve this
Ensure cleaner, healthier, more productive and biologically diverse seas; and support a sustainable food sector
Work to prevent the degradation of habitat and loss of species

Goal 15. Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss

How we will achieve this
A cleaner, healthier environment, benefiting people and the economy
Work to prevent catastrophic environmental degradation

Goal 16. Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels

How we will achieve this
Ensure a public safety system that protects vulnerable people, supports victims and brings perpetrators to justice
Project our influence to reduce conflict and create stability
Help make Parliament more effective and reform the electoral process

Goal 17. Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalise the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development

How we will achieve this
Strengthen global peace, security and governance
Tackle the causes of instability and insecurity
Tackle crime and corruption