The Sustainable Development Goals: Will they deliver climate compatible development for vulnerable countries?

The paper argues that for the SDGs to deliver climate compatible development, climate change must be both a stand-alone goal and mainstreamed across all other goals. It highlights a lack of quantitative targets in the Open Working Group's draft and emphasizes the need for nationally relevant indicators and local-level resilience. The document suggests that the SDGs should complement the UNFCCC process rather than duplicate it, and calls for coordinated financing to avoid gaps in climate compatible development funding.

• Stakeholders from national dialogues in Colombia, Indonesia, and Kenya agree that tackling climate change is essential for achieving development goals, arguing that climate change should be both a stand-alone goal to ensure political buy-in and resource allocation, and mainstreamed across all other goals to avoid siloing.
• The Open Working Group's (OWG) draft SDGs include climate change as Goal 13, but it lacks quantitative targets for mitigation or the reduction of adverse impacts on vulnerable populations, and it explicitly defers the primary role of climate negotiations to the UNFCCC.
• There are significant gaps in the OWG's draft where climate impacts are omitted from relevant goals, including the effects of climate change on tropical diseases in Goal 3 (Health), the disruption of education in Goal 4, and ocean acidification in Goal 14.
• Developing country stakeholders emphasize that SDG targets and indicators must be nationally relevant and flexible enough to align with national development plans, such as green growth strategies, while specifically aiming to build local-level resilience.
• Effective implementation of the SDGs will require robust national governance and accountability mechanisms, as well as a shift toward leveraging the private sector and public-private partnerships (PPPs) as international bilateral finance evolves.
• To avoid funding gaps, the paper argues that financing for climate compatible development should be carefully coordinated between the SDGs and UNFCCC institutions, suggesting the use of the Green Climate Fund to support integrated goals.

APA

Picot, H., & Moss, N. (2014). The Sustainable Development Goals: Will they deliver climate compatible development for vulnerable countries? Climate and Development Knowledge Network. http://cdkn.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/CDKN_SDGs_WP_final_low-res.pdf

Chicago

Picot, Helen, and Nicholas Moss. The Sustainable Development Goals: Will they deliver climate compatible development for vulnerable countries? Climate and Development Knowledge Network, 2014. http://cdkn.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/CDKN_SDGs_WP_final_low-res.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Picot |first1=Helen |last2=Moss |first2=Nicholas |title=The Sustainable Development Goals: Will they deliver climate compatible development for vulnerable countries? |publisher=Climate and Development Knowledge Network |date=September 2014 |url=http://cdkn.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/CDKN_SDGs_WP_final_low-res.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{picot2014sustainable, author = {Picot, Helen and Moss, Nicholas}, title = {{The Sustainable Development Goals: Will they deliver climate compatible development for vulnerable countries?}}, institution = {Climate and Development Knowledge Network}, year = {2014}, month = sep, url = {http://cdkn.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/CDKN_SDGs_WP_final_low-res.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }