The Sustainable Development Goals viewed through a climate lens

This policy brief analyzes the synergies and trade-offs between the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreement using data from 164 NDCs. It finds strong synergistic connections in energy, agriculture, and water, but notes a significant underrepresentation of social issues (health, gender, and inequality) in climate plans. The authors argue that policy coherence can be improved by aligning national sustainable development strategies with NDCs to maximize outcomes and avoid maladaptive practices.

• There is significant potential for policy coherence between the Paris Climate Agreement and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development at a global level, though the primary challenge remains translating these synergies into national-level implementation.
• The analysis identifies energy, agriculture, water, resilience, resource efficiency, disaster risk reduction, and infrastructure as the SDG themes with the strongest synergistic connections from the perspective of NDCs.
• Energy-related NDC activities show synergies with SDGs 4, 5, 8, 11, 12, and 13, often linking energy efficiency to education or requiring international partnerships and financial support (SDG 17). However, there are few links to SDGs 1, 6, and 15, suggesting potential trade-offs where bioenergy might compete for water and soil resources.
• Agricultural NDC activities are primarily linked to SDG 2 and show strong connections to SDG 6 (via irrigation and water management) and SDG 15 (via soil management and agroforestry). There is a notable lack of connection to energy (SDG 7), with less than 1.5% of agriculture-related activities relating to energy, which may indicate conflicts over land use for bioenergy or solar energy.
• Water-themed NDC activities mainly support SDG 6 but also link to SDGs 2, 3, 12, and 13. Connections to SDG 3 highlight the link between environmental action and social issues, such as reducing water-borne diseases and flooding impacts.
• Social issues, including SDGs 3, 4, 5, and 10, are underrepresented in NDCs despite high confidence that climate change will adversely impact human health, well-being, and exacerbate existing inequalities.
• Trade-offs between climate action and sustainable development are rarely mentioned in international policy documents and are harder to explore than synergies. The authors suggest managing these by integrating a chapter on challenges in each NDC and considering them during the UNFCCC global stocktake and financing processes.
• To improve policy coherence, countries should align their national sustainable development strategies with their NDC commitments, and use the cyclical nature of NDCs to incorporate existing sustainable development strategies in future updates.

APA

Dzebo, A., Janetschek, H., Brandi, C., & Iacobuta, G. (2018). The Sustainable Development Goals viewed through a climate lens. Stockholm Environment Institute. https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/climate-action-sdgs-pb-corrected.pdf

Chicago

Dzebo, Adis, Hannah Janetschek, Clara Brandi, and Gabriela Iacobuta. The Sustainable Development Goals viewed through a climate lens. Stockholm Environment Institute, 2018. https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/climate-action-sdgs-pb-corrected.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Dzebo |first1=Adis |last2=Janetschek |first2=Hannah |last3=Brandi |first3=Clara |last4=Iacobuta |first4=Gabriela |title=The Sustainable Development Goals viewed through a climate lens |publisher=Stockholm Environment Institute |date=December 2018 |url=https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/climate-action-sdgs-pb-corrected.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{dzebo2018sustainable, author = {Dzebo, Adis and Janetschek, Hannah and Brandi, Clara and Iacobuta, Gabriela}, title = {{The Sustainable Development Goals viewed through a climate lens}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2018}, month = dec, url = {https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/climate-action-sdgs-pb-corrected.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }