Can the world become a place where the planet and all people flourish after the pandemic?
BMJ 2022; 377 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2021-067872 (Published 03 May 2022) Cite this as: BMJ 2022;377:e067872The World We Want - read the full collection
- Fran Baum, professor1,
- Lauren Paremoer, lecturer2,
- Joanne Flavel, researcher1,
- Connie Musolino, researcher1,
- Ronald Labonte, professor3
- 1Stretton Health Equity, Stretton Institute, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia
- 2Department of Political Studies, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa
- 3University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada
- Correspondence to: F Baum fran.baum{at}adelaide.edu.au
In 2015, the world adopted 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) with 169 targets to be achieved by 2030. These goals aimed to create a world in which people and the planet flourish. They were more ambitious than the previous millennium development goals and linked human wellbeing with the sustainability of the planet. Achieving these goals would make the world fairer, more sustainable, biodiverse, and healthy as well more participatory, decolonised, and democratic. Yet even before the covid-19 pandemic concerns emerged about whether governments had the will to achieve these aspirational goals. Covid-19 has cast further doubt and seen reversals rather than progress on many of the goals.
We examine the effect of covid-19 on progress across the five inter-related dimensions of the SDGs—planet, people, prosperity, peace, and partnership1—and discuss the political, social, and economic transformations required to meet them. Although creating new challenges for the SDGs, covid-19 has shown that governments can change policy rapidly when they want to. Similar rapid changes are now needed to advance progress towards achieving the SDGs, including radical reforms to fiscal and economic systems to reduce inequities and devise policies that confront the interests of elite groups.
Planet’s ability to support human life
Planetary health and tenable human life on earth are at risk. Irreversible climate change will have a huge negative effect on health, particularly for those living in poor and marginalised settings. Unless there are immediate, rapid, and large reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, limiting warming to 1.5°C or even 2°C will be unachievable.2
Although the pandemic has had some positive effects on the planet (eg, reducing air travel), some countries are reducing their environmental safeguards and seeing …