HIST-UH 2290 Global History: Hinder Environmental Sustainability

Identify the issues that hinder environmental sustainability and the efforts taken by the United Nations.

Humans strive for a better life in any waypossible. The quest for improved living standards has resulted to the consideration of resource sustainability and degradation of the environment. However, improved living standards are not attainable by all individuals across the globe. This paper will focus on the issues that hinder environmental sustainability and the efforts taken by the United Nations to ensure that people living in third world countries are provided with social amenities.

The first goal of the United Nations is to mitigate poverty levels every where in all its forms. According to United Nations organization, extreme poverty can be ended through universal social protection, systems that safeguard all individuals throughout their life cycle. Moreover, it should also reduce the vulnerability to disasters(McCollum, et. al., 2018).

The second goal is to end hunger and achieve food security. Despite the previous efforts on the war against hunger, which had seen the decline in lack of foodsecurity, hunger is on the rise again. The issues that have brought back hunger include climate change, natural disasters, and drought.

Promotion of good health and well-being of all at all ages is the third goal of the organization. Theorganization hopes to achieve this by focussing concentrated and sustained effortson regions and groups that have been neglected(World Health Organization, 2016).

Inclusive and equitable education is also a key goal, whereby the organization has planned to channel its efforts in upgrading the education quality. In addition, the efforts aim to reduce the disparities in education based on the lines of urban-rural location and gender(Hák, Janoušková, &Moldan, 2016).

Gender equality and empowerment ranks as the fifth goal that seeks to empower women by assessing structural issues including unfair social norms and developing a progressive legal framework with the aim of promoting equality between women and men.

Sustainable management and availability of water and sanitation require that water efficiency is increased by improving the management toattain abalance on the growing water demands from various users and sectors.

Access to sustainable, reliable, and affordable energy is another goal that seeks to ensure improvements in industrial energy efficiency and electrification in the least developed countries by 2030.

Promotion of sustainable and inclusive economic growth also falls under the organization’s goals. This goal will work to increase employment opportunities and reduce informal employment for young people as well as labour market inequality. In addition, the goal will ensure sustained and inclusive economic growth by promoting safe and secure working environments, and access to financial services(Buse,& Hawkes, 2015).

Another goal is to achieve a sustainable and inclusive industrialization through merging and unleashing competitive economic forces to create income and employment and income. Facilitate international trade and ensure effective use of resources.

Reduction of inequality by reducing income inequalitiesis also a goal set out by the organization. It achieves such through zero tariffs access for exports for the least developed countries. In addition, assistance will be provided to the third world countries and small islands.

Ensure the sustainability of cities for inclusive, resilient and safe for human settlement.  Efforts in dealing with the acute urbanization have been channelled towards providing adequate housing and infrastructure to handle the swelling population. In addition, the control of environmental impact due to urban sprawl is also vitalto reduce the chances for disaster(Hajer, et.al. 2015).

Ensuring sustainable production and consumption patterns through decoupling resources use from economic growth. This will be achieved through policies that will provide a conducive environment for the decoupling.

Dealing with climate change and its impact, which will call for countries to implement their commitment to the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.

Ocean, seas, and marine resources use and conservation for sustainable developmentis another key goal that requires effective strategies. These strategies will aim to combat overfishing acidification of oceans and coastal eutrophication. In addition, the strategies will aim to expand protected areas for marine biodiversity, increase ocean science funding and intensify research capacity(Le Blanc, 2015).

The protection restoration promotion andsustainable use of terrestrial ecosystem fall under the goals of the organization. The goal will ensure sustainable use of the forests to combat desertification and reverse land degradation to restore the biodiversity.

Peace and inclusivity among societies is another goal that will ensure sustainable development, which inturn help provide Inclusivity in all institutions, justiceand accountability. The goal hopes to promote the rule of law, promote access to information and empower institutions that advocate for human rights at a national level.

Empower ways of implementation to enhance global partnership for sustainable development. The empowerment is achieved by bringing together;private sectors, civil society, the international community, and other sectors. All these sectors will shift their focus to areas experiencing slow growth(Liu, et.al, 2016).

References

Buse, K., & Hawkes, S. (2015). Health in the sustainable development goals: ready for a paradigm shift?. Globalization and health, 11(1), 13.

Liu, L., Oza, S., Hogan, D., Chu, Y., Perin, J., Zhu, J., ...& Black, R. E. (2016). Global, regional, and national causes of under-5 mortality in 2000–15: an updated systematic analysis with implications for the Sustainable Development Goals. The Lancet, 388(10063), 3027-3035.

Le Blanc, D. (2015). Towards integration at last?The sustainable development goals as a network of targets. Sustainable Development, 23(3), 176-187.

Hajer, M., Nilsson, M., Raworth, K., Bakker, P., Berkhout, F., de Boer, Y., ...&Kok, M. (2015). Beyond cockpit-ism: Four insights to enhance the transformative potential of the sustainable development goals. Sustainability, 7(2), 1651-1660.

World Health Organization. (2016). World health statistics 2016: monitoring health for the SDGs sustainable development goals. World Health Organization.

Hák, T., Janoušková, S., &Moldan, B. (2016).Sustainable Development Goals: A need for relevant indicators. Ecological Indicators, 60, 565-573.

McCollum, D. L., Echeverri, L. G., Busch, S., Pachauri, S., Parkinson, S., Rogelj, J., ...&Riahi, K. (2018). Connecting the sustainable development goals by their energy inter-linkages. Environmental Research Letters, 13(3), 033006.