SDGs, Sunak’s retrenchment, and the UK carbon budget
A June editorial in Nature (2023) commented that “the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals are heading for the rocks” although the “failure to meet even one of the SDGs is not for want of trying.” It referred to the 2023 Global Sustainable Development Report, published a few days previously, in which “an independent group of science advisers to the UN proposed a way forwards” (GSDR, 2023). The Nature editorial promised a series of articles looking forward to the September session of the UN General Assembly in New York, at which the Sustainable Development Goals would be debated. The UN described this 78th session as marking “a crucial milestone in the journey towards achieving the 2030 Agenda and the urgent need to put the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) back on track.” (UN, 2023) The General Debate took place between 19 th and 26 th September. On September 20 th , The Guardian carried an article about PM Sunak’s plans to delay some climate targets, in order “to save money fo