1. Monitoring the SDGs in the EU SDSN’s Perspective
Guillaume Lafortune
Manager
SDSN
Eurostat, 25/03/2019
Mobilize
500+,partner institutions
Jeff Sachs (special advisor to the UN secretary general)
I come from the OECD

2. Plan of the presentation
1) The SDG Index and Dashboards Reports
2) Conclusions from the 2019 SDSN study (commissioned by the EESC) on exposing EU policy gaps on the SDGs
3) Upcoming projects

3. SDG Index and Dashboards
Global
Continental
Subnational
US Cities
US States
Spain
Italy
In collaboration with Bertelsmann Stiftung
Continental:
Arab States
LAC
Europe (
City
Canada
China
Belgium
Bolivia

4. Population weighted
Using global indicators
EU is in the top 20 performers in the world (lots of socio economic goals) – better than other superpowers China, USA and Russia
Ranking is a communication tool

5. EU Country profile + - + - + - Still there are major challenges:
Spillovers
Sustainable consumption and production (current levels and trends)
Leave no one behind (SDG10, and specific metrics under SDG3 and SDG4) -

6. Large gaps in SDG performance in the EU
Sweden 1 to Cyprus 50 and Greece 48.
So the aggregate does not mean much. Need to go beyond
Source: Sachs and al, 2018

7. Large disparities within countries
Territorial dimension (quantitative)
Governance part : Transformative (not marginal), quantified, long term targets and associated pathways MATTERS for financing transition
At the national level, the Government of Denmark for instance aims that no children or young people would smoke by 2030 and strives to create the first “smoke-free generation” (OECD, 2018).
At the regional level, the State of California legislated a commitment to reach 100% clean energy by The legislation obliges California to meet 50 percent of its energy needs with clean power by 2025 and 60 percent by 2030 before ramping up to 100 percent by 2045.
At the local level, Los Angeles aims to eradicate homelessness over the next decade and achieve a 50% reduction within 5 years (by 2023).
The city of Stockholm aims to be fossil-fuel free by 2040 and adopted a milestone target for emissions of no more than 2.3 tonnes of CO2e (carbon dioxide equivalents) per resident by 2020.

8. Statistical audit by the European Commission Joint Research Center
Published in June
Main comments (pre-audit note):
Low correlations across goals
Collinearity (indicator level)
Refine targets
Refine treatment of outliers (lower tail)
Dashboards presentation
Transparency

9. Plan of the presentation
1) The SDG Index and Dashboards Reports
2) Conclusions from the 2019 SDSN study (commissioned by the EESC) on exposing EU policy gaps on the SDGs
3) Upcoming projects

10. “Exposing EU policy gaps to address the Sustainable Development Goals” (SDSN study, commissioned by EESC) Key findings presented at the SDO Public event, November 30th 2018
The EU played a key role in the adoption of the Agenda 2030 and the SDGs
Yet, the absence of an EU 2030 sustainable development strategy with quantified targets for the Union is an important impediment to effective monitoring and implementation of the goals
The European Commission, via Eurostat, has defined an excellent indicator list based on what official statistics currently measures and reports but is not mandated to set targets for the Union
Civil society can play a key role in strengthening the quantitative and qualitative monitoring of the SDGs in the EU
The EESC and its SDO are well positioned to lead the production of a “Shadow” SDG Report and to ensure effective connection with the EU policymaking process
Study method:
Desk research (compared approach used by OECD, SDSN and Eurostat)
Data collection – 13 representatives from CSOs (business association, trade unions, NGOs, consumer groups etc.)

11. Three main limitations in the current monitoring of the SDGs in the EU (reported by CSOs)
Territorial dimension also came uo strong in our qualitative interviews
Conversation also around th elink with policymaking practices

12. Plan of the presentation
1) The SDG Index and Dashboards Reports
2) Conclusions from the 2019 SDSN study (commissioned by the EESC) on exposing EU policy gaps on the SDGs
3) Upcoming projects

13. Upcoming projects Global 2019 SD Report: June 19th
EU Shadow report: September 2019 (with EESC and IEEP)
SDG Index for EU cities (early stage): Fall 2019 (with Telos)
Institute for European Environmental Policy (IEEP)

14. Preliminary assessment: Top 20 EU cities
Even top performing EU cities face important challenges in achieving the SDGs

15. Thank you!