Joint implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals, climate change mitigation and biosphere protection: Policy options for tackling multiple crises simultaneously

A decent living for all people and better protection of nature and climate aren’t conflicting targets, a new scientific analysis highlights. Development goals such as reduced poverty and inequality, better health and education, and a secure supply of food and energy on the one hand interact closely with stabilizing the climate and preserving biodiversity on the other. Only together can these goals be achieved, shows a report by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) for the German Environment Ministry on the occasion of the Stockholm+50 summit.

The paper shows that putting a price on CO2 emissions and phasing out climate-damaging fossil fuel subsidies can both reduce emissions, thus limiting warming, and generate government revenues. These revenues can be used to make direct cash transfers to people to compensate for rising energy and food prices; in Germany, for instance, this could lead to a net financial gain for the poorer half of the population. Especially in countries of the global South, carbon pricing revenues can also finance urgently needed investments in infrastructure, health care or education.

Further, if the right incentives were set in food and agricultural policy, for instance towards a diet with less meat, less land consumption, lower emissions and less use of artificial fertilizers, this could ultimately benefit everyone: healthy people on a healthy planet.

Read the policy paper