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The SDGs – a new 2030 global sustainable development agenda

The United Nations Open Working Group has defined 17 goals to guide the international community towards sustainable living conditions and a green economy over the next 15 years. For each of these goals, various targets have been defined, with 169 targets in total. Only the targets relating to Goal 14 are set out below. SDGs 14a, 14b and 14c are not goals per se, but describe the means and measures by which sustainable development is to be achieved in various areas.


Goal 1: End poverty in all its forms everywhere
Goal 2: End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture
Goal 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages
Goal 4: Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all
Goal 5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls
Goal 6: Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all
Goal 7: Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all
Goal 8: Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all
Goal 9: Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sus-tainable industrialization and foster innovation
Goal 10: Reduce inequality within and among countries
Goal 11: Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable
Goal 12: Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns
Goal 13: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts
Goal 14: Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development  
14.1: By 2025, prevent and significantly reduce marine pollution of all kinds, in particular from land-based activities, including marine debris and nutrient pollution
14.2: By 2020, sustainably manage and protect marine and coastal ecosystems to avoid significant adverse impacts, including by strengthening their resilience, and take action for their restoration in order to achieve healthy and productive oceans
14.3: Minimize and address the impacts of ocean acidification, including through enhanced scientific cooperation at all levels
14.4: By 2020, effectively regulate harvesting and end over­fishing, illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing and destructive fishing practices and implement science-based management plans, in order to restore fish stocks in the shortest time feasible, at least to levels that can produce maximum sustainable yield as determined by their biological characteristics
14.5: By 2020, conserve at least 10 per cent of coastal and ma­rine areas, consistent with national and international law and based on the best available scientific information
14.6: By 2020, prohibit certain forms of fisheries subsidies which contribute to overcapacity and overfishing, eliminate subsidies that contribute to illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing and refrain from introducing new such subsidies, recognizing that appropriate and effective special and differential treatment for developing and least developed countries should be an integral part of the World Trade Organization fisheries subsidies negotiation
14.7: By 2030, increase the economic benefits to small island developing States and least developed coun­tries from the sustainable use of marine resources, including through sustainable management of fisheries, aquaculture and tourism  
14a: Increase scientific knowledge, develop research capacity and transfer marine technology, taking into account the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission Criteria and Guidelines on the Transfer of Marine Technology, in order to improve ocean health and to enhance the contribution of marine biodiversity to the development of deve­l-oping countries, in particular small island developing States and least developed countries
14b: Provide access for small-scale artisanal fishers to marine resources and markets
14c: Ensure the full implementation of international law, as reflected in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea for States parties thereto, including, where appli­c-able, existing regional and inter­nat­ional regimes for the conservation and sustainable use of oceans and their resources by their parties  
Goal 15: Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertifi-cation, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss
Goal 16: Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustain­able develop­ment, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accoun­table and inclusive insti­tutions at all levels
Goal 17: Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development


fig. 4.4: Communities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo learn how to protect themselves using mosquito nets. Malaria is a frequent cause of poverty because persons with the disease are no longer able to work. © ullstein bild/Africa Media Online fig. 4.4: Communities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo learn how to protect themselves using mosquito nets. Malaria is a frequent cause of poverty because persons with the disease are no longer able to work. © ullstein bild/Africa Media Online