A guide to SDG interactions: From science to implementation

About: The article was published on 2017-01-01 and is currently open access. It has received 400 citations till now.

Summary

31 SDG 2 END HUNGER, ACHIEVE FOOD SECURITY

• AND IMPROVED NUTRITION AND PROMOTE SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE.
• Ludovic Mollier (ird), Frédérique Seyler (ird), Jean-Luc Chotte (ird), Claudia Ringler.

SUMMARY

• The United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development was adopted in September 2015.
• National policy - makers now face the challenge of implementing this indivisible agenda and achieving progress across the economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development world - wide.
• This requires a wide range of tools and science-based analysis to navigate that complexity and to realise the ambition.
• This report explores the nature of interlinkages between the sdgs.
• It is based on the premise that a science-informed analysis of interactions across sdg domains – which is currently lacking – can support more coherent and effective decisionmaking, and better facilitate follow-up and monitoring of progress.

UNDERLYING PRINCIPLES

• All sdgs interact with one another – by design they are an in te grated set of global priorities and objectives that are funda men tally interdependent.
• Understanding the range of positive and negative interactions among sdgs is key to unlocking their full potential at any scale, as well as to ensuring that progress made in some areas is not made at the expense of progress in others.
• The score most often allocated is +2 (‘reinforcing’).
• The assessment identified 316 target-level interactions overall, of which 238 are positive, 66 are negative, and 12 are neutral.
• As a tool for policy coherence, it provides an understanding of the conflicts and synergies to be managed across government departments and sectors, understanding where the emphasis should be put for efficient and effective action, and identifies who needs to be brought to the table to achieve collective impacts across multiple interacting policy domains.

ASSESSMENT FRAMEWORK

• The framework on which this work is based identifies causal and functional relations underlying progress or achievement of the sustainable development goals and targets: positive interactions are assigned scores of +1 (‘enabling’), +2 (‘reinforcing’) or +3 (‘indivisible’), while interactions characterised by trade-offs are scored with -1 (‘constraining’), -2 (‘counteracting’), or -3 (‘cancelling’); neutral interactions between sdgs are assigned 0.
• By systematically assessing the interactions and relationships between goals and targets, this report supports horizontal coherence across sectors.
• It can be applied at multiple scales (international, national, sub-national) through a thematic or geographic entry, and the analysis is based on existing literature and expert judgment.

ON AIR QUALITY AND HEALTH

• Sustainable energy that is carbon-free is largely also pollution-free.
• This means that, in most cases, efforts to increase energy access (target 7.1), expand the share of renewables in the energy mix (target 7.2), and promote energy efficiency (target 7.3) will lead to a simultaneous reduction in air pollutant emissions.
• Nevertheless, achieving sdg 7 may not in itself be enough to meet the air quality targets of sdg 3: additional pollution control technologies and measures may be required.

FIRST APPLICATION

• Key interactions for Food / Agriculture (sdg 2), Health (sdg 3), Energy (sdg 7) and Oceans (sdg 14) are tested using the scoring frame-work.
• This selection represents a mixture of key goals aimed at human well-being, ecosystem services and natural resour ces – it does not imply any prioritisation.
• Each of these goals exhibits both positive and negative target-level interactions with the other sdgs.
• In fact, in many respects it could be argued that the process of deciding on the score was possibly more valuable than the final result, since it required a detailed study of the literature, a consideration of the issues and potential context dependencies, a review of limitations and gaps in current knowledge, and discussion with others.

SECURITY AND IMPROVED NUTRITION AND PROMOTE SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE

• Together with ending poverty, eradicating hunger around the world is central to the 2030 Agenda.
• Sdg 2 in itself is a compelling case for recognising and managing interdependencies: achieving food and nutrition security, and increasing agricultural production and income for farmers, while achieving resilient and sustainable food systems will be challenging to achieve simultaneously.
• Achieving the targets related to access to food, quality nutrition for all, and agricultural incomes will provide key enabling conditions for women’s empowerment and gender equality as it opens up development opportunities for women.
• Counteracting these potential trade-offs will require sustainable agricultural systems and practices, and enhanced water governance to manage growing and competing demands on water resources.
• Agriculture is a key driver impacting ecosystems.

IMPLICATIONS FOR IMPLEMENTATION

• Achieving sdg 14 without compromising the achievement of other sdgs means much needed protection and restoration measures for coastal and marine ecosystems must be carefully balanced ag ainst the sustainable exploitation of marine resources.
• Inte g ra ted management and planning across geographical scales and administrative silos, particularly at the regional level, will enable coastal states to better safeguard, conserve and sustainably use ocean resources within their jurisdiction and in areas beyond national jurisdiction.
• In addi tion, ocean literacy is still poor and enhanced capacity building and awareness raising are needed to support the implemen ta t ion of sdg 14 at all levels.
• Ocean and coastal monitoring frameworks need to be further developed, harmonised and strengthened, since they provide the data to assess progress in the full implementation of sdg 14.

PROMOTE WELL-BEING FOR ALL AT ALL AGES

• The health of people and the health of the planet are fundamentally interdependent.
• There are strong synergies among the sdg 3 targets which require progress to be made on all 12 targets to achieve health outcomes for all.
• Controlling tobacco and reducing substance abuse and exposure to hazardous chemicals also reduces mortality.
• Moreover, food production and agricultural practices may also affect health directly, including through improved soil and water quality, and indirectly through changes in incomes.

RELIABLE, SUSTAINABLE AND MODERN ENERGY FOR ALL

• Modern energy is fundamental to human development, and the services that energy makes possible are widespread throughout the industrialised world.
• Ensuring the world’s poor have access to affordable, reliable and modern energy services supports the goal of poverty eradication.
• 7 + 2 Energy supports food production; conversely, agriculture can play an important role in meeting the energy goal, especially through biofuels.
• Expanding biofuels or hydropower use could increase pressure on water resources.
• Decarbonising energy systems through greater use of renewables and energy efficiency could constrain economic growth in some countries.

FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

• The oceans provide vital services to people and the planet.
• A decline in ocean health, productivity and resilience due to increasing human pressures by mostly land-based pollution, climate change-induced warming and sea-level rise, ocean acidification and over-exploitation of marine resources is a major threat to achieving sufficient nutrition, livelihoods and economic growth, especially for coastal communities.
• But despite various co-benefits for building resilient communities, achieving sdg 14 could limit access to the resources and ecosystem services necessary to alleviate poverty.
• 14 + 8 Sustainable growth of marine and maritime sectors supports employment and economic growth.
• 14 + 12 Achieving sdg 14 and sustainable consumption and production go hand in hand, not only in ocean-based industries and coas tal communities.

NEXT STEPS

• The conceptual framework and assessment of key interactions between the four Sustainable Development Goals presented here are intended to represent a starting point for further work towards a more complete understanding of how the full set of goals fit together.
• The framework guides a more detailed analysis and enables structured deliberations on how to implement the 2030 Agenda coherently, in order to maximise development outcomes.
• Making interactions explicit and understanding the full impacts of policies and actions across goals, stimulates important knowledge gathering and learning processes and has very concrete and tangible value for achieving efficiency and effectiveness in goal implementation, for driving meaningful multi-stakeholder partnerships, and for country-level monitoring, evaluation and review.

DEVELOPMENT GOALS

• Implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by world leaders in September 2015 at a historic United Nations Summit and underpinned by 17 Sustainable Development Goals (sdgs) and their associated 169 targets, began on 1 January 2016.
• The sdgs provide a more holistic and integrated approach to development than the mdgs, thus continuing the legacy of the Brundtland Commission (un, 1987) and the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development (un, 1992).
• They are designed to be universal and therefore apply to all countries – poor, rich and middle-income alike – and to all segments of society.
• Governments and other stakeholders are expected to establish national and regional plans for their implementation.
• The 2030 Agenda is nei t her a blueprint for specific action nor for navigating the complexities and trade-offs that will undoubtedly emerge during implementation.

OVERALL AIM OF THE SDGS

• The Sustainable Development Goals (sdgs) promote human dignity and prosperity while safeguarding the Earth’s vital biophysical processes and ecosystem services.
• They recognise that ending poverty and inequality must go hand-in-hand with strategies that support sustainable economic growth, peace and justice; address fundamental social needs, including education, health, social protection, and job opportunities; and do all this while also tackling climate change and enhancing environmental protection.

BACKGROUND

• Senegal is currently the second fastest growing economy in West Africa, behind Côte d’Ivoire (World Bank, 2017).
• The fastest growing sector is the primary sector, boosted by growth in extractives, fishing, and agriculture.
• Less than 50% of the water available in the Senegal A N N EX 231 River is estimated to be used for irrigated agriculture.
• The greatest changes in rainfall are projected to occur in semi-arid regions.

WHY ARE INTERACTIONS IMPORTANT?

• The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is often referred to as an integrated agenda and its advocates frequently describe it as an ‘indivisible whole’.
• Interactions between sdgs currently have a weak conceptual and scientific underpinning, and there is a clear need for approaches and tools that can support analysis of the na ture and strengths of these interactions, and the extent to which they constrain or enable policy and action.

A SEVEN-POINT SCALE

• The framework identifies categories of causal and functional re lat - ions underlying progress or achievement of goals and targets.
• Not all linkages between sdgs and targets will fall neatly into one of the seven points on the scale, but the scale does provide a sufficiently wide range to classify most relationships.

KEY DIMENSIONS THAT SHAPE INTERACTIONS

• A number of dimensions can be used to contextualise the assessment of specific synergies and trade-offs, providing deeper insights into elements and areas that the sdg- and target-level interactions depend on.
• These include directionality, placespecific context dependencies, governance, technology and timeframe.
• Each is now discussed in turn, with examples given to aid the explanation.
• Understanding what interactions depend on, or whether they are intrinsic, is key to mitigating negative A F RA M EW O RK F O R U N D ER ST A N D IN G S D G I N TE RA CT IO N S 26 interactions and maximising positive ones.
• In other words, changes in these dimensions can often enable a shift from a negative to a more positive interaction, or vice versa.

DIRECTIONALITY

• Interaction between two sdgs or targets can be unidirectional, bidirectional, circular or multiple.
• A unidirectional relationship means that objective A affects B, but B does not affect A. For example, electricity access (target 7.1) is needed for powering clinics and hospitals for the delivery of essential health care services (target 3.8), but health care services in clinics and hospitals are not needed for providing electricity access.
• On the other hand, a bidirectional relationship means that A affects B, and B affects A. For example, providing more access to transport today (target 11.2) is likely to lead to higher greenhouse gas emissions (target 13.2), thus exacerbating climate change, while measures taken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions can constrain transport access.
• A comprehensive approach that takes into account directionality can be pursued whereby sdg targets are presented in a matrix and juxtaposed, and all potential interactions are analysed and scored, including A to B and B to A.

PLACE-SPECIFIC CONTEXT DEPENDENCY

• Some relationships are generic across borders while others are highly location-specific; and the scale of the analysis can have a significant effect on results.
• Such geography-dependent relationships can have significant spill-over effects, due to international trade.
• Hence, even if bioenergy in the Nordic countries is not considered to affect their food security, a change in their food export patterns in response to increased national bioenergy production would still impact food security globally, through changes in trade and international prices of agricultural commodities.
• Thus, what constitutes a positive interaction and a negative interaction can differ from one context to another and from one scale to the next.
• But using the sdgs as a know l edge management grid could help to clarify what evidence refers to what context, and how knowledge can be generalised.

GOVERNANCE DEPENDENCY

• Industrialisation (target 9.2) has sometimes been associated with infringement of rights (target 1.4), where commercial actors have taken over lands used by local communities without consultation or compensation and with the exclusion of those communities from work opportunities.
• This negative interaction is not necessarily intrinsic to the industrial activity itself, but rather derives from inadequate governance.
• Negative impacts on local communities are more likely to occur, or tend to be stronger, when institutions and rights are weak.

TECHNOLOGY DEPENDENCY

• In some cases, while a strong trade-off may exist, there may be technologies that, when deployed, will significantly mitigate this trade-off, or even remove it.
• One example is growth in mobility (namely personal motorised transport) which, at present, conflicts with climate change mitigation efforts.
• However personal vehicle impact on land-use change will remain.

TIME-FRAME DEPENDENCY

• Some interactions develop in real time, while others show significant time lags.
• Increases in fertiliser use will boost agricultural productivity that season (target 2.4), thereby increasing food availability and contributing to food security over the short term.
• Irreversible impacts are well known in land and ocean eco sys tems, such as species extinction, collapsed fisheries or eutrophication (e.g. in the Baltic Sea, Lindegren, 2009; helcom, 2010).
• Coherence can also be examined across governance interventions.
• The latter often deviates substantially from the original policy intentions, as actors make their interpretations and institutional barriers and drivers influence their response to the policy (Pressman and Wildavsky, 1973; Nilsson et al., 2012).

HORIZONTAL AND VERTICAL INTERACTIONS AND COHERENCE RELATIONSHIPS

• Each starts by presenting an overview of interactions between a single sdg (the ‘entry goal’ focus of the chapter) and the other 16 sdgs, staying at goal level.
• Using the typology and seven-point scale described earlier, the chapter then provides an assessment of the selected target-level interactions and the context in which they typically occur.
• Illustrative examples from different world regions show how these linkages manifest in practice.
• The scoring approach described here offers a means by which multidimensional, complex and wide-ranging scientific evidence can be ‘translated’ and summarised in the form of an interpretive framework.

AGRICULTURE

• Agriculture plays an important role in the national economy.
• Agriculture accounts for only a small proportion of gdp (8%).

INTRODUCTION

• The text that follows provides an overview of interactions at the goal level between sdg14 – the ‘entry level goal’ for this assessment – and the other 16 sdgs.
• Sustainable growth of marine and maritime sectors such as fisheries, aquaculture and tourism supports employment and economic growth.
• Improving ocean health and conserving coastal and marine resources also has the potential to limit options for economic and income growth.
• More directly, conserving and sustainably using the oceans, seas and marine resources has the potential to support sustainable consumption and production patterns in ocean-based industries (fisheries, tourism, maritime transportation, among others).

TARGET-LEVEL

• This section analyses some of these interactions with a selected set of sdgs in detail at the target-level.
• Sdgs were selected based on the strength of their interlinkages with sdg 14 and the magnitude and scale of impact in relation to the overall objective of the 2030 Agenda, while ensuring a balanced consideration of the economic, social and environmental dimensions.
• Following a generic analysis of the selected interactions, specific examples are provided to illustrate how interactions unfold in different geographical and policy contexts.
• Healthy and productive oceans benefit small-scale fishers, improve tourism revenue and increase potential for blue carbon markets +2.
• Creating jobs in sustainable tourism, fisheries, coastal agriculture, mining, and mariculture can enable social protection programmes +2.

If targets on agricultural

• Productivity and on ensuring sustainable food production are not implemented in tandem, the poor and those in vulnerable situations are likely to be most affected KEY INTERACTIONS.
• Such a focus can even reinforce targets on access to equal rights to economic resources and basic services (including control over land) (1.4) and on building resilience of the poor and those in vulnerable situations (1.5).
• In poorer countries such as Least Developing Countries (ldcs), liberalisation can have overall negative consequences, owing to terms-of-trade effects and supply-side constraints (Bureau et al., 2006).
• Without these, target 2.b can constrain the achievement of doubling incomes of small-scale food producers (2.3) by setting-up a competitive market environment, which might not be pro-poor unless safeguards, for example in the form of social safety nets, are implemented for poor and vulnerable farmers.
• Pollinator loss will constrain economic development, employment and income for millions of people and limit capacity to reach sdg1 (ipbes, 2016).

KEY DIMENSIONS

• (1) The timing of ocean and coastal restoration and conservation depends on natural dynamics and the level of degradation, also known as Time.
• Besides climate change adaptation and mitigation and the overall strengthening of the health and resilience of coastal and marine systems in the context of climate change, this also includes energy and technology or consumption and production patterns.
• Outcomes depend on technology transfer for capacity building, but also on the development of technologies and measures in consideration of the complexity of the system, also known as Technology.
• While positive synergistic and bi-directional interactions occur between sdg14 and sdg13, there is also potential for negative interactions, also known as Directionality.

If nutrition security is not fully

• Embraced, a focus on low- nutrient and energy-rich foods may counteract the reduction of premature mortality from non- communicable diseases KEY INTERACTIONS Doubling agricultural productivity (2.3) could constrain the reduction of premature mortality from non-communicable diseases (3.4) if this increase focuses on lownutrient and energy-rich foods, such as cereals, tubers, and fats.
• Prevention, including a healthy and well-balanced diet, is pivotal to avoiding disease, a worsening of healthrelated conditions and hospitalisation.
• Changes in biodiversity due to deforestation have been reported to have adverse effects on the risk of malaria in the Brazilian and Peruvian regions (Whitmee et al., 2015; Li et al., 2016).
• Similarly, failures in agriculture and vulnerability of the poorest to agricultural shocks can increase hiv aids infection rates, with further increases driven by poor nutritional status.

Sustainable agriculture that

• Helps maintain ecosystems and progressively improves soil and land quality should lead to the improvement of water quality and quantity through reduced pollution and should reinforce the protection and restoration of water-related ecosystems.
• Some targets are reinforcing, with sdg 6 enhancing access to safe and affordable drinking water for all, and adequate and equitable sanitation for all being essential for ending all forms of malnutrition.

Conventional food production and

• Processing systems can constrain the reduction of water pollution and can counteract the protection and restoration of water-related ecosystems, including aquifers KEY INTERACTIONS.
• With food production responsible for the largest share of freshwater withdrawals, sdg 2 is highly dependent on the achievement of several sdg 6 targets.
• Conventional food production can deplete groundwater resources, pollute water bodies (e.g. eutrophication), and can reduce non-agricultural water availability and use, such as for drinking water (e.g. through soil degradation and resulting siltation of downstream reservoirs).
• Doubling agriculture productivity (2.3) could have negative impacts on universal access to safe drinking water (6.1), and adequate and equitable sanitation (6.2) and counteract the reduction of people suffering from water scarcity (6.4).

Agroforestry, biofuel crops, and the

• Increased agricultural production and food and nutrition security may constrain the use of land and water for bioenergy, thus limiting the increase of renewable energy and constraining universal access to energy.
• Sustainable agriculture, mainly through doubling agricultural productivity (2.3) and ensuring sustainable food production systems (2.4) can help increase the share of renewable energy in the global mix (7.2).
• Reciprocally, improving energy efficiency (7.3) and better access to affordable, reliable and modern energy services (7.1) can provide crucial leverage such as better access to water-pumping and irrigation systems, or other energy-intensive agriculture technologies, such as processing, storage and transportation systems for agricultural commodities.
• In the case of hydropower production, large dam infrastructure can constrain food systems, both for fisheries and for food supply due to changes in the timing, quantity and quality of the water released for irrigation.
• Furthermore, raising levels of irrigation to increase agricultural productivity, but also the higher energy requirements for pumping water over long distances could exacerbate this competition and further deepen negative interactions between sdg 2 and sdg 7.

Boosting agriculture productivity

• Relying solely on ‘business-as- usual’ agricultural practices may counteract resilience and adaptive capacity to climate change.
• International support can also help raise awareness on climate mitigation and adaptation (13.3).
• Food from fisheries for instance is also reinforced by protecting the climate, because that limits ocean warming and ocean acidification and, indirectly, the loss of marine biodiversity and fish resources.
• Sustainability and productivity improvement within sdg2 needs to be fully realised in tandem to ensure synergies with sdg 13 targets.
• Building capacity and awareness raising are also key to design converging actions in doubling agricultural production in a sustainable way, combat climate change, and ensure the use of well adapted natural resources for better climate resilience, such as traditional crop varieties as well as new biotechnologies.

If increasing agricultural produc-

• Tivity relies on practices and technologies that contribute to land and soil degradation and high ghg emissions, targets focused on the conservation, restoration and sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, forests, soils and biodiversity might not be achieved KEY INTERACTIONS Agriculture is one of the key drivers of change in biodiversity, ecosystems, forests, desertification, and land and soil quality.
• Sdg 2 has many direct interactions with sdg 15.
• Access to markets (mainly via roads) can promote the extension of agricultural areas, particularly for cash crop cultivation, and might lead to an increase in agricultural productivity and income (Khandker et al., 2009).
• Furthermore, should the need for food productivity rely on practices and techniques responsible for land degradation, high ghg emission (i.e. the ‘business-as-usual’ scenario), and land pollution, this will counteract targets 15.1, 15.2, 15.3 and 15.5.
• Alternative forms of agriculture and sustainable pest control methods need to be promoted to address pollinator decline and their multiple implications on terrestrial ecosystems.

INTERACTIONS BETWEEN

• This box presents a summary of the more detailed country analyses of critical interactions between sdg 2 and the other goals presented in Annex 1.
• THE COMPOUND CHALLENGES OF DEFORESTATION, FOOD AND ENERGY PRODUCTION FOR CLIMATE MITIGATION, ECOSYSTEM PROTECTION AND HEALTH IN THE AMAZON REGION.
• Thus, a large set of targets and sdgs are mutually constraining and reinforcing in this fragile ecosystem.
• PUTTING SUSTAINABLE LAND MANAGEMENT AT THE HEART OF SENEGAL’S NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY.
• The country is also highly vulnerable to drought, and increasingly so with the onset of climate change.

IMPLEMENTING CLIMATE SMART AGRICULTURE TO ADDRESS CALIFORNIA’S WATER CHALLENGES

• While California is best known for Silicon Valley, a dynamic, high-value agriculture sector contributes substantial nutritional diversity to the country and to national exports.
• Environmental impacts, such as associated with particulates from fertilisers and dust, nitrate leaching and substantial water consumption constrain the achievement of health, water quality and availability targets.
• In a region prone to periodic drought, achieving Climate Smart Agriculture will be key to the achievement of sdg 2 and other interlinked goals and targets.

KNOWLEDGE GAPS

• Knowledge gaps exist in relation to all sdg 14 targets and their interactions with other targets in the 2030 Agenda.
• The knowledge gaps that exist are not always caused by lack of data or information but also access restrictions, lack of standardised data collection protocols, lack of coordination across political or sectoral boundaries, or by capacity limitations for the analysis and translation of data and other types of information into policy advice.
• They should be interoperable and free of restrictions on use, with the specific target of developing an integrated information base on oceans, seabed resources, marine life, and risks to habitats and ecosystems.
• How marine ecosystem services link to economic and social development in concrete terms and how this changes over time.
• The status of stocks and fisheries including the level of discards and how they should be managed to provide for maximum sustainable yield How aquaculture affects marine systems in specific contexts, particularly with regard to inputs of chemicals and nutrients to the marine environment and to effects on wild fish stocks and how these can be reduced.

COMMENTS

• Sdg 14 plays a cross-cutting role in the 2030 Agenda, interacting with many other sdgs.
• Principles for sustainable governance of the coastal zone: Ecological Economics, 63:319-330. ecorys, 2013.
• United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. www.unfccc.de. unfccc, 2015.

Use of insecticides for crops and

• Antibiotics for animals can promote antimicrobial resistance in pathogens and insecticide resistance in vectors.
• This section considers how efforts to increase agricultural productivity can interact with health.
• Such systems threaten food security, with results that potentially cascade across systems to negatively affect health.
• Insecticides, pesticides and fertilisers can be harmful to human health, whether G O A L #3 G O O D H EA LT H A N D W EL L- B EI N G 95 through contamination of food or water or through occupational exposure.
• Increases in epidemic risk through expansion of agricultural lands or ecosystem shifts can be extremely fast, especially where urban areas are in relatively close proximity to newly-cleared agricultural lands and where workers frequently travel back and forth between them.

Provision of universal healthcare

• Will assist in achieving all other targets KEY INTERACTIONS.
• These accounted for 3.4 million deaths or 54% of all deaths among children younger than five years (Global Burden of Disease Pediatrics Collaboration, 2016).
• Some cancers are linked to exposure to hazardous chemicals such as particulate matter wood-smoke, lead and asbestos.
• Achieving universal health coverage can be supported by the recruitment, training, development and retention of a strong workforce (3.12) and by research and development of essential vaccines and medicines (3.11).
• Eradicating infectious disease (3.4) will help reach targets for maternal mortality (3.1) and infant mortality (3.2); conversely, efforts to achieve the latter will reduce infectious disease incidence.

ILLUSTRATIVE EXAMPLE

• IMPROVING HEALTH OUTCOMES BY IMPROVING AIR QUALITY: THE US CLEAN AIR ACT 1970 Policies aimed at reducing exposure to hazardous chemical substances in the water, air and soil (3.9) also assist countries towards meeting targets around noncommunicable diseases (3.4) and infant health (3.2), as shown by the experience of the United States’ Clean Air Act of 1970.
• Exposure to air pollution negatively affects lung growth and places children at greater risk of development of respiratory symptoms including asthma.
• In 2010 alone, reductions in fine particle matter and ozone pollution resulting from the 1990 Clean Air Act amendments prevented more than 160,000 cases of premature mortality, 130,000 heart attacks, 13 million lost work days, and 1.7 million asthma attacks (us epa, 2011).
• Invest in the creation of decent jobs in social services that assist people into employment 3.8 8.8.
• Higher growth can enable greater government investment in health and other social services.

However, stressful working

• Conditions, poor labour rights and unsafe workplaces can put people at risk of illness and injury KEY INTERACTIONS Economic growth (8.1) and higher productivity (8.2) encourage job creation (8.3) and support full and productive employment (8.5, 8.6), which supports health and enables greater public investment in healthcare, education and environmental protection, which further supports well-being.
• The longer-term benefits for human populations include lower costs of marine food supplies, and availability of certain species, maintaining dietary diversity.
• The gains in terms of health / well-being from economic growth are in practice not universal, nor can growth be endlessly sustainable in a finite and ‘full’ world (Daly and Farley, 2004).
• Yet growth is driven by production systems, which often have environmental impacts (e.g. carbon-emitting energy production, loss of soils/farmland to urban expansion, water use that damages aquifers) which cause damage to ecosystem or human health and constrain efforts to achieve health targets.

IN THE CONTEXT OF HIGH TEMPERATURES

• Access to work increase incomes, which supports health.
• Working in high temperatures increases the risk of having accidents, and impairs capacity to undertake physical and mental work (undp, 2016).
• Climate change is associated with increasing frequency and severity of heat waves, which directly impact on health and labour productivity (Kjellstrom and Crowe, 2011).
• Improving access to adequate housing is likely to reduce premature mortality from non-communicable diseases.

Thirty per cent of the urban

• Population, not counting those in unaffordable housing, live in slums or are in severe housing deprivation Deaths of newborn babies, children under five years of age and older people from respiratory and communicable diseases can be prevented by retrofitting insulation and installing effective heating and cooling.
• These measures are also effective in reducing cardio-vascular deaths in older people Providing good quality housing improves mental and physical health.

Providing safe and affordable

• Housing reduces household crowding and exposure to close- contact infectious diseases Adequate provision of social housing enables household health and well-being, social cohesion and community stability KEY INTERACTIONS.
• Housing in slums and informal housing poses particular risks to health.
• Evidence connects high indoor temperatures with high blood pressure and other poor health outcomes (Kim et al., 2012a,b; Uejio et al., 2016; van Loenhout et al., 2016), and low indoor temperatures with cardiovascular and respiratory disease (Thomson et al., 2013; Maidment et al., 2014).
• Improving housing (11.1) will play a major role in reducing the number of deaths and illnesses from hazardous chemicals and air, water and soil pollution and contamination (3.9).
• Lead paint degrades and mixes with dust and soil where it may be ingested by children.

Infill or brownfield development

• Achieving target 11.2 is likely to support the positive health outcomes associated with improving housing and settlements.
• Improving transport systems (11.2), particularly for vulnerable road users such as pedestrians and cyclists can also help reduce deaths and injuries from road traffic accidents (3.6).
• Increased reliance on private motor-vehicle transport carries environmental burdens, such as leaching of zinc and copper into soil and waterbodies (Moores et al., 2010), which carry risk for human health as well as increased cost of development (Adams and Chapman, 2016).
• With the right infrastructure commitments, infill and brownfield developments can facilitate a shift towards greater reliance on public transport networks, and active travel such as walking and cycling (Howden-Chapman et al., 2011; Sallis et al., 2016).

In general, a reduction in fossil fuel

• Combustion will simultaneously mitigate climate change and reduce air pollution: both outcomes will benefit health.
• While the main focus remains on the long-lived greenhouse gases, short-lived climate pollutants also matter for health.

While understanding the chemistry

• Behind the interaction of air pollution and climate is important, so are considerations of available technologies, means of implemen- tation and governance KEY INTERACTIONS Climate change interacts with health in many ways and the scope for climate action is very broad.
• Emissions, which affect both the climate and local air quality, largely derive from the combustion of fossil fuels.
• There is a wide array of potential solutions for reducing carbon emissions, ranging from urban intensification that facilitates better public transport and healthy physical activity, to switching fuels for existing modes of private transport (Dalkmann et al., 2014).
• This needs to be complemented by considerations of available technologies, means of implementation, and governance, in order to minimise the risk of misaligning climate and air pollution objectives, while ensuring policy measures contribute to local municipal or regional policy goals.
• The interaction between policies aimed climate change mitigation (13.2) and health-enhancing air pollution measures (3.9) is broadly enabling and potentially reinforcing.

If policy interventions are not

• Managed properly, food production could decrease and food prices could increase, thereby reducing access to affordable food.
• Access to affordable food may also be jeopardised due to long-term soil depletion associated with monocropping of agrofuels, and to hydrological changes or topsoil loss associated with the cultivation of marginal or degraded croplands for agrofuels or to replace food production lost to agrofuel farming.

Basic energy availability is a key

• Component in food systems that have the potential to achieve the goal of zero hunger.
• Energy is also a prerequisite to reduce and recycle food waste, and to preserve the long- term value of edible items.
• Interactions could become stronger if bioenergy (especially from agro- fuels) is deployed on a large scale in order to meet the renewable energy targets.

Second- and third-generation waste-

• To-energy technologies are attractive because agricultural, forest and domestic wastes can be used as stockpiles for energy services.
• In the worst case, small-scale farmers could even be displaced, either from their lands or in local business networks, or both.
• A potential risk of large-scale bioenergy deployment is that crops grown for energy purposes could compete with existing crops grown for other purposes, such as food production (Smith et al., 2014).
• Such concerns are often captured in the ‘food versus fuel’ debate; more specifically, concerning food security (higher or more volatile food prices) and the displacement of communities and their agro-economic activities.
• Policies, agricultural research, and extension programmes that incentivise and promote greater agricultural productivities (improved and sustainable crop yields, that do not sacrifice long-term productivity for short-term yields) can all help.

Elevating levels of walking and

• Cycling (‘active travel’) in cities can also lead to better health and well- being among the local population Energy is vital to providing thermal comfort in buildings.
• Energy access is also needed for refrigeration, which is essential for maintaining food quality along the supply chain for providing city markets with healthy products.
• Presentday fossil energy extraction, conversion, and end-use activities emit a range of air pollutants, as do some traditional biofuels (dung, wood, waste, and peat or charcoal prepared and burned in traditional ways) many of which are harmful to humans, leading to respiratory and cardiovascular diseases and even cancer.
• Thus, increased efforts to move the world’s poor towards clean renewables and to significantly increase energy efficiency (i.e. lower the requirements for energy of all types) would drive major reductions in emissions of sulphur dioxide (so²), nitrogen oxides (nox), black carbon (bc), fine particulate matter (pm 2.5), and mercury, among others.

IMPROVING AIR QUALITY AND THE HEALTH OF THE RURAL POOR IN INDIA

• India is the third largest economy in the world, with its 1.3 billion people making up nearly 20% of the global population.
• The number of premature deaths in India due to indoor and near-household air pollution from the use of traditional solid fuels is around 1 million annually, the highest of any country in the world (ihme, 2015).
• If these water demands and pollution impacts increase, then existing ecosystem problems could be exacerbated, particularly in areas that are already stressed and where demand growth is likely to be high, such as countries in the Middle East, South Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa (Luo et al., 2015).
• The effects are less clear-cut for some other types of renewable energy, namely bioenergy and hydropower.

IN SAUDI ARABIA

• The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (ksa) boasts some of the highest quality solar energy resources on the planet.
• The estimated rate of groundwater depletion is alarming: more than 20 times the estimated recharge is currently extracted from the region’s most important aquifers each year (Gleeson et al., 2012).
• Moreover, increased energy demand from expansion of unconventional water supply technologies can potentially support ksa in the large-scale integration of intermittent wind- and solar-energy resources.
• Design energy access policies in such a way that they are equitable and inclusive, thereby increasing employment for all without regard to gender, age or ability 7.2, 7.3 8.1, 8.4 Decarbonising energy systems through an up-scaling of renewables and energy efficiency could constrain countries’ economic growth, if only slightly.
• Stable legislation that fosters strengthened financial institutions at the community level, especially in developing countries, is also key, as these institutions provide the means for local entrepreneurs to access capital, credit, and insurance.

Energy-related curricula can improve

• Science literacy in populations, especially for the poorest, giving access to better, more skilled jobs KEY INTERACTIONS.
• Hence, transformative change in the ways that societies produce and consume energy over the period to 2030 will touch upon every financial and monetary aspect of daily life.
• In all cases, local economies would benefit over the short and long term, as resident knowledge and capacity can be built up and institutionalised within communities.
• Innovative technologies like solar and wind power, biofuels, and other renewable energy technologies have the potential to raise wages and create new jobs, either directly or indirectly, in the countries where they are installed and/ or manufactured (Gohin, 2008; Creutzig et al., 2013; irena, 2016).
• Essentially all of these analyses have focused their attention either at the global level or on individual countries that are either already industrialised or are rapidly developing; none have done the same for ldcs, for which target 8.1 aims to achieve an annual growth of at least 7% of gdp.

RENEWABLE ENERGY DEPLOYMENT AND JOB

• Over the past few decades, it has seen some of the greatest deployment of wind, solar, bioenergy, and other forms of renewables of any major economy (7.2), and is a major producer of renewable energy technologies (8.2, 8.3).
• The so-called ‘Energiewende’, has also had a marked impact on employment within Germany – in most ways positive.
• This telling of the story masks important details underlying the macro-level dynamics (Pahle et al., 2016).
• Yet, what is often forgotten is that other sub-sectors of Germany’s solar industry have performed well over the past decade.

TARGETS KEY INTERACTIONS SCORE POLICY OPTIONS

• The universal energy access target is fully consistent with the goal of combatting climate change, as it is likely to have only a minor effect on global carbon emissions 0 7.2, 7.3 SDG 13*.
• Decarbonising energy systems through an up-scaling of renewables and energy efficiency is a necessary but not sufficient condition for combatting climate change, since less fossil energy means lower GHG emissions +2.
• The pledged Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) provide a good start, but these will need to be strengthened considerably over time 7.2, 7.3 13.2, 13.3, 13.a.
• To aid the rapid deployment of renewables and energyefficiency measures, countries will benefit from integrating climate change measures such as carbon pricing into national planning, improving relevant education and awareness, and mobilising funds for mitigation +2 [13.2].
• Policies should then be designed to promote the incorporation of this knowledge into national and regional strategies and planning.

Achieving universal access to

• Modern energy services by 2030 will not exacerbate climate change KEY INTERACTIONS sdg 7 has a direct interaction with sdg 13, since today’s fossil-dominated energy system is the main contributor to global ghg emissions.
• Hence, from this standpoint target 13.2 is already on its way to being achieved; and this will help underpin the sdg 7 targets.
• Of particular importance to the poor in developing countries (in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa), the scientific literature indicates that ensuring universal access to modern energy services by 2030 (7.1) is fully consistent with the sdg 13 and Paris Agreement climate goals.
• In other words, energy access provision will not exacerbate climate change, as it is likely to have only a minor effect on global carbon emissions, even if the modern fuels being supplied are still fossil fuels (e.g. natural gas, kerosene, lpg) (pbl Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, 2012; Riahi et al., 2012; Rogelj et al, 2013).

Poor coastal communities in low

• Income countries are likely to suffer the most from changes in the coastal and marine environments that directly and indirectly support their livelihoods.
• Protection, restoration and management of critical coastal and marine habitats have the most direct links to poverty eradication, improving their livelihoods and reducing their vulnerability related to extreme climate events.

Sustainable tourism, fisheries and

• Coastal agriculture in sids and ldcs can create decent jobs that reduce income poverty.
• Protection, restoration and management of critical coastal and marine habitats (14.2) maintain biodiversity and rebuild fish stocks and are therefore inextricably linked to improved livelihoods and eradicating poverty (1.1, 1.2).
• Adapting fisheries to sustainable levels and eradicating iuu fisheries (14.4) has a direct link to stabilising and/ or increasing productivity, profitability, and net economic benefits from fisheries (World Bank, 2009), and to reducing poverty (1.1, 1.2).
• Mpas can conflict with the social and economic objectives of populations who may lose access to the G O A L #1 4 LI FE B EL O W W AT ER 186 resources therein and can thus constrain poverty reduction goals.
• While these sectors have the potential to increase income, maximising synergies requires the simultaneous development and expansion of social protection programmes.

THE WESTERN INDIAN OCEAN REGION

• The Western Indian Ocean region includes Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, South Africa and the island states of Mauritius, Comoros, Seychelles, Madagascar and Réunion .
• Sustainable fisheries (14.4) are crucial for sustainable economic development of the countries that together generate about 4.8% of the global fish catch; equivalent to about 4.5 million tonnes of fish per year (fao, 2009).
• An estimated us$ 25 billion per year is derived from the coastal and marine resources in this region (unep / Nairobi Convention Secretariat, 2009), mainly from tourism, fisheries, coastal agriculture, mining, mariculture, and ports and coastal transport.
• Some countries have already set ambitious targets in this regard: Seychelles aims to establish mpas covering 30% of its 1.4 million km² of its exclusive economic zone (eez) by 2020 and Zanzibar aims to establish 15% of its coastal and marine ecosystems as mpas.

Increased agricultural productivity

• A significant proportion of the food security of nutritionally vulnerable people (2.1) comes from fish and exceeds that of most of terrestrial animal foods (Béné et al., 2016).
• This can play a critical enabling role for brain development and growth in children (2.2) and the nutrition of the nearly one-fifth of pregnant women worldwide that have iron-deficiency anaemia and the one-third that are vitamin-A deficient (2.2) (Golden, 2016).
• While creating mpas (14.5) can enhance fish recruitment and productivity for better food security and nutrition, and can increase fish production in adjacent areas (2.1, 2.2), they may limit access to food resources for coastal communities and may limit areas available for aquaculture (1.1, 1.2).

Coastal tourism is a key contributor

• To promoting sustainable tourism as a driver for local employment, cultures and products KEY INTERACTIONS sdg 14 and sdg 8 mostly interact through their targets for conservation and sustainable resource use with the nature of the interaction highly contextspecific.
• Measures such as taxes and levies on plastic bags and fertilisers, may conflict with other important poverty-reduction sectors, such as coastal agriculture.
• Ensuring sustainable exploitation of marine resources and restoring ocean health will lead to an overall benefit for sustainable economic development and employment.
• Tourism has increased over the past 40 years with coastal tourism now one of the main components in some areas, especially small island states (United Nations, 2016).
• Seasonal increase in consumption, pollution and waste; development of infrastructure such as hotels or airports often in or near sensitive habitats like coral reefs; malpractice in recreational activities such as diving, snorkelling or wildlife watching (wwf, no date); and modifications of beaches and coastal waters to increase their attractiveness (United Nations, 2016), also known as These include.

THE BALTIC SEA

• The Baltic Sea is a semi-enclosed inland sea with around 85 million people within its catchment area (Ahtiainen et al., 2013).
• Tourism and fisheries are the two most important sectors for employment, providing 244,000 of 360,000 jobs in the eu maritime sectors (Brodzicki and Zaucha, 2013).
• Failing to restore the Baltic Sea to good ecological health will impair its ability by 2030 to add an additional 550,000 jobs and eur 32 billion in annual value in tourism, agriculture and fisheries alone (bcg, 2013).

The strong land-sea nexus

• Of interactions is especially relevant for settlement planning, development and infrastructure, due to a potentially long reach between upstream catchments and downstream coastal areas and marine waters.
• Most linkages have potential for bi-directional effects and include synergies and trade-offs.
• Avoiding negative effects requires integrated approaches cognisant of the transboundary nature of interactions in coastal zones.

Coordinated actions and integrated

• Trade-offs are possible, depending on whether policies and management are approached in an integrative manner and across sectors as well as administrative or jurisdictional boundaries.
• 2013) have established strict regulations, mining of corals for construction material is an issue in many coastal countries and island states, such as the Solomon Islands (Albert et al., 2015) and Kiribati (Babinard et al., 2014).
• In the other direction, target 11.c may encounter constraints due to protection and conservation measures taken under targets 14.2 and 14.5.

EXPLORING LINKAGES BETWEEN URBANISATION AND THE OCEANS AND

• Being a continent nation, Australia has an exceptionally long coastline (35,900 km without islands), an extensive maritime offshore area connected to large ocean basins and seas, and over 8200 islands (Short and Woodroffe, 2009; Australian Government - Geoscience Australia, 2016).
• Owing to their length and extent, Australia’s coasts and marine waters contain a wide range of ecosystems.
• Challenges in ensuring sustainable coastal management (14.2), pollution management (14.1), and a reduction in urban footprint (11.6), together with the need for sustainable urban development (11.3), safe and sustainable transport systems (11.2) and disaster risk reduction (11.5), result from a combination of both human and environmental pressures (Stocker et al., 2012).
• Low-lying coastal areas are frequently exposed to flood hazards and coastal erosion (11.5), with climate change through sea-level rise increasing exposure and vulnerability to coastal hazards for metropolitan populations as well as for remote coastal areas (Harvey and Woodroffe, 2008; Australian Government, 2011).
• Strengthen capacities for impact assessment and sustainable management of fisheries and aquaculture Establish incentives for sustainable and resource-efficient use of marine resources and coastal areas SDG 14 + SDG 12 G O A L #1 4 LI FE B EL O W W AT ER 203 KEY POINTS.

Sustainable consumption and

• Production patterns (in agriculture, industry, private households) can help prevent and reduce marine pollution, minimise the effects of ocean acidification, and protect marine and coastal ecosystems KEY INTERACTIONS sdg14 has close synergistic positive links with sdg12 (ranging from ‘enabling’ over ‘reinforcing’ towards ‘indivisible’ interactions at the target-level).
• Achieving sustainable fisheries, restoring stocks and ending iuu fisheries (14.4) will contribute to sustainable management and efficient use of natural resources and is therefore indivisible for reaching target 12.2 and reducing food waste (12.3).
• Likewise, increasing economic benefits to sids from sustainable natural resources (14.7) reinforces the achievement of targets 12.2 and 12.3.
• Tackling marine pollution (14.1) (especially from land-based sources) to protect marine ecosystems, habitats and species from harmful effluents and discharges, involves better waste management and sustainable chemical policies, and will enable the achievement of environmentally sound management of chemicals and wastes (12.4) and a move towards a circular economy (12.5).
• A reduction in food waste at the retail and consumer level will support more sustainable, less output-orientated forms of agriculture (e.g. organic or small holder farming) and so reduce land-based pollution, such as from nutrients.

G7 ACTION PLAN TO COMBAT MARINE LITTER

• Marine litter is one of the main contributors to marine pollution.
• Actions that support target 14.1 and at the same time directly contribute to sdg 12 include: improving countries’ systems for waste management, reducing waste generation, and encouraging reuse and recycling (12.1, 12.4.
• Coastal ecosystems may be unable to cope with the rate at which sea-level is rising and changes in light availability, salinity or circulation patterns are occurring, risking degradation or even ecosystem loss and possibly reducing the protection and mitigation potential of coastal ecosystems (Wong et al., 2014).

THE PARIS AGREEMENT

• The fundamental global agenda for combating climate change is the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (unfccc, 1992).
• 2016), slowing global warming will support the overall strengthening of resilience and adaptive capacity of the natural system and the human system towards climate change (13.1).
• Targeted reduction of emissions and achieving of a balance between greenhouse gas emissions and sinks in the latter half of the 21st century, including successful preparation, communication and maintenance of Intended Nationally Determined Contributions as established under Art.
• Implementing the Paris Agreement will thus support achieving sdg 13 and sdg 14 and the 2030 Agenda as such.

LOOKING AHEAD

• The conceptual framework and assessment of key interactions of the four goals presented in this report are intended as a starting point for further work towards a more complete understanding of how the sustainable development goals (sdgs) fit together.
• The proposed framework guides a more detailed analysis and enables structured deliberations on how to implement the 2030 Agenda coherently, in order to maximise development outcomes.
• Making interactions explicit and understanding the full impacts of policies and actions across goals stimulates important knowledge gathering and learning processes, and has very concrete and tangible value for achieving efficiency and effectiveness in sdg implementation, for driving meaningful multi-stakeholder partnerships, and for country level monitoring, evaluation and review.
• The sdgs as an internationally-agreed single agenda with a 2030 time horizon integrating many policy dimensions provides a convergence point to support collaboration across scientific, policy and practitioner communities.

REFLECTIONS ON THE SEVEN-POINT SCALE AND METHODOLOGY

• The report presents a typology and an approach to scoring sdg interactions that can be replicated and refined for each and every goal, and importantly, at different geographical scales, whether global, regional, national or sub-national, with varying data and evidence availability.
• The framework on which this work is based identifies causal and functional relations underlying progress or achievement of the sustainable development goals and targets: positive interactions are assigned scores of +1 (‘enabling’), +2 (‘reinforcing’) or +3 (‘indivisible’), while interactions characterised by trade-offs are scored with -1 (‘constraining’), -2 (‘counteracting’), or -3 (‘cancelling’).
• The approach taken relied on an interpretive analytical process whereby research teams combine their knowledge and expert judgment with seeking of new evidence in the scientific literature and extensive deliberations about the character of different specific interactions.
• To this extent, the assessment becomes a vehicle for triggering dialogue interpretation and learning process.

RECOMMENDATIONS TO POLICYMAKERS

• Based on the analysis, four recommendations to better identify and manage interactions across sdgs to inform planning and implementation stand out: 1. SYSTEMATICALLY IDENTIFY THE INTERACTIONS BETWEEN AND AMONG THE 17 GOALS TO INFORM PRIORITYSETTING IN A GIVEN CONTEXT.
• Identifying a priori the most relevant interactions requires bringing together a wide range of expertise spanning goals, disciplines and sectors.
• Tackling urban air pollution requires determined action to move away from fossil fuels as well as achieving energy efficiency targets in the transport, housing and industrial sectors.
• Mapping the existing institutional landscape in a particular country / context and identifying key actors for implementing the sdgs is needed to assess the extent to which the existing institutional set-up is fit for purpose to deliver on the sdgs and address their interactions.

3. ENACT CHANGE TO ENABLE HORIZONTAL MANAGEMENT OF SDGS

• The sdgs’ ambition and emphasis on integration, challenge current institutional and governance arrangements and require new mechanisms for driving policy integration and coherence.
• Some countries have already developed cross-ministerial and consultative mechanisms such as in Germany, Colombia or Finland.
• But this also needs to be aligned with decision-making and implementation processes, whether for resource allocation, data and information collection and sharing, support for research and innovation, or institutional and individual capacity development.
• LO O KI N G A H EA D : N EX T ST EP S 223 4. APPLY AN INTEGRATED PERSPECTIVE TO MONITORING, EVALUATION AND REVIEW.
• Beyond the monitoring of individual targets and goals, what is needed is an integrated perspective to monitor progress towards achievement of the sdgs.

NEXT STEPS FOR THE SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY

• The scientific community has been focusing for a long time on deepening its understanding of social and ecological systems, and their interlinkages.
• This report represents a contribution towards this broad array of scholarly work.
• The following sections outline possible next steps and a few examples of ongoing initiatives that seek to develop the knowledge and solutions for addressing the sdgs in an integrated way.

1. CONTINUE TO GROW THE SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE BASE

• The sdgs highlight the need for more integrated research for sustainable development across natural, social, health sciences, economics and engineering.
• They also require a stronger drive towards transdisciplinary research.
• The growing body of sustainability science literature poses a challenge in itself in bringing synthetic, authoritative, timely and policy-relevant insights.
• The scoring approach and synthesis work undertaken within this report points also to a need for a broad-based assessment of scientific knowledge on the sdgs and their interactions.

2. APPLY A SYSTEMS APPROACH

• This report has mostly focused on an examination of binary interactions.
• Further work on interactions could usefully apply a systems-approach.
• Where policies such as agricultural intensification can have unintended consequences, such as nitrate or E. coli pollution of freshwaters, national governments then need to consider appropriate policy instruments.
• Strengthening integrated science to deliver the knowledge and implementation pathways will require capacity building to work across disciplines and include non-scientists in research processes.
• Throughout the development process of the Sustainable Development Goals in the un’s Open Working Group, the importance of considering the sdgs as a whole rather than in isolation was emphasised.

4. STRENGTHEN THE SCIENCE-POLICY INTERFACE

• The scope of the ambition set by the 2030 Agenda calls for a wide mobilisation of expertise, resources, competences, and enthusiasm from the global to the national and local levels.
• One important dimension of this much-needed science-policy-society interface is the need to strengthen science advisory mechanisms to decisionmakers at both the global and the national-level to support evidence-based decision-making and solution-building.

Land use conversion for agricultural

• Purposes (2.3) may constrain sdg 3 due to an increase in exposure to malaria risk (3.3) and/or mercury contamination of soil (3.4, 3.9) The Amazon is a typical example of a ‘frontier economy’ (Boulding, 1966) where economic growth, based on the perpetual conquest of land and resources, is sometimes seen as infinite (Becker, 2005).
• Deforestation to provide land for agriculture, cattle ranching and largescale hydropower generation has been the prevailing model for rural development over the last 50 years (Nobre et al., 2016).
• In Amazonia, smallholder farmers play a critical role in the maintenance of global agrobiodiversity, and generally use few agro-chemicals (Kawa et al., 2015), but were responsible for up to 69% of Amazon deforestation between 2006 and 2011.

THE NEXUS FOOD-WATER-ENERGYDEFORESTATION

• The effect of biofuel production on deforestation has not been assessed globally, but biodiesel from soybean in Mato Grosso may have been responsible for up to 5.9% of the direct annual deforestation over the past few years (Gao et al., 2011).
• On 24 July 2006, the Soybean Moratorium was signed, which effectively reduced the deforested land for soybean production.
• Intense agriculture based solely on short-term productivity without sustainability may counteract sdg targets related to forest conservation/protection.
• Apart from a significant increase in ghg emissions, well known in tropical countries (Kemenes et al., 2007), one of the consequences will be decreased productivity in the lowland Amazon floodplains due to the retention of nutrients by reservoirs.

CONSEQUENCES FOR CLIMATE CHANGE

• Converting forest to pasture is estimated to result in an average temperature increase of 1.0–1.5°C in deforested area during the dry season due to the change in surface energy budget (Gash et al., 1996).
• Deforestation due to intense agricultural expansion highlights how target 2.3 can counteract combatting climate change and can constrain climate adaption by increasing climate instability and disasters (13.1).
• The impact of land use change on precipitation is not clear and needs further study.
• A possible explanation for the precipitation reductions observed in the last two decades over the southern and south-eastern Amazon could be the change in albedo between forests and pasture.
• Mitigation solutions in these sectors imply a high level of technological complexity.

IMPACTS ON HEALTH

• In the Tapajos Amazon region, conversion of forest to pasture results in soil erosion and the transfer of soil sediments into waterways, causing mercury pollution.
• Inorganic mercury, which is naturally present in the soil, is then transformed into methylmercury through bacterial activity and enters the aquatic food web, with the highest mercury concentrations occurring in the top predators at the ends of food chains.
• The majority of riverside dwellers eat fish several times per week.
• This trend illustrates how deforestation for the purposes of conversion to another type of land use such as agriculture can counteract the ending of communicable diseases such as malaria (3.3).
• A N N EX 230 PUTTING SUSTAINABLE LAND MANAGEMENT AT THE HEART OF SENEGAL’S NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY.

Sequester carbon and mitigate

• Such co- benefit impact contribute to sdg 2 food security targets as sequestered carbon, when mineralised, releases nutrients for plants.
• Play a major role in food security and poverty alleviation in urban and peri-urban areas (1.1, 1.2).

Some agriculture practices can

• Have adverse impacts on terrestrial ecosystems (sdg 15).
• Strong international partnerships and capacity-building are key to mitigating such trade-offs (sdg 17).

LAND DEGRADATION

• By ratifying the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification in 1994, Senegal undertook to implement a National Action Plan (nap).
• In its third report, the Ministry for the Environment and Nature Protection (Ministère de l’environnement et de la protection de la nature, 2004) assessed land degradation in Senegal, and showed that almost 60% of arable land was subject to degradation, mainly related to water scarcity and water erosion.
• The report revealed that degradation had continued, increasing poverty.

NEXUS OF LAND DEGRADATION, FOOD SECURITY, CLIMATE AND WATER CHALLENGES

• In 2014, Senegal adopted “a new development model to accelerate its progress toward emerging market status [which] constitutes the reference for economic and social policy […]” (Ministry of Economy, Finance and Planning, 2014: Executive Summary).
• In the agricultural sector, the successful implementation of priority actions, such as water management, improving soil quality and land reform depends on several factors.
• At the same time, by ratifying the Paris Agreement within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Senegal undertook to reduce its global ghg emissions, some of which were generated by the agriculture sector, and to implement adaptation measures such as technologies to combat land degradation and access to drinking water.

SUSTAINABLE LAND MANAGEMENT: THE MANY BENEFITS PROVIDED BY SOIL ORGANIC MATTER

• Soils provide many ecosystem services that are essential to communities and their environment.
• The role played by organic matter in soil functioning has now been clearly established (Feller et al., 2012; Banwart et al., 2014): it maintains fertility, assures primary production and maintains the physical structure of the soils and thus their water-holding capacity as well as regulating soil quality (sdg 6).
• Such knowledge can help to reinforce synergies within the nexus and mitigate or even overcome some constraints and tradeoffs between the goals.
• In 2010, the Senegal Ecological Monitoring Centre, together with its partners, published a set of best practices for sustainable land management in Senegal (cse, 2010).

A SAFEGUARD TO AVOID HARMFUL IMPACTS

• According to the fao, “The eradication of hunger and poverty, and the sustainable use of the environment, depend in large measure on how people, communities and others gain access to land, fisheries and forests” (fao, 2012: Preface).
• De Schutter (2011) pointed to the need for security of land tenure to ensure national food security, and stressed the importance of not transposing the Western model of property rights to resolve competition for land between local communities and companies willing to invest in agriculture in developing countries.
• To meet this challenge of rational land governance, Senegal has drawn up Land Occupation and Use Plans, for example for the Lac du Guiers region (see http:// ppr-srec.org/fiches-actions/observatoireparticipatif-de-veille-sur-le-foncier-opvfphase-pilote-dans-la-zone-du-lac-de-guiersau-senegal.html).

SOCIAL AND ENVIRON MEN TAL LINKS BETWEEN URBAN, PERI-URBAN AND RURAL AREAS

• By 2013, this had increased to 49%, with around 50% of this urban population concentrated in Dakar.
• Urbanisation has thus accelerated during recent decades.
• Successive droughts (1970–1973, 1976–1977, 1983–1984) had an almost immediate effect on the economy of Senegal, which is largely based on agriculture (peanuts, millet, rice, cowpea, manioc, etc), with the migration of rural populations to cities which were forced to accommodate these new inhabitants in a short space of time.
• In these peri-urban farming systems, efforts to increase production currently tend to degrade water quality.
• This harmful interaction constrains the achievement of target 3.9.

SUMMARY OF KEY TRADE-OFFS

• While agriculture, together with food and beverage processing, accounts for less than 5% of the overall state economy, it continues to play a significant role in rural incomes.
• With over 76,000 farms ranging from small, organic to large commercial operations, producing over 400 different agricultural commodities, California plays an important role in providing access to safe and nutritious food to end malnutrition in all forms (2.1, 2.2) and ensuring sustainable and resilient food systems (2.4).
• Achieving these, presents both synergies and trade-offs to meeting other sdgs.
• As California has one of the strongest records on environmental regulation in the usa, its policy approaches to minimising tradeoffs between agriculture and environmental objectives may be instructive.

NUTRITION AND HEALTH: SDG 2 & SDG 3

• California is responsible for almost half the u.s. production of vegetables, fruits, and nuts, and 20% of dairy products.
• Thus, California’s agriculture plays a very significant role in the nutritional quality of the u.s. diet, reinforcing access to safe and nutritious food (2.1) and ending malnutrition (2.2).
• Farm activities account for 21% of ozone-forming gases and more than half of particulate emissions (from fertilisers and dust) in the San Joaquin Valley (Cowan, 2005; arb, 2008).
• This constrains reducing the number of deaths and illness from hazardous chemicals and air, water, and soil pollution and contamination (3.9).
• Californian air pollution laws had exempted farms from permitting requirements until 2004, when a series of new regulations on farms, wine fermentation, and large cattle and dairy operations began requiring state pollution permits to address this trade-off.

SUSTAINABLE & RESILIENT AGRICULTURE: SDG 6 - WATER

• With a dry climate, water is an essential resource for agricultural productivity and climate resilience in California.
• As many people outside large urban centres depend on wells for drinking water, agricultural practices constrain access to safe and clean drinking water (6.1) and improving water quality through reducing pollution (6.3).
• To offset the impact of these measures on the economic sustainability of Californian agriculture, funding from taxes on fertiliser sales have been used since 1990 for research to assist farmers in reducing the environmental impact of fertiliser use.
• Of the total estimated surface water available, from runoff stored in reservoirs and from stream flow, agriculture withdraws 40%, while the environment accounts for 50%, with the urban sector accounting for the remaining balance (California Department of Water Resources, 2013).
• The shift toward more efficient drip and micro sprinkler irrigation systems which contributes to this efficiency gain, has simultaneously constrained sustainable groundwater management.

SUSTAINABLE & RESILIENT AGRICULTURE: CLIMATE CHANGE - SDG 13

• The concept of Climate Smart Agriculture – balancing mitigation, adaptation, and productivity – is increasingly integrated into California’s agricultural policy framework.
• The projected reductions in precipitation and more frequent periods of drought are a major driver for adaptation.
• A recent review of research in California demonstrates that these technologies and management practices offer co-benefits for both ghg emission reductions and either productivity or climate resilience benefits (Byrnes et al., 2016), reinforcing the economic and environmental sustainability of agriculture.
• The report is based on the premise that understand- ing the range of positive and negative interactions among SDGs is key to unlocking their full potential at any scale, as well as to ensuring that progress made in some areas is not made at the expense of progress in others.

Full text

A GUIDE TO
SDG INTERACTIONS:
FROM SCIENCE
TO IMPLEMENTATION

A GUIDE TO SDG INTERACTIONS:
FROM SCIENCE TO IMPLEMENTATION

A GUIDE TO
SDG INTERACTIONS:
FROM SCIENCE
TO IMPLEMENTATION

A FRAMEWORK FOR UNDERSTANDING SDG INTERACTIONS
04
07 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
18 INTRODUCTION
A FRAMEWORK FOR UNDERSTANDING SUSTAINABLE
DEVELOPMENT GOAL INTERACTIONS
Måns Nilsson (sei), David Griggs (Monash University),
Martin Visbeck (geomar and cau), Claudia Ringler (ifpri),
David McCollum (iiasa)
31 SDG 2
END HUNGER, ACHIEVE FOOD SECURITY
AND IMPROVED NUTRITION AND PROMOTE
SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE
Ludovic Mollier (ird), Frédérique Seyler (ird),
Jean-Luc Chotte (ird), Claudia Ringler (ifpri)
34 INTRODUCTION
35
KEY INTERACTIONS AT GOAL LEVEL
43
KEY INTERACTIONS AT TARGET LEVEL
SDG
2 + SDG 1
SDG
2 + SDG 3
SDG
2 + SDG 5
SDG
2 + SDG 6
SDG
2 + SDG 7
SDG
2 + SDG 13
SDG 2 + SDG 15
73 KNOWLEDGE GAPS
75
CONCLUDING COMMENTS
81
SDG 3
ENSURE HEALTHY LIVES AND PROMOTE
WELL-BEING FOR ALL AT ALL AGES
Philippa Howden-Chapman (New Zealand Centre for Sustainable Cities),
José Siri (unu-iigh), Elinor Chisholm (New Zealand Centre for Sustainable
Cities), Ralph Chapman (New Zealand Centre for Sustainable Cities),
Christopher N.H. Doll (unu-ias), Anthony Capon (University of Sydney)
84 INTRODUCTION
85
KEY INTERACTIONS AT GOAL LEVEL
91
KEY INTERACTIONS AT TARGET LEVEL
SDG
3 + SDG 2
SDG
3 + SDG 3
SDG
3 + SDG 8
SDG
3 + SDG 11
SDG
3 + SDG 13
119 KNOWLEDGE GAPS
121
CONCLUDING COMMENTS

A FRAMEWORK FOR UNDERSTANDING SDG INTERACTIONS
05
127 SDG 7
ENSURE ACCESS TO AFFORDABLE, RELIABLE,
SUSTAINABLE AND MODERN ENERGY FOR ALL
David McCollum (iiasa), Luis Gomez Echeverri (iiasa),
Keywan Riahi (iiasa), Simon Parkinson (iiasa)
130 INTRODUCTION
131
KEY INTERACTIONS AT GOAL LEVEL
136
KEY INTERACTIONS AT TARGET LEVEL
SDG
7 + SDG 1
SDG
7 + SDG 2
SDG
7 + SDG 3
SDG
7 + SDG 6
SDG
7 + SDG 8
SDG
7 + SDG 13
167 KNOWLEDGE GAPS
169
CONCLUDING COMMENTS
174
SDG 14
CONSERVE AND SUSTAINABLY USE
THE OCEANS, SEAS AND MARINE RESOURCES
FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
Stefanie Schmidt (iass), Barbara Neumann (cau),
Yvonne Waweru (iass), Carole Durussel (iass), Sebastian Unger (iass),
Martin Visbeck (geomar and cau)
177 INTRODUCTION
178
KEY INTERACTIONS AT GOAL LEVEL
183
KEY INTERACTIONS AT TARGET LEVEL
SDG
14 + SDG 1
SDG
14 + SDG 2
SDG
14 + SDG 8
SDG
14 + SDG 11
SDG
14 + SDG 12
SDG
14 + SDG 13
212 KNOWLEDGE GAPS
214
CONCLUDING COMMENTS
215
LOOKING AHEAD
NEXT STEPS
226 ANNEX
THREE ILLUSTRATIVE EXAMPLES OF INTERACTIONS
BETWEEN SDG
2 AND THE OTHER SDGS
237 IMPRINT