Mick Wallace (The Left). – Madam President, the report’s proposal for a new governance scheme for the Sustainable Development Goals at EU level is positive and ambitious. The emphasis on the well—being of the economy and the need for the Commission to quickly deliver the beyond—GDP indicators is welcome.
However, the report ignores the fundamental problem with the SDGs themselves. Goal Number 8 calls for continued global economic growth equivalent to 3% per year to achieve the human development objectives. The SDGs assume that efficiency improvements will be enough to reconcile the tension between growth and ecological sustainability.
Of course, regional development in the global South must continue, but global economic growth is incompatible with many environmental targets. Even if absolute decoupling of growth from resource consumption is theoretically possible, its success must be measured in terms of climate targets and whether it fits with limiting global warming by 1.5 degrees.
There is simply no scientific basis for not questioning the growth imperative.