The document discusses strategies for achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Europe by 2030. It emphasizes using the SDGs as a guiding strategy and template to unify ambitions across the EU and its member states. It also stresses the importance of backcasting, generating a desirable future vision and working backwards to identify pathways, milestones, and policies needed to achieve that vision. Additional topics covered include defining Europe's fair share of global responsibilities, mainstreaming sustainability through financing and governance, and enhancing public awareness and engagement with the SDGs.

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The 2030 Agenda and Societal Change
From dreams to reality
Céline Charveriat
EESC meeting
22 and 23 May 2017

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IEEP & SDGs: Contributions from a European sustainability think tank
We must ask the right questions:
• Toute connaissance est une réponse à une question.
- Gaston Bachelard
• What is safe and just space for Europe within Kate
Raworth’s “doughnut”?
• Which national and collective European preferences are
compatible with science and universality?
• How can we resolve justice issues, such as
generational, inequality, income, gender, race, and
territorial?
• And with what ambition? (inclusiveness or putting those
furthest behind first)
And use the SDGs as a guiding strategy.
Source: Kate Raworth (2017). Doughnut Economics.

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What are our ambitions for Europe?
Example of stop-gap analysis based on top 5 OECD performers.
Source: Based on Bertelsmann Stiftung & SDSN (2016). SDG Index and Dashboard – A global
report.
Using the SDGs as a strategy
template can unify EU and
Member State ambitions and
tackle complex, transnational
challenges.

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What is the pathway? The importance of back-casting and
scenario building
Back-casting
Generating a desirable future, and then looking backwards from that
future to the present in order to strategize and to plan how it could be
achieved.
• Integrating relevant SDGs and other targets (UNFCCC mid-century net zero
emissions)
• Taking into account real potential for change (speed and scale)
• Based on latest scientific evidence
• Taking into account the unknowns

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Back-casting European agriculture
2020 2030 2050
Low carbon and
resilient EU
agriculture in line
with 1.5 degree
temperature
increase
Fair shares within
other planetary
boundaries
Contributing to
health, food
security, reduced
poverty and
inequality
What 2030 objectives are in line with SDGs
and mid-century strategy?
CAP
(2021-2027)
MFF
(2021-2028)
Europe 2030
strategy
Submission
to UNFCCC
What tipping points
along the way?
Change in demand?
Market and trade
driven?
Disasters /
ecological collapse?
Technology?
Demographical
transition?
What mix of production models are necessary?
What is the right consumption level and mix?
What levels of activity and employment are
necessary?
How much reduction in GHG and increased
sequestration?
What are the costs and burdens of sharing?

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What does universal mean for Europe?
The special case of OECD (and possibly
other) countries:
1) Domestic targets
2) Do-no-harm targets to minimize
external negative effects
‒ Avoid beggar thy neighbour approaches
3) International responsibility targets
‒ Support others in achieving their goals in line
with “Common But Differentiated
Responsibilities and Capacities”
Source: Climate Equity Reference Project (2015), “Fair Shares: A Civil Society Equity Review of
INDCS”.

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What path leads to interdependency?
Examples from meat and dairy consumption

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What’s the role for research and innovation?
• Interdisciplinary research
• Key forms of innovation
• Technology?
• New supply chains
(secondary raw materials)
• Governance
• Financial
(e.g. high level group on sustainable finance)
• What are the enabling
frameworks for “meaningful”
innovation?
Source: PwC (2017) “Innovation for the Earth: Harnessing technological breakthroughs for
people and the planet”, World Economic Forum, Davos .
Sustainable production and consumption

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Shifting the trillions
Mainstreaming and beyond?
• What are the financing gaps in Europe?
• What role for public finance (local, MS,
EU), citizens (e.g. divestment) and
private finance?
• At the European Union level:
• Next MFF: Towards sustainability proofing?
• Own resources?
• Innovative instruments
(see new ETS Just transition fund)
• Role of EIB
• Enabling macroeconomic framework: ECB
Headlines of current MFF’s effectiveness
• Horizontal mainstreaming of sustainable
development via Article 8 of 2013 CPR and
climate 20% target.
• Est. 18.9% of the total EU budget for climate
action by 2020 i.e. Eur. 200 bn (EC, 2016).
• Effectiveness of spending?
‒ 57.1 % of European Agricultural Fund for
Rural Development (EAFRD) earmarked for
climate action i.e. 56 bn
‒ Lack of description of specific climate
action measures within programs
‒ Bulk of allocations have climate change as a
secondary objective
‒ Mitigation vs. adaptation confusion?

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What governance and processes will be needed?
Top-down approaches?
• Science-based objective setting and road map: independent panel of experts
• Collective approach to impact on third countries (.e.g. trade)
Bottom-up process of MS contributions
“indicative national contributions” (thereby strengthening the existing process in the HLPF) every two
years.
Deeper societal engagement
A process similar to the Paris-Lima agenda, with pledges from local authorities, businesses and civil
society and citizen engagement. Monitoring and accountability: Regular sense-making exercise with
effective feedback loop.
New toolbox
e.g. new Agenda 21 tools, just transition methodology, 3D projects from C40, OECD Better Life-Index;
Italy’s budget indicators; Germany’s legislative Sustainability Impact Assessments; EU guardian of
future generations; Sustainability proofing of MFF.

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How to inform the public on the SDGs, and whose job is it?
There’s a big knowledge gap
• 36% of EU population have heard of the SDGs,
but only 10% know what they are
(Eurobarometer, 2015)
• 19% of Germans know a lot or some about the
SDGs and 27% in the UK (Globescan, 2016)
What is the narrative?
• Difficulty in “describing the beach”
• More or less Europe vs. positive value-based
narrative
• We are doing great vs. transformation
• Us vs. them
Net trust in institutions (%)
Institutions Trust (%)
Science and
academia
48
NGOs 30
UN 15
Business 12
National
governments
1
Media -1%
Source: Globescan (2016). Average of
25 OECD and emerging countries.

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Sources
• AlphaBeta, “Valuing the SDG Prize in Food and Agriculture”, Business and Sustainable Development Commission (October 2016).
• Christian Kroll, “Sustainable Development Goals: Are the rich countries ready”, Guetersloh: Bertelsmann Stiftung (2015).
• Climate Equity Reference Project, “Fair Shares: A Civil Society Equity Review of INDCS”, (November 2015).
• European Commission, “EU28 Highlights”, Special Eurobarometer 441 (November-December 2015).
• European Commission, “Next steps for a sustainable European future: European action for sustainability”, COM(2016) 739 final
(Strasbourg, 22 November 2016).
• Eurostat, “Sustainable development in the European Union: A Statistical Glance from the Viewpoint of the UN SDGs”, (2016).
• Globescan, “Average of 25 OECD and emerging countries”, (2016).
• Globescan, “Awareness of SDGs vs MDGs: How engaged are global citizens?” (presented at the OECD DevCom Annual Meeting, 9
November 2016).
• Guido Schmidt-Traub, “Implementing the SDGs: Are European countries ready?”, UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network
(presented at the EESC Conference ‘Next steps for a sustainable European future - Reforming Europe, implementing SDGs’, Brussels,
Belgium 7 July 2016).
• Ingeborg Niestroy, “How are we getting ready? The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in the EU and its Member States: Analysis
and Action so far”, German Development Institute (9/2016).
• Kate Raworth, “Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist”, Chelsea Green Publishing (2017).
• PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, “Innovation for the Earth: Harnessing technological breakthroughs for people and the planet”, World
Economic Forum, Davos (January 2017).
• Sustainable Development Solutions Network and the Bertelsmann Stiftung, “SDG Index and Dashboards – Global Report” (2016).

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Thank you for your attention !
ccharveriat@ieep.eu