What is Sustainable Development Goal 13?

Climate action is the main commitment of this Sustainable Development Goal 13, which we will learn more about today.

Today, the tremendous impact of climate change is undeniable. Climate change causes in people’s lives; a problem caused by greenhouse gas emissions as a result of human activities. This is generating extreme weather events that are increasingly frequent and that affect every continent and nation across the globe, in addition to sharpened and sudden changes in natural ecosystems. A situation that only people can change and on which Sustainable Development Goal 13 (SDG 13) focuses.

If we are not able to stop the impact that our activity has on our planet, the consequences of this anthropogenic climate change, the result of our current model, will only grow exponentially, affecting our lives even more and denying a future to future generations. Climate migrations and the consequent destabilization of societies can lead to conflicts; a situation aggravated by the collapse of the natural systems we currently call home.

Therefore, if we want to fulfill the commitment to limit global warming to 1.5°C above the levels of the first industrial revolution, we must accelerate the decarbonization of our activity, pivoting towards a model of electrification of the economy based on the promotion and use of non-polluting energies. However, to meet these levels—currently far from there—we must halve our emissions by 2030. This need demands a firm commitment to decarbonization, which is one of the main levers for change proposed by Sustainable Development Goal 13.

We must, therefore, urgently take transformative measures, promoting an economic model where fossil fuels have no place and where energy is generated sustainably thanks to technologies within our reach and whose expansion is crucial for our near future. This is the premise on which SDG 13 was born, whose intermediate targets represent the support points for achieving relevant milestones. Let’s see what they are.

What are the targets of SDG 13?

Let’s seewhat the UN says about the main targets of this SDG:

• 13.1 Strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity to risks related to climate and natural disasters in all countries
• 13.2 Integrate climate change measures into national policies, strategies and plans
• 13.3 Enhance education, awareness-raising, and human and institutional capacity for climate change mitigation, adaptation, impact reduction, and early warning
• 13.a Fulfill the commitment of developed countries that are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Climate Change to achieve by 2020 the goal of jointly mobilizing $100 billion annually from all sources to address the needs of developing countries for concrete mitigation actions and transparency of their implementation, and to fully operationalize the Green Climate Fund by capitalizing it as soon as possible
• 13.b Promote mechanisms to enhance capacity for effective climate change planning and management in least developed countries and small island developing States, with particular emphasis on women, youth, and local and marginalized communities

Want to know more about SDG 13?

Check out the following video: