Sustainable Development: 30 Years Since the Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit

Abstract

T year marks the 30th anniversary of Sustainable Development being institutionalized at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (also commonly called the Rio de Janeiro “Earth Summit”) in 1992. The adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in 2015 further laid out a concrete plan to achieve the 17 interlinked Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. These SDGs include poverty alleviation, clean water, human health, climate change, and sustainable energy, and are collectively regarded as “a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future.” Sustainability is gradually being integrated into every aspect of our society. A recent example is the emergence of environmental, social, and governance (ESG), which is now impacting the operation of major corporations worldwide. Yet, despite recent advances, we cannot ignore the fact that massive efforts are required to meet the SDGs by 2030. For instance, among many striking statistics is the fact that the proportion of the global population using safely managed drinking water services only increased from 70 to 74% between 2015 and 2020. The rate of progress would need to grow 4-fold to reach universal coverage by 2030. Now more than ever, we require concerted efforts on financing, technology dissemination, capacity building, and international collaboration. Science and innovation play a pivotal role in facilitating advances, and open access to key research results accelerates our progress. In this issue of ACS Environmental Au, we are pleased to present a collection of six publications that contribute to advancing our progress toward some of the key SDGs. We have categorized them based on the SDG that each publication is most relevant to.