Cascading global crises threatening human survival.

The climate crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic and an increased number of conflicts around the world have placed the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in jeopardy, according to The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2022, released by the United Nations today.

The Report highlights the severity and magnitude of the challenges before us, with these cascading and intersecting crises creating spin-off impacts on food and nutrition, health, education, the environment, and peace and security, and affecting all the SDGs, the blueprint for more resilient, peaceful and equal societies.

Global 'excess deaths' directly and indirectly attributable to COVID-19 reached 15 million by the end of 2021. More than four years of progress in alleviating poverty have been wiped out, pushing 93 million more people worldwide into extreme poverty in 2020.

COVID-19 and its consequences

According to the latest data presented in the Report, the COVID-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc across the Goals and its effects are still far from over.

Global 'excess deaths' directly and indirectly attributable to COVID-19 reached 15 million by the end of 2021. More than four years of progress in alleviating poverty have been wiped out, pushing 93 million more people worldwide into extreme poverty in 2020.

An estimated 147 million children also missed more than half of their in-person instruction over the past two years. The pandemic also severely disrupted essential health services, derailing hard-won progress on SDG 3.

Climate emergency

Meanwhile, the world is on the verge of a climate catastrophe where billions of people are already feeling the consequences. Energy-related CO2 emissions for 2021 rose by 6 per cent, reaching their highest level ever and completely wiping out pandemic-related declines.

To avoid the worst effects of climate change, as set out in the Paris Agreement, global greenhouse gas emissions will need to peak before 2025 and then decline by 43 per cent by 2030, falling to net zero by 2050. Instead, under current voluntary national commitments to climate action, greenhouse gas emissions will rise by nearly 14 per cent over the next decade.

Projected global economic growth for 2022 was cut by 0.9 percentage point, due to the war in Ukraine and potential new waves of the pandemic.

War in Ukraine

The war in Ukraine is creating one of the largest refugee crises of modern time. As of May 2022, over 100 million people have been forcibly displaced from their homes.

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