Is goal-setting an effective strategy for global sustainability governance? Insights from the Sustainable Development Goals

In 2015, the United Nations General Assembly unanimously adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development with 17 Sustainable Development Goals and 169 targets. This agreement sets a 15-year plan to steer the world towards a more sustainable and equitable trajectory. However, as we have passed halfway through this agenda, the world is far from achieving most goals within this timeframe. Such lack of progress has even prompted the UN Secretary General to call for a “Rescue Plan for People and Planet”. Yet there is also wide variation in the relative success and impact of the global goals. The proposed special issue brings a group of cutting-edge articles that, together, offer new important insights to explain this variation in progress, or lack thereof, in the implementation of the SDGs since 2015. The Special Issue also identifies the conditions under which the approach of governance by goals can be effective in promoting sustainability transitions across the globe.