This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Cal Poly chapter.
In 2000, a coalition of world leaders came together to declare the Millennium Development Goals, a series of eight ambitions they hoped to achieve by 2015. While there was vast progress, 2015 hit and the goals had not been completed. Enter: The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs).
From those original eight, the goals were broken down in to seventeen mission statements that better reflected the complexity of each of the initial issues. Millennium goal seven, “ensure environmental sustainability”, evolved into five separate SDGs, each addressing a sub-topic of environmental sustainability. The five goals are: climate action, life below water, life on land, responsible consumption/production and affordable and clean energy. They show a more specialized approach to environmental protection than was initially presented.
The SDGs represent a seasoned understanding of the interconnected issues facing our world today, and show an emphasis on those disparities that our generation finds most prevalent. They are bold yet tangible, personal yet universal. In their 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the UN said this of their latest ambitions: “we are determined to take the bold and transformative steps which are urgently needed to shift the world onto a sustainable and resilient path. As we embark on this collective journey, we pledge that no one will be left behind.”
They show more of a desire for relevance to all countries than the Millennium Development Goals, highlighting platforms we can all stand behind. So where do millennials come in? Let me introduce goal seventeen: partnerships for the goals.
Each of the SDGs represents a change that, if achieved, would lead to an inarguably more peaceful world. But without a collaborative commitment to achieving them, they stand little hope of fruition. Too often we hear of students who have so much passion and drive, but feel they have no tangible way of channeling that into action. For Cal Poly junior, Maddie Sachtler, that is where the SDGs come in. “They allow us to focus our efforts into things that we are passionate about” Sachtler said.
The development from the Millennium Development Goals into the SDGs shows where our priorities as a generation have evolved, and now it’s time for us to claim ownership over them. “Millennials are often looked down upon as aloof and disconnected,” explains Cal Poly Senior, Stacey Olson, “but we have the opportunity here to change that.”
We have been dubbed by multiple publications as the “Me Me Me Generation”, accused of being uninformed. People say that millennials are selfish wanderers, unable to unite for a cause the way past generations have done. Let’s prove them wrong.
* For more information on the SDGs visit sustainabledevelopment.un.org.