Reinvigorating the sustainable development research agenda: the role of the sustainable development goals (SDG)

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) contain a set of 17 measures \nto foster sustainable development across many areas. It offers a good opportunity to \nreinvigorate sustainable development research for two main reasons. First, it comprises \nmany areas of SD research, which have become mainstream thanks to the UN SDGs. \nSecond, the fact that the UN and its member countries have committed to attaining SDGs \nby 2030 has added a sense of urgency to the need to perform quality research on SD on the \none hand, and reiterates the need to use the results of this research on the other. Even \nthough the basic concept of sustainability goes back many centuries, it has only recently \nappeared on the international political agenda. This is partly due to an awakening of the fact \nthat the human ecological pressure on the planet is still much larger than what nature can \nrenew or compensate for. Based on this state of affairs, this paper presents an outline of the \nprocess leading to the agreement on the UN SDGs, and looks at some of the ecological \naspects as a result of continued pressure of human activities on natural resources. \nFurthermore, a set of research needs is proposed – also based holistically on updated \nresearch trends – discussing the degree of urgency of some measures and explaining why \nthe UN SDGs need to be accorded greater priority in international sustainable development \nresearch efforts.