Sustainable Development Goal 13

Sustainable Development Goal 13, also known as SDG 13 or Global Goal 13, is one of the 17 important goals set by the United Nations General Assembly in 2015. This goal focuses on taking urgent action to fight climate change and its effects. Climate change is when the world's weather patterns change in ways that can harm nature and people, and SDG 13 aims to help the world respond to these changes.

SDG 13 has five main targets to achieve by 2030. These include building stronger ways to handle climate-related disasters, adding climate plans to government policies, and improving knowledge about climate change. It also works with international agreements like the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change to guide global efforts.

In 2015, countries agreed in the Paris Agreement to try to keep global temperature rise "well under 2°C". Even with these efforts, the world was still expected to warm up to about 2.7 °C by the end of the century. Because of this, many countries are now creating plans to adapt to climate change and protect themselves, with the goal of finishing these plans by 2030.

Context

Main article: Climate change

SDG 13 aims to take urgent action to fight climate change and its effects. Climate change is already causing problems, like worse droughts and hotter wildfires, even at current temperature levels. If the world gets warmer, these problems will grow and could lead to big changes, such as ice sheets melting.

To reduce harmful emissions, we need to change how we make electricity. This means moving away from burning coal and natural gas to using more wind, solar, and other renewable energy sources, and using less energy overall.

Targets, indicators and progress

Further information: List of SDG targets and indicators

Goal 13 has five main targets to help protect the planet from climate change. These targets include making countries stronger against climate disasters, adding climate plans to government policies, improving learning about climate change, putting agreements into action, and helping countries plan for climate challenges.

Each target has special ways to check progress, called indicators. Some indicators count things like how many people are affected by disasters or how much harmful gas is put into the air each year.

Target 13.1: Strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-related disasters

This target aims to make all countries better prepared for climate dangers and natural disasters. It has three ways to check progress, such as counting how many people are affected by disasters and how many countries have plans to reduce disaster risks.

In April 2020, 118 countries had plans to reduce disaster risks, up from 48 when the plans first started.

Target 13.2: Integrate climate change measures into policy and planning

This target wants climate plans added to government policies. It checks how many countries have special climate plans and how much harmful gas they release each year. To keep the planet safe, harmful gases need to drop a lot by 2030 and reach zero by 2050.

Target 13.3: Build knowledge and capacity to meet climate change

This target focuses on teaching people about climate change and preparing countries to handle it. It looks at how well schools teach about taking care of the planet and how many countries have plans to improve skills for climate action.

Target 13.a: Implement the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change

This target is about keeping a promise to help developing countries with money for climate action. It checks how much money is provided each year to meet a goal of $100 billion by 2020.

Target 13.b: Promote mechanisms to raise capacity for planning and management

This target helps poorer countries and small islands plan for climate change. It checks how many of these countries have special climate plans.

Custodian agencies

Some groups are in charge of checking the progress for each target. For example, the UN helps with disaster reduction, while other groups help with climate change plans and teaching about sustainable development.

Monitoring

Further information: Nationally Determined Contribution, Greenhouse gas emissions, and Instrumental temperature record

The United Nations shares reports about how well we are doing with the goals to fight climate change. These reports help everyone see the progress being made. You can also find more updates on the special website for the goals kept by the United Nations, and at Our World in Data.

Challenges

Main article: Sustainable Development Goals § Challenges

Climate change can cause people to move from places that are no longer safe to live. This movement, called climate migration, is not directly talked about in Goal 13. Even though weather problems like storms and floods move many people, the goal mainly looks at rules inside countries and not how people move between them.

The COVID-19 pandemic changed things for a short time. With less work and travel, pollution went down by about 6% in 2020. But when rules were relaxed, pollution went back up again. Many countries now spend money on old energy sources like oil to help their economies grow, which makes it harder to fight climate change. The pandemic also made it harder to work on climate projects because people could not meet in person, especially in places with less strong internet and more work to do.

The conflict in Ukraine also made it harder to fight climate change. Some countries started making more of their own oil to deal with the problem, which is not good for the environment.

Links with other SDGs

Goal 13 works together with the other 16 SDGs. For example, making more sustainable energy (SDG 7) can help lower greenhouse gas emissions. Working on climate change can also help grow more food, which supports ending hunger (SDG 2).

Organizations

United Nations organizations

Many groups help work on protecting our planet from climate change. Some important ones include the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), UN-Habitat, the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), the Green Climate Fund (GCF), Climate target, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), and the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). These groups work together to study the environment, share knowledge, and support efforts to take care of our Earth.