1 Introduction: Global Governance through Goal Setting

1 Introduction: Global Governance through Goal Setting

Norichika Kanie, Steven Bernstein, Frank Biermann, and Peter M. Haas

In September 2015, the UN General Assembly adopted the Sustainable Development Goals as an integral part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (UNGA 2015). The Sustainable Development Goals were to build upon and broaden the scope of the earlier Millennium Development Goals, which had expired in the same year. The Sustainable Development Goals mark a historic shift for the United Nations toward one “sustainable” development agenda after a long history of trying to integrate economic and social development with environmental sustainability. They also mark the most ambitious effort yet to place goal setting at the center of global governance and policy. Governments’ enthusiasm for goal setting, however, is not yet matched by knowledge about its prospects or limits as a governance strategy. This book aims to address this knowledge gap through a detailed examination of the Sustainable Development Goals and the governance challenges they face.

Neither goal setting nor sustainability are new approaches to world politics, development, or earth system governance. The United Nations, among other grand historical projects, is firmly rooted in broader goals such as justice, equality, and peace (or the elimination of war). Goal-setting has also been a feature of many multilateral agreements and programs of international institutions (Ruggie 1996; Williams 1998). Meanwhile, “sustainable development” and “sustainability” served as the conceptual cornerstones for the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development (“Rio Earth Summit”), the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development, and the 2012 UN Conference on Sustainable Development (“Rio plus 20”). But the Sustainable Development Goals go a step further than these earlier efforts. They add detailed content to the concept of sustainable development, identify specific targets for each goal, and use the concept to help frame a broader, more coherent, and transformative 2030 agenda.