Are we doing enough to get the future we want?

New Delhi [India], Feb.7 (ANI): How equipped are we to reach the level of a sustainable earth that we wish? Norwegian company DNV GL, in cooperation with United Nations Global Compact, has made a report assessing the likelihood of reaching the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals. Norway's Prime Minister, Erna Solberg has written the foreword to the report. "The SDGs provide a holistic, universal, and ambitious roadmap for the future that we want. Achieving the goals will require action and partnership, involving stakeholders all over the world. The business sector has a crucial role to play," Solberg says in the foreword of the report. This report was formally launched in India by the CEO of Niti Aayog, Amitabh Kant in New Delhi on January 30. DNV GL presented the report in cooperation with the Tata Group, present were representatives from Innovation Norway and Luca Crisciotti, CEO of DNV GL Business Assurance. "In the report Future of Spaceship Earth - The Sustainable Development Goals - business frontiers, we present a forecast of what the world will look like from today until 2050. We then use the 17 SDGs to answer whether the future we get is the future we want, and assess the likelihood of reaching each of the 17 goals, taking a regional perspective. Finally, we let 17 global leading businesses, including the Tata group, answer how their company and their industry can work to reach the goals," explains Lars Almklov, Director of Group Government and Public Affairs, DNV GL. With the private sector representing 60 % of the world's GDP, the UN views private sector engagement necessary to achieve the long-term goals. Also for India, engaging the private sector to achieve the SDGs are of great importance. The report specifies how the private sector can contribute to each of the 17 goals. 17 companies were engaged in the making of this report. Tata is one of them. Two other companies, Siemens and Marks & Spencer, from the 17 also joined the India launch. In the deliberations it was mentioned that the world will deplete its carbon budget by 2037. Urban areas will occupy 3% of the global space and will house 70% of the population. T hese areas are also the main emitters of pollution. However these are also the growth engines. Amitabh Kant mentioned that Indian population will be 1,5 Billion by 2030 and 700 Million Indians will occupy the urban space by 2050. India has put forth a very ambitious target of generating 175 GW of power from the renewable sources. Gender parity was also discussed. In India women contribute 17% of the GDP while the global average is 40%. Therefore there is a huge potential for women entrepreneurship and jobs for them in India. India has been able to successfully penetrate in the remote areas in opening schools however the quality of education has fallen sharply. (ANI)