Beyound 2030 - The future of global Sustainability

With the 2030 deadline for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) approaching and progress significantly off track in most goal areas, discussions about a possible follow-up framework beyond 2030 are gaining momentum. These discussions are expected to intensify in the lead-up to the SDG Summit in 2027 and related UN processes. While there is it is clear that global, interconnected challenges such as climate change, biodiversity loss, inequality, conflict, and systemic risks require collective responses, there is less clarity on whether, how, and under what conditions governments and international organizations would support a continued, new or revised global sustainability agenda.

The negotiations leading to the adoption of the SDGs in 2015 were characterized by a uniquely inclusive and participatory process, strong Global South engagement, and various crises. Today’s context is marked by geopolitical fragmentation, increasing authoritarianism, declining trust in multilateral institutions, competing development narratives, and emerging contested issues—such as artificial intelligence, international spillovers, or space pollution—are reshaping states’ preferences and negotiating positions, and openness to participative negotiation formats. At the same time, there is growing debate over which approach to the beyond-2030 framework can maintain both ambition and broad ownership: simply extending the SDGs, or revising their content or implementation mechanisms.

Against this backdrop, there is a clear need for a structured exchange to map current positions, identify areas of convergence and divergence, and clarify the political feasibility of different beyond-2030 pathways.