PUB332: Sustainable Development Goals and Environmental Sustainability

This report provides an in-depth analysis of Sustainable Development Goal 12 (SDG 12), which focuses on ensuring sustainable consumption and production patterns. Adopted in 2015 by 193 member states, SDG 12 aims to address poverty, hunger, and climate change while promoting peace and prosperity. The report highlights the importance of responsible consumption to protect resources for future generations, emphasizing measures like waste reduction and recycling. It discusses challenges such as the overexploitation of resources, lack of policy adoption, and political will. The report also addresses the impact of waste on environmental health and climate change, highlighting the need for cooperation and collective action. The report includes references to relevant literature and provides insights into the complexities of achieving SDG 12's goals in practice.

Sustainable Development Goals 1
Sustainable development goals.
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Sustainable Development Goals 2
Sustainable Development Goals
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were adopted in 2015 following a meeting by
193 member states leaders. They agreed on 17 goals that if achieved would ensure sustainable
development, that is, get rid of poverty and hunger, protecting the planet from adverse climate
change and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity (Nam, 2015). The United Nation
Development Program was mandated to spear head the activities that would lead to sustainable
development by year 2030. The goals are aimed at transforming the current situation to a more
sustainable one as they all embark on a collective journey to make life more comfortable.
The twelfth goal was to ensure sustainable consumption and production. In coming up
with this goal, it was considered that some were consuming too little to meet their basic need.
Poverty and depletion of natural resources are some of the cause of such a case scenario. To
ensure sustainability, responsible consumption had to be ensured to safeguard the future
generations interest (Tangcharoensathien, Mills & Palu, 2015). The achievement of this goal
relies on the commitment to protect the available resources from overexploitation or depletion.
Taking measures that that limit wastage and promote conservation. One measure to be
implemented is reducing waste material and recycling where applicable. Use of plastic waste is
harmful do the environment as it is non-biodegradable. Recycling such material will help avoid
the harmful effects in the long term.
Increasing development poses a challenge on waste treatment and disposal of waste
materials. According to the world bank, high income countries produce about 34% of the world
waste. However, they can only account for 16% of it (Thi, Kumar & Lin, 2015). The waste that
is unaccounted for was most probably released into the environment without proper waste
management procedure. These wastes represent a large percentage of the environmental

Sustainable Development Goals 3
pollutants. The health of individuals is at risk when they breathe contaminated air and consume
water and food from contaminated sources. The climate changes resulting from uncontrolled
human activities pose a danger to these plants and animals. This calls for responsible production
to ensure sustainability.
Achieving this goal is hindered by failure of countries to fully adopt policies that would
steer progress towards this direction. The high demand of some natural resources has made it
inevitable to avoid over exploiting them. People solely depending on one resource will always be
driven by the urge to consume more disregarding the need to preserve them. Countries have not
made policies to control the consumption and production. The political will by member countries
is lacking. Some countries do not even subscribe to some of the ideas; they feel that such issues
lack universal relevance (Gasper, Shah & Tankha, 2019. Some member countries cannot push
the agenda because their companies will be forced to close because they cannot cater for the
expenses. This might kill their economies.
Sustainable consumption and production can only be attained through cooperation and
collective action by every state. Many resources are shared thus the need to work together.

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References.
Gasper, D., Shah, A., & Tankha, S. (2019). The Framing of Sustainable Consumption and
Production in SDG 12. Global Policy, 10, 83-95.
Nam, U. V. (2015). Transforming our world: The 2030 agenda for sustainable
development. Division for Sustainable Development Goals: New York, NY, USA.
Tangcharoensathien, V., Mills, A., & Palu, T. (2015). Accelerating health equity: the key role of
universal health coverage in the Sustainable Development Goals. BMC medicine, 13(1),
101.
Thi, N. B. D., Kumar, G., & Lin, C. Y. (2015). An overview of food waste management in
developing countries: current status and future perspective. Journal of environmental
management, 157, 220-229.