Chemical Sector SDG Roadmap
I have referred to the UN framework and the SDGs in a previous blog, The Roadmap. In order to articulate a joint vision, SDGs sectoral roadmaps are a proper tool to highlight contribution opportunities towards the framework agenda. Nevertheless, as critics indicate, as long as the roadmap is not binding, it will only serve to the purpose of developing a common understanding for the private sector. In a way, they fall short given the unprecedented challenge ahead and the necessary joint approach, which must go beyond the private sector itself.
The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) has worked together with companies across the sector to create the Chemical Sector SDG Roadmap, which is pioneering work and should be use as baseline and reference for other collaborative initiatives. For example, the roadmap could be somehow integrated in the recently announced Low-Carbon Emitting Technologies Initiative (LCET), which is a project part of the World Economic Forum’s Climate Action Platform, where partners are collaborating to deploy the selected technologies sharing risks and lowering uncertainties. There could and should be a link between the consolidation of alliances and the potential these activities contribute to all Goals.
The roadmap focuses on a reduced set of priorities as approach for implementation. Therefore, when prioritizing, the roadmap identifies 10 out of the 17 Goals. The key SDGs for the sector are:
2 - Zero hunger
3 - Good health and well-being
6 - Clean water and sanitation
7 - Affordable and clean energy
8 - Decent work and economic growth
9 - Industry, innovation and infrastructure
11 - Sustainable cities and communities
12 - Responsible consumption and production
13 - Climate action
14 - Life below water
A study from Louvain School of Management points out that regardless the existence of 169 concrete targets, there are challenges for businesses to integrate the SDGs into strategic functions, which leads to weak implementations. These challenges are for example the qualitative and vague nature of the targets and the lack of a single, uniform methodology for measuring and reporting business progress and impact on the SDGs.
Moreover, the intra-sector collaboration, although sought, still requires an enabler and unifying body that sets the baseline for the cooperative approach. We recognize these bodies in de WBCSD in the case of the SDGs roadmaps and the WEF for the LCET initiative.
