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Cyprus has shown progress on Sustainable Development Goals

24/05/2022 09:48

The European Union has made significant progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in certain areas, according to statistical analysis report released by Eurostat titled “Sustainable development in the European Union — 2022 monitoring report on progress towards the SDGs in a EU context”.

Cyprus has made progress and is at a better situation than the EU average when it comes to fighting poverty (SDG 1), the protection of life on land (SDG 15) and health and well-being (SDG 3).

The country was found to have made progress but be in a worse position than the EU average in most SDGs, with the exception of responsible consumption and production (SDG 12) and partnerships towards achieving these goals (SDG 17) where no progress was recorded and Cyprus remains in a worse situation than the EU average.

At the same time, Cyprus is moving away from the goal of reducing inequalities (SDG 10) but remains above the EU average.

As noted in a press release, the EU continued to make the most progress towards fostering peace and personal security within its territory and improving access to justice and trust in institutions (SDG 16).

Significant progress was also visible for the goals of reducing poverty and social exclusion (SDG 1), the economy and the labour market (SDG 8), clean and affordable energy (SDG 7) and innovation and infrastructure (SDG 9).

The EU also achieved good progress towards the goals of health and well-being (SDG 3), life below water (SDG 14) and gender equality (SDG 5).

In comparison, progress towards the remaining nine goals was markedly slower. Trends in the areas of sustainable cities and communities (SDG 11), reduced inequalities (SDG 10), responsible consumption and production (SDG 12), quality education (SDG 4), climate action (SDG 13) and zero hunger (SDG 2) painted a somewhat mixed but on average moderately favourable picture of EU progress.

The overall assessment of EU progress for partnerships for the goals (SDG 17) and clean water and sanitation (SDG 6) was more or less neutral, meaning they are characterised by an almost equal number of sustainable and unsustainable developments.

For life on land (SDG 15), the aggregation of the individual indicator trends showed a slight movement away from the respective Sustainable Development objectives over the past five years, indicating that ecosystems and biodiversity remained under pressure from human activities.

The impact of the Russian invasion of Ukraine is not yet reflected in the 2022 SDG report, given that 2022 data are not yet available.