Introduction

This book is part of a trilogy of books on sustainable development at the global level. The sister books are Only One Earth: The Long Road via Rio to Sustainable Development written by Felix Dodds, Michael Strauss and Maurice Strong, which tells the story from the 1960s through to before Rio+20 (2012). The second book is From Rio+20 to a New Development Agenda: Building a Bridge to a Sustainable Future by Felix Dodds, Jorge Laguna-Celis and Liz Thompson and explains the Rio+20 process and its significance in re-establishing the sustainable development narrative at the global level. This third book, which you are now reading, picks up the themes of the previous two and takes the reader through the development, agreement and first steps to start implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Addis Ababa Action Agenda on Financing Development and the Paris Agreement. It concludes by looking at some of the emerging issues that could affect the delivery of these agendas.