ABSTRACT
In 2014, after more than a year of intergovernmental work, UN Member States proposed a set of Sustainable Development Goals or SDGs (United Nations, 2014a). The SDGs will succeed the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as reference goals for the international community for the period 2015-2030. The development of the new set of goals is widely seen as an ambitious agenda, as these goals cover a much broader range of issues than their predecessors, they aim to be universal – that is, applicable to all countries and not only developing countries – and they have to serve as guideposts for a diffi cult transition to sustainable development, which has eluded the international community since the Earth Summit in 1992.
