ABSTRACT
The targets, more than the headline goals or indicators, contain the main substance of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The 17 SDGs have 169 targets, and each SDG has at least 3. All the targets are qualitative, not quantitative, except for Target 8.1 on economic growth. Many targets are broad, ambitious and wide ranging, although some are narrower and less ambitious. The SDGs’ integrated approach is incorporated in the targets, not the headline goals or indicators, since all SDGs have targets addressing two or three dimensions of sustainable development (economic, social, environmental), and some individual targets combine two or three dimensions. Thus, many studies of interlinkages between SDGs are based on the targets. The SDGs’ quantitative indicators are intended to reflect the targets, although they are generally much narrower and do not fully reflect the targets’ breadth, scope and integrated nature, and tend to omit the targets’ environmental dimensions.
