UN Sustainable Development Goals work

Introduction and goals

The LSDC has reported on sustainability performance since 2004, initially through its Quality of Life Reports.

Building on this work, in 2021 the LSDC published the first comprehensive assessment of London’s local contribution to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The objective of this work was to inform more integrated city decision-making for sustainability. It also aimed to explore the role the SDGs could play in forming the guiderails for the London’s green and fair recovery from the pandemic, achieving a better, fairer and more prosperous city whilst living within planetary boundaries.

What the LSDC delivered

• An SDG indicator set was developed tailored to London – believed to be among the most comprehensive of any world city.
  • Indicators were selected using the SDGs clarion call to ‘Leave no one behind’ – i.e. prioritising the most marginalised – so were chosen for their ability to be disaggregated by demographic and area.
  • The LSDC partnered with academics from Newcastle University and UKSSD, the authors of the ‘Levelling Up’ report on the UK’s SDG performance.
• An interim ‘insights paper’ was published in July 2020 showing how the SDGs could help London’s green and fair recovery.
• A report was published in March 2021, providing deep and analysis of our cross-cutting indicator set. Rather than assessing each SDG individually, we used the holistic lens of ‘People, Planet, Place, Partnerships, Peace’.
  • This gave insights into a range of themes including poverty, housing, the environment, jobs and the economy, education and health, and social cohesion and democratic participation.

Outcomes

• The report’s key recommendations were to establish a partnership network to deliver the SDGs in London, and to adopt of the SDGs’ principles in London’s recovery governance:  specifically, an integrated approach to sustainability issues; centring democratic input from community voices; a partnership approach; and leaving no one behind.
• These recommendations have been successfully adopted by the GLA and London Recovery Board - although not necessarily ‘badged’ with the SDGs, the SDGs priority themes and principles underpin the new approach taken to London-wide policy and programme development. 
• Partnerships:  The London Recovery Board was established to take a partnership approach to implementing the recovery among a range of stakeholders. The LRB comprises leaders from local and national government, the public sector, business, academia and the third sector.
  • Flowing from this, new work was launched to engage more deeply with communities in policy development, and to establish community hubs, both acting as peer networks for London’s communities and to interface with policy makers.
  • The London Anchor Institution Network was also established to drive institutional progress on environmental and socio-economic goals.
  • In combination, these networks effectively addressed the gaps identified in the SDGs report, and while there was a recommendation in the report that the LSDC establish an ‘SDGs Hub’, these new networks negated the need for a standalone SDGs-focused network.
• Governance:  The LRB’s London’s Recovery Programme comprises nine work programmes – ‘missions’ – and six ‘cross-cutting principles’ which are embedded into each work programme and which map against the SDGs. The LSDC secretariat is responsible for coordinating the ‘green new deal’ mission, and co-designed the Cross-Cutting Principles architecture to ensure it delivers on the SDGs.  
• Reporting: The LSDC has always reported on Quality of Life with the intention that this should ultimately be integrated into  GLA reporting mechanisms, so the Mayor can resource and take ownership of the reporting, and act on its findings. 
• The Mayor made a manifesto commitment to do just this in 2021, and the GLA is now delivering this by developing a regular ‘Wellbeing and Sustainability Index’ report. The LSDC has input to ensure alignment with the SDGs. The GLA has also taken significant input from Londoners in developing the metrics, which the LSDC endorses. 
• The LSDC will continue to review how the SDGs are embedded in this reporting, exploring any future contribution the Commission may make to this work. 

The SDGs, which were agreed by world leaders in 2015, are a collection of 17 global goals designed to be a ‘blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all’ by 2030. Initially designed for national governments, an increasing number of cities, businesses and others are adapting them for their own purposes too.

The Goals aim to improve all aspects of people’s quality of life. They include targets to boost decent jobs and housing, eliminate poverty, hunger and inequality, combat climate change and environmental degradation, and more.

This echoes the Mayor of London’s commitment, and that of many London boroughs, to tackle the climate and ecological emergency, whilst creating a fairer city that empowers all Londoners to prosper.

Project goals

• Publish a report in later 2020, assessing London’s progress on the SDGs.
• Start a conversation on the SDGs with key London stakeholders.

We hope this project can in future help London’s decision-makers to take a more joined-up approach to addressing the city’s complex, interconnected challenges. We also hope it will help a wide range of stakeholders to work together on these shared issues, in the spirit of the SDGs’ strong emphasis on partnership.

The work to apply the SDGs to London is being developed in partnership between The London Sustainable Development Commission (LSDC), the Greater London Authority (GLA), Newcastle University and UK Stakeholders for Sustainable Development (UKSSD).

Building on the Quality of Life Reports

The LSDC’s Quality of Life (QoL) reports have measured London’s sustainability since 2004, using a range of indicators to assess Londoners’ standard of living. There have been five reports in total, and the last in 2017 revealed that while progress was being made in making London a more environmentally, socially and economically sustainable city, there was still major challenges to be tackled.

The SDGs project builds on that foundation of knowledge and data, whilst expanding the QoL indicators’ breadth and depth and aligning them with the SDG targets.

The SDGs beyond London

UKSSD and the UK Government have both also conducted similar exercises to report on national performance against the SDGs - as have a number of other cities, including Bristol, New York and Los Angeles. Now London will build on this good practice.