In 2015, the United Nations proposed the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development— an ambitious plan to address some of the world’s most pressing issues, including hunger, climate change, economic development, and social inequality. Framed around 17 Sustainable Development Goals, these targets were meant to outline a comprehensive path forward towards a more sustainable and equitable future. When they were proposed, the SDGs received unanimous support from all 193 member nations, signaling a strong desire for global cooperation and investment into the well-being of our planet and its inhabitants.
The world looks much different today. Since 2015, we have experienced a global pandemic, rising geopolitical conflicts, economic uncertainty, and accelerating climate impacts, all of which have fundamentally challenged progress across every corner of the globe. Despite the turbulence of the past decade, the Sustainable Development Goals still remain the global framework for achieving sustainable development and prosperity. So, what progress has been made, and are we on track to meet the ambitious yet essential targets that were first outlined over a decade ago?
Where Progress Stands Today
In the UN’s latest edition of its annual Sustainable Development Goals Report, the overall progress made towards the SDGs is bluntly characterized as “uneven and insufficient”. Only 36% of SDG targets are on track or making moderate progress, while the majority are either progressing too slowly or, in some cases, reversing below their 2015 baseline.
While this is certainly disappointing news, the report highlights some genuinely positive advancements made over the past decade.
- Access to electricity has increased to 92% of the world’s population, with a third of it generated by renewable sources.
- Access to internet services has nearly doubled over the past 10 years.
- Efforts to combat severe communicable diseases like AIDS and HIV have proven greatly effective, with infection rates falling by 33%.
- Maternal and child mortality rates continue to decline worldwide.
Despite meaningful progress in healthcare, climate action, and energy access, the report’s findings indicate that we are still far from addressing many of the world’s most pressing challenges.
- 10% of the world’s population still lives in extreme poverty.
- Roughly one in four people lack access to safely managed drinking water.
- Food insecurity has only risen since 2015, now affecting over 2.3 billion people worldwide.
- One in five young people remains unemployed or unenrolled in education.
- Annual consumer waste has continued to climb, recently surpassing one billion tonnes.
- Basic urban services like transportation, housing development, and garbage collection cannot keep pace with population growth in many of the world’s largest cities.
Climate Change and the Funding Gap
It’s hard not to partially attribute the lack of widespread progress to the compounding effects of climate change. In 2025, global temperatures were 1.4 °C above pre-industrial levels, and roughly 30% of Earth’s land surface experienced drought. While global climate finance has exceeded $2 trillion, experts repeatedly warn that it’s still not enough to prevent the most severe impacts of climate change. As the frequency and intensity of climate-related events continue to rise, the availability and security of our most fundamental needs—food, water, and shelter— are increasingly under threat.
Climate isn’t the only place where funding is falling short. Global investment into companies, nations, and institutions grappling with these development problems also plays a major role in achieving the SDGs, and on this front, the report highlights a $4 trillion funding gap between what is needed to meet the SDG targets and what is currently invested. Recent funding cuts to development assistance programs, which decreased by a staggering 23% in 2025 alone, have demonstrated how the consequences of scaling back funding in one area rarely stay contained; over the past 12 months, cuts in food distribution programs correlated with a sharp rise in hunger, armed conflict, and displacement. It’s a dynamic that cuts both ways: just as funding cuts can trigger setbacks across multiple development metrics, targeted investment can trigger gains across them too.
What This Means for Investors
So what does this mean for globally minded investors like ourselves? The same principle — that impact is never isolated — is one we can apply directly to our investment strategy. For example, assume an investment is made in a regional clean energy company to scale production. The resulting increase in clean energy will directly improve local access to electricity, of course, but it will also help reduce the region’s reliance on fossil fuels, thereby lowering global carbon dioxide emissions and the environmental degradation associated with fossil fuel extraction. This scenario demonstrates how an advancement in SDG 7: Affordable and Clean Energy can have a positive ripple effect on several other SDGs that aim to address climate action, life on land, and improved infrastructure. Therefore, as investors, it is important to recognize that the impact we can generate extends far beyond the sector to which our capital is allocated.
The UN’s latest report is a sobering reminder that significant progress is still needed to achieve the ambitious global development goals set out more than a decade ago. However, the path forward is not out of reach, and by putting the SDGs back at the centre of global decision-making, financial and political momentum can be built towards reaching these targets. Li Junhua, the Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, articulates in the report that sustainable development is a shared endeavour, not a zero-sum game. The same principle applies to investing. By directing capital towards businesses that generate both financial returns and measurable positive impact, investors can help drive change that extends far beyond any single investment. Collectively, those decisions have the potential to accelerate progress towards a more sustainable future.
All statistics used in this article were gathered from the UN’s 2026 edition of the Sustainable Development Goals Report.
