Malta’s progress in reaching its United Nations Sustainable Development Goal targets deteriorated with its ranking plummeting eight places, according to a global report.
The data, produced in this year’s SDG Index and Dashboard report, published by Bertelmann Stiftung and economist Jeffrey Sachs’s Sustainable Development Solutions Network, puts Malta in the 30th place, down from 22nd last year.
There were 156 countries studied, with public consultations held earlier in 2018, between April 30 and May 11.
Each country was awarded a score out of 100, with Malta managing 74.2, down from 77 in 2017, sitting behind Italy, Spain, Germany, France, Hungary and other member states.
Malta ranked just ahead of Slovakia and Croatia last year. This time, the performance of both eastern European countries improved, getting a higher score and a better rank than Malta’s.
With a score of 85, Sweden secured the top spot while the Central African Republic, which only obtained a mere 37.7, was bottom of the list.
The SDGs are a set of targets UN countries agreed to reach by 2030. They follow the Millennium Development Goals, a set of eight targets for improving the lives of the world’s poorest people by 2015.
SDGs range from ending poverty and hunger to achieving full gender equality, reducing income inequality, conserve oceans, combat climate change and ensure access to affordable and reliable sustainable energy. Many of the 17 goals include measurable targets to be achieved by 2030.
Malta obtained the lowest score for the industry, innovation and infrastructure goal. It received a near-perfect score for eliminating poverty.
While for most of the targets the trend seemed to suggest there was little change when compared to previous years, there were a few areas that registered a decline in the year under review – the prevalence of obesity among adults, the quality of overall infrastructure, sea cleanliness and government efficiency.
Another indicator where improvements lacked was in the SDG2, which evaluates the situation with regard to hunger.
According to the data, the prevalence of undernourishment in 2017 stood at 1.2% of the population but, this time round, it has increased to 2.5%.
University rector Alfred Vella referred to sustainable development at the start of the scholastic year last week, pointing out that the country was still far off from getting a perfect score.
After commenting on Malta’s “general credentials” in terms of water, renewable energy, water and physical space, Prof. Vella said: “I am unsure which of these grave environmental challenges is the most serious for us today; or if these are each less serious than the general apathy that seems to grip our collective mind to prevent us from taking seriously our commitment towards environmental sustainability.”
claire.caruana@timesofmalta.com