Japan will announce the third winner of its annual Sustainable Development prize this month. For the third time the Abe Shinzo’s Jiminto party will recognise the on going efforts of local councils, NGOs, NPOs and private companies towards 17 milestones that will come to define the early 21st century – a yearly reminder of the gravitas with which Japan is tackling this global task.
In 2015, 193 nations unanimously entwined the futures of their economies, environment and people with 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs). They envelop the societal and the environmental, the ecological and the economic. Each is broken down into numerous targets and each has robust, but achievable, endpoint. These were never meant to be easy.
The 17 Sustainable Development Goals, as outlined in the 2015 New York UN convention.
Both Britain and Japan share similar populations, economic prospects, landmasses and access to sustainable resources. They are both battling to justify extended trade relationships with larger, more polluting economies. Both are pressured by an ever noisy electorate on issues of climate change. And both are facing a looming deadline.
The menacingly vague 2030 Agenda fleshes out promises that will fulfil the 17 goals and 169 targets of the SDGs, "protect the planet from degradation. Foster peaceful, just and inclusive societies [...] free from fear and violence. We will eradicate poverty and hunger everywhere.”
Meaty promises that Japan has aligned itself too, along with empowering women and establishing themselves as the spiritual home of the SDGs
The UK’s green policies have stagnated under the Conservatives. Embroiled in lumbering leadership debates and the glacial meandering of Brexit, 2008 promises to “reduce UK emissions 80% by 2050” have stalled after significant progress. Chancellor Philip Hammond, siphoning budget to cushion the calamity of a no-deal, has stated targets are “far from on track”.
It's clear that negotiating the political climate is currently more important to this leadership than the one we breathe.
"It won’t be possible to hit the UN SDGs without using private funding.”
Meanwhile Japan have moved quickly, recognising it's position as an underachiever with a far greater potential than was being realised. And, as any post-war historian will attest, few are better at moving with incision and purpose than the Japanese.
Japan believes its citizens to be stakeholders in working toward the 2030 agenda. Not content with leaving this to the private sector (little shows that this is ever enough) Japan sent the revolving doors of an SDGs Promotion Headquarters spinning.
Focusing on both communications with companies and investors, the headquarters sits at the forefront of any public facing initiative. According to the organisation, “the SDGs Promotion Headquarters gives a public face to the intangible. These goals can not simply be wafted at by any governmental initiative, but must have a noisy seat at any influential table.”
Furthermore, in typical fashion, the education system is baking the SDGs into it’s teaching, “encouraging learning about the SDGs in all settings, including schools, households, workplaces and local communities.” By making a global initiative communal, the government is taking a traditionally Japanese approach to these contemporary, intrinsically global issues.
12 months ago this culminated in the Expanded SDGs Action Plan, focusing on the “future, women and the next generation.” The country sitting in 15 is clearly not content with its position.
This dynamic approach is simply not being mirrored in the UK. The UK Stakeholders for Sustainable Development (UKSSD) found that Britain was underperforming on 57% of the necessary targets to meet the 2030 Agenda. And that in 15% of the metrics we were performing so poorly that even if there was a policy in place, it was as good as redundant.
The disparity comes down to accountability. By almost immediately showing his hand Abe Shinzo evoked the approach that has served so well – making the problem collective. Isn’t this the necessary approach to any global attempt at the longevity of equality?
The UK has shirked responsibility by unconsciously muffling the SDGs. Only 40% of the UK has heard of the SDGs, whilst 90% of Japanese citizen have. The Japanese also search SDG related terms 16 times more often than in the UK and they now are referenced on school syllabuses of all levels.
Perhaps more crucially, the Japanese government contributes three times as much of its GDP to research and development. And calls for the private sector to follow suit have been rambunctious. By creating a network of information and heroing success in its push for the 2030 agenda, Japan has instilled a fully functioning mindset of measurable sustainability in its population and – just as crucially – in its private sector.
In 2018, in the annual meeting of SDG supporting nations, governments put forward their blueprints. Some were hugely impressive, detailed and persuasive, but none could conceivably exist with current levels of funding.
There is a void that Mahmoud Mohieldin, Corporate Secreatary of the World Bank, has said can only be filled by, “impelling companies to account in their decision-making for environmental, social, and governance issues.”
“It won’t be possible to hit the UN SDGs without using private funding,” says Axel Weber, UBS chairman. And World Bank estimates suggest that gap hums to the tune of $3.96 trillion from what governments are providing – each year.
So, when the SDGs Promotion Headquarters announces their third annual winner, they will not be doing so lightly. This is the tip of an iceberg of Japanese SDG initiatives and investment. An iceberg that, in the UK, has yet to crystalise amid the swamp of Brexit, populism and ignorant apathy.
