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Accelerating efforts for the Sustainable Development Goals requires understanding their synergies and trade-offs at the national and sub-national levels, which will help identify the key hurdles and opportunities to prioritize them in an indivisible manner for a country. Here, we present the importance of the 17 goals through synergy and trade-off networks. Our results reveal that 19 provinces show the highest trade-offs in SDG13 (Combating Climate Change) or SDG5 (Gender Equality) consistent with the national level, with other 12 provinces varying. 24 provinces show the highest synergies in SDG1 (No Poverty) or SDG6 (Clean Water and Sanitation) consistent with the national level, with the remaining 7 provinces varying. These common but differentiated SDG priorities reflect that to ensure a coordinated national response, China should pay more attention to the provincial situation, so that provincial governments can formulate more targeted policies in line with their own priorities towards accelerating sustainable development., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Understanding the interactions (synergies and trade-offs) among the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is crucial for enhancing policy coherence between different sectors. However, spatial differences in the SDG interactions and their temporal variations at the sub-national scale are still critical gaps that need to be urgently filled. Here, we assess the spatial and temporal variation of the SDG interactions in China based on the systematic classification framework of SDGs. The framework groups the seventeen SDGs into three categories, namely "Essential Needs", "Objectives", and "Governance". Spatially, we found that the SDGs in "Essential Needs" & "Objectives" and "Essential Needs" & "Governance" generally show trade-offs in the eastern provinces of China. Synergies among all three SDG categories are observed in some central and western China provinces, which implies that these regions conform to sustainable development patterns. In addition, temporally, the synergies of the three SDG categories have shown a weakening trend in the last decade, mainly due to the regional differences in the progress of SDG7 (Affordable and Clean Energy). Overall, our results identify the necessity for provinces to enhance the synergies between SDG12 (Responsible Production and Consumption) and other SDGs to tackle the trade-offs between the "Essential Needs" and "Objectives". Meanwhile, promoting the progress of SDG7 will also contribute to balanced development across provinces., Competing Interests: Conflict of interest The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Science China Press. All rights reserved.)

Food system innovations will be instrumental to achieving multiple Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, major innovation breakthroughs can trigger profound and disruptive changes, leading to simultaneous and interlinked reconfigurations of multiple parts of the global food system. The emergence of new technologies or social solutions, therefore, have very different impact profiles, with favourable consequences for some SDGs and unintended adverse side-effects for others. Stand-alone innovations seldom achieve positive outcomes over multiple sustainability dimensions. Instead, they should be embedded as part of systemic changes that facilitate the implementation of the SDGs. Emerging trade-offs need to be intentionally addressed to achieve true sustainability, particularly those involving social aspects like inequality in its many forms, social justice, and strong institutions, which remain challenging. Trade-offs with undesirable consequences are manageable through the development of well planned transition pathways, careful monitoring of key indicators, and through the implementation of transparent science targets at the local level., (Copyright © 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an Open Access article under the CC BY 4.0 license. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Nepal is one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change, which is negatively affecting agricultural production and food security. However, the role of agro‐ecological zones and social groups in climate change adaptation (CCA) and its impact on smallholder farmers in Nepal remains unexplored. To fill this gap, this study aimed to identify the effect of agro‐ecological zones and social groups on smallholder farmers' adaptation to climate change using the multivariate probit model. Multistage sampling was used to collect data from 400 households in three agro‐ecological zones of Nepal. These zones were highland (mountainous region), midland (hilly region) and lowland (terai/plain region). The results of our study showed that farmers in the Mountain region are more likely to adopt off‐farm activities and temporary migration as a CCA strategy than those in the Terai/plain agro‐ecological zone. In the Terai/Plain, farmers mainly adopt small‐scale irrigation and agroforestry. In terms of social groups, the Brahmin group was more likely to adopt new crop varieties and small‐scale irrigation than the Sudra group. The Sudra farmers preferred temporary migration and off‐farm activities more than the Brahmins. Our study shows that policies to promote the adoption of CCA strategies need to take into account location and social group differences in order to improve the adaptive capacity of the most vulnerable farmers. Mountain and Sudra farmers need support to adapt to climate change and sustain agriculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extensive efforts have been dedicated to deciphering the interactions associated with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, these developments are hampered by a lack of efficient strategies to avoid beneficial synergies being offset by harmful trade-offs. To fill these gaps, we used causal diagnosis and network analysis methods to construct 1302 directed networks of SDGs for 31 provinces in China from 2000 to 2020. We observed a dramatic offsetting effect of SDG synergies and trade-offs in China from 2000 to 2020, with approximately 27% of trade-off indicator pairs turning into synergies and about 25% of the synergy indicator pairs turning into trade-offs. However, our findings suggested that prioritising the progress of high-frequency indicators in virtuous cycles could multiply the positive systemic effects of the SDGs. Moreover, controlling the transition from passive to active in the trade-off network of SDGs remains a challenge in advancing the SDGs holistically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2020s are an essential decade for achieving the 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). For this, SDG research needs to provide evidence that can be translated into concrete actions. However, studies use different SDG data, resulting in incomparable findings. Researchers primarily use SDG databases provided by the United Nations (UN), the World Bank Group (WBG), and the Bertelsmann Stiftung & Sustainable Development Solutions Network (BE-SDSN). We compile these databases into one unified SDG database and examine the effects of the data selection on our understanding of SDG interactions. Among the databases, we observed more different than similar SDG interactions. Differences in synergies and trade-offs mainly occur for SDGs that are environmentally oriented. Due to the increased data availability, the unified SDG database offers a more nuanced and reliable view of SDG interactions. Thus, the SDG data selection may lead to diverse findings, fostering actions that might neglect or exacerbate trade-offs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID‐19 pandemic has impacted social, economic, and environmental systems worldwide, slowing down and reversing the progress made in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). SDGs belong to the 2030 Agenda to transform our world by tackling humankind's challenges to ensure well‐being, economic prosperity, and environmental protection. We explore the potential impacts of the pandemic on SDGs for Nepal. We followed a knowledge co‐creation process with experts from various professional backgrounds, involving five steps: online survey, online workshop, assessment of expert's opinions, review and validation, and revision and synthesis. The pandemic has negatively impacted most SDGs in the short term. Particularly, the targets of SDG 1, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 13 have and will continue to have weakly to moderately restricting impacts. However, a few targets of SDG 2, 3, 6, and 11 could also have weakly promoting impacts. The negative impacts have resulted from impeding factors linked to the pandemic. Many of the negative impacts may subside in the medium and long terms. The key five impeding factors are lockdowns, underemployment and unemployment, closure of institutions and facilities, diluted focus and funds for non‐COVID‐19‐related issues, and anticipated reduction in support from development partners. The pandemic has also opened a window of opportunity for sustainable transformation, which is short‐lived and narrow. These opportunities are lessons learned for planning and action, socio‐economic recovery plan, use of information and communication technologies and the digital economy, reverse migration and "brain gain," and local governments' exercising authorities. Plain Language Summary: The current pandemic has impacts on social, economic, and environmental systems, including Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). SDGs consist of 17 interlinked goals that aim to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all. We studied the pandemic's impacts on SDGs for Nepal by following a knowledge co‐creation process. For this, we conducted online surveys and workshops with experts from various professional backgrounds and assessed expert's opinions articulated in the surveys and workshops. The experts reviewed and validated our assessment. Then, we revised and synthesized the assessment. Our study highlights that the pandemic has negatively impacted most SDGs, particularly the targets of SDG 1, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 13. These negative impacts may subside in the medium and long terms. The key factors behind the negative impacts are: lockdowns, underemployment and unemployment, closure of facilities, diluted focus and funds for non‐pandemic issues, and anticipated reduction in development support. The pandemic has also opened a short‐lived and narrow window of opportunity for sustainable transformation. The transformative opportunities consist of lessons learned for planning and actions, socio‐economic recovery plan, use of information and communication technologies and the digital economy, reverse migration and "brain gain," and local governments' exercising authorities. Key Points: The COVID‐19 pandemic has negative impacts on most Sustainable Development Goals, which may subside in the medium and long termsKey impeding factors causing the negative impacts include lockdowns, unemployment, and diluted focus on non‐COVID‐19‐related issuesThe COVID‐19 pandemic has also opened a short‐lived and narrow window of opportunity for sustainable transformation [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To fulfill the 2030 Agenda, the complexity of sustainable development goal (SDG) interactions needs to be disentangled. However, this understanding is currently limited. We conduct a cross‐sectional correlational analysis for 2016 to understand SDG interactions under the entire development spectrum. We apply several correlation methods to classify the interaction as synergy or trade‐off and characterize them according to their monotony and linearity. Simultaneously, we analyze SDG interactions considering population, location, income, and regional groups. Our findings highlight that synergies always outweigh trade‐offs and linear outweigh non‐linear interactions. SDG 1, 5, and 6 are associated with linear synergies, SDG 3, and 7 with non‐linear synergies. SDG interactions vary according to a country's income and region along with the gender, age, and location of its population. In summary, to achieve the 2030 Agenda the detected interactions and inequalities across countries need be tracked and leveraged to "leave no one behind." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change adaptation strategies play a crucial role in smallholder farm households' food security and sustainability, particularly under climate change extremes. This study, therefore, examines the role of climate change extremes and smallholder farmers' adaptation strategies in preventing food insecurity in Nepal. Data was collected in 2021 from 400 smallholder households in three agro-ecological zones, namely Mountains, Hill, and Terai. Around 12 % of households were found to be food insecure based on food consumption scores. However, another food security indicator reduced coping strategy index, showing that about 22 % of the households used different short-term strategies to cope with food insecurity. Results from the ordered logit models show that exposure to drought (climate change extremes) adversely impacts the food security status of the households in each study area. Conversely, adopting various adaptation strategies, such as irrigation, agroforestry, and temporary migration, positively impact household food security. In addition, the findings highlight the importance of household head education, market, credit, and information access in enhancing the adaptive capacity of smallholder farmers to cope with food insecurity. As a recommendation, adaptation strategies to food insecurity should be carefully tailored to each agro-ecological zone's specific socio-economic and institutional characteristics. [Display omitted] • Adaptation to climate change makes a positive contribution to food security. • Exposure to drought negatively impacts food security. • Adaptation strategies to address food insecurity need to be agroecological based. • Credit enables farmers to invest in agriculture to improve food security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• An expanded food-energy-water (FEW) nexus in China is built from the lens of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). • China has more trade-offs than synergies in the framework of expanded FEW nexus. • Economic growth has a stronger impact on the FEW nexus than consumption and production patterns. • Changing the priorities of actions could contribute to transforming trade-offs into synergies. • Addressing the mutual inhibiting between different sectors is crucial for applying the nexus approach The nexus approach offers an important heuristic tool for the sustainable management of resources by considering the links among different sectors. The food-energy-water (FEW) nexus corresponds to links among the three of seventeen United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), namely SDG2 (No Hungry), SDG6 (Clean Water and Sanitation), and SDG7 (Affordable and Clean Energy), and their interlinkages have a direct or indirect impact on other SDGs. However, there is still a lack of a systematic and quantitative analysis of how the nexus approach could promote achieving SDGs. Here, taking China as a case, we built an expanded FEW nexus framework from the lens of SDGs, which consists of six sectors, including food (SDG2), water (SDG6), energy (SDG7), economic (SDG8), consumption and production (SDG12), and forest (SDG15). We quantified the two-way interactions between the six sectors by the panel vector autoregressive (PVAR) model. Results indicate that sectors exhibit different response characteristics (positive or negative) in their interactions, and these responses could change over time. These results imply that changing the priorities of actions may be an effective measure to transform trade-offs into synergies. Moreover, the contribution of different sectors to each other varies considerably, with economic growth (SDG8) generally having a higher impact on changes in the FEW nexus than consumption and production patterns (SDG12). Our research suggests that strengthening the quantitative assessment of two-way interactions among the FEW nexus has crucial implications for leveraging nexus approaches effectively to achieve sustainable development for all. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most South Asian countries have challenges in ensuring water, energy, and food (WEF) security, which are often interacting positively or negatively. To address these challenges, the nexus approach provides a framework to identify the interactions of the WEF sectors as an integrated system. However, most nexus studies only qualitatively discuss the interactions between these sectors. This study conducts a systematic analysis of the WEF security nexus in South Asia by using open data sources at the country scale. We analyze interactions between the WEF sectors statistically, defining positive and negative correlations between the WEF security indicators as synergies and trade-offs, respectively. By creating networks of the synergies and trade-offs, we further identify most positively and negatively influencing indicators in the WEF security nexus. We observe a larger share of trade-offs than synergies within the water and energy sectors and a larger share of synergies than trade-offs among the WEF sectors for South Asia. However, these observations vary across the South Asian countries. Our analysis highlights that strategies on promoting sustainable energy and discouraging fossil fuel use could have overall positive effects on the WEF security nexus in the countries. This study provides evidence for considering the WEF security nexus as an integrated system rather than just a combination of three different sectors or securities. Unlabelled Image • We quantitatively address the challenge in operating the WEF security nexus concept. • South Asia has more trade-offs than synergies within the water and energy sectors. • Among the WEF sectors, the share of synergies is larger than trade-offs. • Sustainable and clean energy have overall positive effects on the WEF security nexus. • The WEF security nexus is an integrated system, not just a combination of the sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Agenda 2030 with its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provides the framework that all United Nations (UN) member states have pledged to fulfill. The achievement of this agenda crucially depends on whether humankind will be able to maximize synergies and resolve existing trade-offs between the SDGs. We provide the first analysis of future interactions for projected SDG trends until 2030 within and between goals, and we analyze how trade-offs and synergies have evolved in the recent past globally. For certain goals, we find positive developments with notable synergies in our projections, especially for SDGs 1, 3, 7, 8, and 9: Poverty alleviation and strengthening the economy, rooted in innovation, and modern infrastructure, therefore continue to be the basis upon which many of the other SDGs can be achieved. However, especially SDGs 11, 13, 14, 16, and 17 will continue to have notable trade-offs, as well as non-associations with the other goals in the future, which emphasizes the need to foster innovations and policies that can make our cities and communities more sustainable, as well as strengthen institutions and spur climate action. We show examples of a successful transformation of trade-offs into synergies that should be emulated in other areas to create a virtuous cycle of SDG progress. The alarming inability to overcome certain persistent trade-offs we have found, and indeed the deterioration for some SDGs, can seriously threaten the achievement of the Agenda 2030. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The crucial link between agricultural growth and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set by the United Nations Development Programme is established through efficient use of nitrogen in the cereal production systems. Nitrogen, mostly in its reactive form as fertilizer or synthetic N, governs the food production, and reconciles the productivity with economic and environmental considerations. However, N flows in the production system involves a large N leaking to the environment resulting in abysmally low nitrogen use efficiencies and environmental adversity. Agricultural system with sub-optimal N application is characterized with low crop productivity, spiraling into the vicious cycle of poverty, malnutrition and poor economy, a case most common in the sub-Saharan Africa. These essentially relate to SDG 1 (no-poverty), 2 (zero-hunger), 3 (good health and well-being), 8 (decent work and economic growth) and 15 (life on land). Excess or imbalanced fertilizer N in most of China and parts of India led to serious environmental hazards, degradation of land and economic loss. Balancing the amount of N input in these regions will contribute in achieving the SDG 13 (climate action). Meeting some of the SDGs (5, gender equality; 6, clean water and sanitation; 10: reduced inequalities; etc.) requires optimum N application, which will also ensure "responsible consumption and production" (SDG 12). The quest for an appropriate N management needs accounting for the N surplus in a production system, and evolving strategies for increasing the nitrogen use efficiency. Much effort has been made to this effect with varying success. Cutting-edge technological options are although available on the horizon, the success lies in improved awareness among the policy makers, stakeholders and farmers, and better research to quantify the linkage between N management and the SDGs, taking collectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]