The economics of the UN Sustainable Development Goals: does sustainability make financial sense?

Walter Leal Filho; Maria Alzira Pimenta Dinis; Salvador Ruiz-de-Maya; Federica Doni; João Henrique Eustachio; Julia Swart; Arminda Paço

doi:10.1007/s43621-022-00088-5

The economics of the UN Sustainable Development Goals: does sustainability make financial sense?

Discov Sustain. 2022;3(1):20. doi: 10.1007/s43621-022-00088-5. Epub 2022 Jun 20.

Authors

Walter Leal Filho^{1

2}, Maria Alzira Pimenta Dinis³, Salvador Ruiz-de-Maya⁴, Federica Doni⁵, João Henrique Eustachio⁶, Julia Swart⁷, Arminda Paço⁸

Affiliations

¹ Department of Natural Sciences, Manchester Metropolitan University, All Saints Building, Oxford Road, Manchester, M15 6BH UK.
² Research and Transfer Centre "Sustainable Development and Climate Change Management", Hamburg University of Applied Sciences, Ulmenliet 20, D-21033 Hamburg, Germany.
³ UFP Energy, Environment and Health Research Unit (FP-ENAS), University Fernando Pessoa (UFP), Praça 9 de Abril 349, 4249-004 Porto, Portugal.
⁴ Marketing Department, University of Murcia, Campus de Espinardo, 30100 Murcia, Spain.
⁵ Department of Business and Law, University of Milano-Bicocca, Via Bicocca degli Arcimboldi, 8, 20216 Milan, Italy.
⁶ School of Economics, Business Administration and Accounting at Ribeirão Preto, University of São Paulo (USP), Avenida dos Bandeirantes 3900, Ribeirão Preto, SP 14040-905 Brazil.
⁷ Utrecht School of Economics, Utrecht University, Kriekenpitplein 21-22, 3584 EC Utrecht, The Netherlands.
⁸ NECE-UBI (Research Centre for Business Sciences), Universidade da Beira Interior, R. Marquês D'Ávila e Bolama, 6201-001 Covilhã, Portugal.

Abstract

The implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals is a global priority, but one whose full implementation is vulnerable to the high costs associated with it. This raises the question: does the implementation of the SDGs make financial sense? This article addresses this question and outlines the need to raise awareness of the economic benefits of implementing the global goals. Further, it presents and discusses the main financial gaps to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.

Keywords: Economic impact; Investment; SDG financing; Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).