China making great progress on UN development goals, report says

China has made great progress toward meeting six of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, a report shows.

The report, “Big Earth Data in Support of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2021”, was released during the Sustainable Development Forum, which concluded on Monday.

Organized by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the report was drafted by the research team from the International Research Center of Big Data for Sustainable Development Goals as well as the Big Earth Data Science Engineering Project.

It evaluates the preliminary progress of China from 2010 to 2020 based on research results gathered from Big Earth Data, information derived from but not limited to Earth observation. Twenty indicators of six goals of the 17 listed on the United Nation’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable

Development are looked at. The six goals are: zero hunger; clean water and sanitation; sustainable cities and communities; climate action; life below water; and life on land.

China has already met four of the indicators, the report said. The prevalence of stunted growth of children under age 5 has been reduced, convenient access to public transportation is adequate, the proportion of degraded land has been reduced and green coverage of mountains has increased.

Of the 20 indicators evaluated over the 10-year period, 16 improved and none worsened between 2015 and 2020, compared with 11 that improved and two that worsened between 2010 and 2015. “Overall, China has made significant improvement, especially since 2015, and is on track to achieving these six goals by 2030,” the report said.

This is the third year the academy has released the report in a bid to highlight the role of Big Earth Data technology and address the challenges facing global sustainable development.

The report also presents the results of research and monitoring of the six goals and indicators at four levels — local, national, regional and global.

Li Xiaosong from the international research center, said a Big Earth Data platform on the development goals had been established to share data globally.

Guo Huadong, director of the research center and an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that the report results can provide insights for policymaking, serve as analytical tools for better understanding development goal issues and promote science and technology services.

Guo said the report is part of China’s efforts to implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development by providing Chinese solutions and experiences to the international community, especially developing countries.