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Between waves of joy and floods – Newsletter July 2024
We congratulate the Swiss national football team on reaching the quarter-finals – a great achievement. But football is only half of life, and we at SDSN endeavour to take a holistic view and look at the other half as well. While the Swiss team was causing waves of joy (at least among Swiss fans) in the match against Italy, simultaneously devastating flooding hit Switzerland and Italy.
Switzerland is currently ranked 19th in the FIFA world rankings. Things look less favourable in SDSN’s Sustainable Development Ranking: Switzerland has fallen from 15th to 22nd place. In a global comparison, it is therefore more successful at playing football than in its efforts towards sustainable development.
As more frequent extreme weather events are a consequence of a hotter climate, let us have a closer look at SDG 13, Climate Action. According to the report, Switzerland is in the red zone. On the one hand, our domestic emissions from burning fossil fuels and cement production have a negative impact. On the other hand, we import large quantities of products that have caused greenhouse gas emissions abroad. If we focus on the spillovers – our effects on other countries’ efforts on achieving the SDGs – we are even far, far below 22nd place, occupying a dismal 163rd place out of 167 countries assessed.
Back to football: UEFA has announced that the 2024 European Championship will be the most sustainable tournament ever. There is a catch to this promise: to achieve the SDGs, it is not enough to simply be better than past tournaments – we need binding target values. But how is sustainability measured? This was one of the questions discussed at our Conference on Regenerative Economy on June 19th.
Regenerative Economy is one of our main pillars at SDSN Switzerland. We are convinced that economic success can be combined with sustainability, and even more: enterprises can actively contribute to the regeneration of social and ecological resources. But this does not happen by itself, it requires great effort.
Even if Switzerland is just a small country, we do have a strong economy and can contribute to the shift towards a regenerative economy. If we succeed in combining ecological, economic, and social goals, we can make it back up the SDG rankings. An appropriate target would be the top eight, similar to the quarter-finals of the European Championships.
Or perhaps there’s even more in it? We’re keeping our fingers crossed!