It's been 10 years since the United Nations created its Sustainable Development Goals, and national governments are far behind.
According to Time, world leaders spent part of 2025's U.N. Financing for Development Conference determining how to fund the SDGs. While this allowed several countries to strategize together, the U.S. didn't attend.
Spain, Brazil, and South Africa are leading a group that plans to tax the ultra-rich around the globe. Barbados, France, and Kenya are a part of another group that wants to heavily tax private jets (among other actions). Both groups hope to fight against financial inequality and make progress on these critical goals.
The U.N. has 17 SDGs. While "sustainable" is generally associated with the environment, these goals cover many intersecting issues. They aim to end poverty and hunger, give a quality education to all, strengthen global partnerships, and more.
The goals are a part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The agenda centers around five ideas: people, planet, prosperity, peace, and partnership. It recognizes that achieving things like clean and renewable energy, clean drinking water, and literacy for all will take a lot of collaboration.
Unfortunately, a lot of what countries could use to fund action toward the SDGs isn't available. It's currently with the top 1%, whose wealth has grown by over $33.9 trillion in the last decade, per Oxfam. That's enough money to end poverty 22 times over.
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Thinking about this can be overwhelming. There's no one solution that anyone can embrace as an everyday person.
But if you're looking for inspiration, look no further than the SDG Actions Platform. Governments and other participants use the tracker to log actions toward specific SDGs. The most actions have been taken to conserve our oceans at the time of this article's publication.
If you start or join an organization that's championing one or more of the SDGs, consider registering your action. You can be a part of official action to create a better environment for all around the globe. Who knows how your actions will ripple out into the world around you?
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