Often seen as a “blueprint for change,” the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) require a strong commitment on the part of member-states to follow through on the expectations set forth by the international community. That being said, no single country can address the issues without multi-lateral support. For that reason, I contend that SDG 17: “Partnership for the Goals,” is a prerequisite to realizing the impacts of any other goal. The UN explains, a successful sustainable development agenda requires partnerships between governments, the private sector and civil society. These inclusive partnerships built upon principles and values, a shared vision, and shared goals that place people and the planet at the center, are needed at the global, regional, national, and local level. “for smaller nations struggling to reduce carbon dependency or suffering from an inability to uphold standard of public health, this begins with addressing the root cause of the issue, which for many nations stems from their inability to mobilize resources to improve domestic revenue collection. For larger nations, especially those home to manufacturing giants and large-scale polluters, developing more stringent environmental regulations and offering financial assistance to developing countries would go a long way in curbing the damage. At the end of the day, cross-sector collaboration represents a better chance at success when it comes to fighting climate change. Within this paper, I explore how public-private partnerships, or PPP’s, can help mitigate our climate risk, while fostering resiliency throughout our current systems. In doing so, I plan to describe some of the underlying issues preventing us from realizing this impact and argue that a dramatic paradigm shift is needed to truly embrace SDG 17 and all the potential it offers.
Independent Study under the direction of Mr. Jeff Mittelstadt
