Summary

In this journal article, Nina Weitz and Henrik Carlsen et al, advocates for addressing international impacts derived from municipalities’ progress in the Agenda 2030 implementation at the local level. Throughout the paper it’s highlighted how the interconnectedness in our globalized world might imply that advancing the Agenda 2030 implementation in cities can impact other countries’ progress in meeting SDG targets.

In the article, cross-border impacts are referred to as “spillovers”. The authors referred to a case study conducted in the municipality of Oskarshamn in Sweden, to illustrate how the municipality’s decarbonization strategy to advance on SDG7 and SDG13 could influence the achievement of other targets elsewhere. As pointed out, increasing electrification and local use of biofuels can impact water and land use SDG targets, in Sweden and abroad.

Key messages

• There is a need to assess how implementing SDGs might have implications in other parts of the world and to increase the ability to predict impacts derived from local implementation strategies.
• It’s suggested that in order to better account for cross-border impacts, research needs to support cities in three ways: 1) Fit analyses, assessments and methods to local realities. 2) Increase accessibility, comparability, and transparency of tools 3) Review and identify SDG targets, actions and localities that are most likely connected to impacts abroad.

Conclusions

Accounting for city impacts resulting from the implementation of Agenda 2030 at the local level, also referred as spillovers, can be employed to strengthen the Agenda’s ethos, management of SDG at the local level and international ambitions.

Citation 

Ericsdotter Engström, R., Collste, D., Cornell, S.E., Johnson, F.X., Carlsen, H., Jaramillo, F., Finnveden, G., Destouni, G., Howells, M., Weitz, N., Palm, V. and Fuso-Nerini, F. (2021). Succeeding at home and abroad: accounting for the international spillovers of cities’ SDG actions. npj Urban Sustainability 18(1). https://doi.org/10.1038/s42949-020-00002-w