Summary of Jeffrey Sachs' ideas on SDGs

 

Jeffrey Sachs in his work on A New American Foreign Policy: beyond American Exceptionalism (2017)  gives his ideas on Sustainable development . 

It is estimated by Forbes Magazine in 2018 that a mere 2,208 individuals in the world   had 9.1 trillion dollars in wealth. Global peace Index (2017) states that the global costs of violence including   military and security outlays, the costs of armed conflicts and interpersonal violence totaled around 14 trillion dollars . The world tax havens such as the Cayman islands and the Virgin islands contained  20 trillion dollars of offshore deposits which is untaxed income.

To achieve the SDGs and Paris Climate Agreement , every govt. has to focus on quality health and education for all, sustainable land-use management, decent jobs and infrastructure( including  safe water, sanitation, electrification, transport and communications ) decarbonizing the energy system (Zero carbon energy by 2050) and good governance ( including honesty ,rule of law, fairness, competence, and transparency ) .  

In 2017, Sustainable Development Goals Index, America is ranked 42nd out of 157 countries and 30^th out of 35 high-income OECD Countries. Jeffrey Sachs mentions that the Koch Brothers spends a lot of money to prevent action on global warming but asks customers to buy its products. (212) As a result of inequality and weak sustainability, America ranks life -expectancy 25th out of 35  high -income countries and suffers from raising clinical depression, drug addiction, trust deficit in public institutions and chronic violence and homicides .

Th leading MNCs such as  General Electric, Pepsi , Walmart, IBM , Walt Disney, GM etc. have to come forward under the penalty of losing customers.

The obstacles to SDG s are, the corporate lobbies, the corrupt  wealthy and irresponsible politicians and governments without practical plans. The global  way out is adoption of these goals by  Fossil fuel companies ,the wealthy individuals, the common people to mobilize funds for the poor nations, making polluters to pay compensation to victims, using S&T to accelerate SDGs. America needs to frame a new policy .

Jeffrey Sachs shows ten priorities for true national security. They are : Living by the UN Charter ,recommitment to the SDGs and Paris Climate Agreement, raising the UN budget, ratification of the pending UN treaties related to women cooperation on new technologies,  , the disabled, biodiversity , ICC etc., regaining momentum on nuclear disarmament, regional solutions to the Middle East, ending the Covert operations by the CIA, Saving money through less military budget and spending it on civilian programmes and  on the Poorest countries and celebrating cultural and ethnic diversity which is true American Exceptionalism. The famous economist and Columbia university Professor  Jeffery Sachs ends his book by giving a call , “Let us therefore enter the Age of Sustainable Development with hope, energy, and determination.” (219)