Uncommon Collaboration Will Energize the UN Sustainable Development Goals
“The Americans will do the right thing after exhausting all other options!” Winston Churchill.
Five years ago, after we finalized the Bayer sustainability strategy, I started this monthly newsletter as a countdown to the beginning of the 2030 decade. For me, the 120 months series also serves as a structure – and way to overcome “analysis paralysis” – that forces me to reflect each month on how we are doing and what matters most.
The UN Global Goals on Sustainable Development, which followed the UN Millennium Goals, operate as an accountability framework to check in on progress toward a safe space for humanity within the planetary boundaries. In the best possible way, they are a thorn in our side: the 17 goals, 169 targets and 241 indicators help governments and companies (including Bayer) to understand the impact we have and to become an impact generator with bespoke targets designed to advance the SDGs. Bayer operates at scale and around the world at the intersection of climate, health, and food. Subsequently, it was possible to fully integrate the SDGs into our business strategy. For many companies this is harder to do, but for the vast majority of the business community, progress towards the SDGs is a foundation for long-term business success.
The FT’s Gillian Tett has often argued that accountants are the true heroes of the sustainability transition – and this year, they will indeed enjoy the spotlight. With five years left on the path to achieving the SDGs set in 2015, we will see a strong impetus to look into how the global community is faring against the targets previously set. The UN Statistics Commission, a 24-member state body of the Economic and Social Council, will meet on March 3-7 in New York to conduct a “Comprehensive Review of the Global Indicator Framework”. As a result, we may see proposed refinements, revisions, replacements, additions and deletions of indicators. A first presentation of the existing proposal to the broader public will take place virtually on the February 19. This review will be followed by the UN High Level Political Forum 2025 from 14-23 July in New York with a special dedication to SDGs 3,5,8,14,17. Then, in September the discussions will continue at the UN Global Assembly.
Thank you, dear readers, for reading through this paragraph. Multilateral processes can come across as cumbersome. In light of the geopolitical shifts from rules-based to power-based order, and from multilateral to fragmented world, the more pertinent question seems to me: to what extent are this process, and subsequently the SDGs, in jeopardy?
Given the effects of rampant climate change, an increased demographic divide, and post-pandemic upheaval, it’s already safe to assume that the world will not deliver on all promises made in 2015. Reneging on these promises, however, will have severe repercussions for how the more than 8 billion humans will live together, let alone for the liveability of our planet. This is why I remain steadfastly focused on the SDG process and would like to urge all of you to do the same.
What does Bayer’s half-time show look like?
It is easy to feel like the picture is bleak. But when I look back at the sixty posts I have written since my first article, and compare to where we are now, to how far #TeamBayer has come, I feel proud. Here’s why.
What we promised by 2030:
We are diligently measuring our progress against all these targets. In most areas, we are on track to meet or exceed our commitments – and in all, we are absolutely driven to get even better. For the first time this year, progress against four of our targets (those on climate and the three “100 million goals” to reach smallholders, provide access to contraception and every-day health) will be part of our company’s long-term remuneration for 11,000 managers at Bayer. This makes our team truly embedded in sustainable progress – both individually and at a company level.
You can read about our progress in more detail in our Sustainability Reports – ?the newest edition is due by March this year and will (spoiler alert!) for the first time also include progress against decarbonization on our customers’ fields.
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But we haven’t got here by accident or just by measuring. I would attribute our progress to three key factors: the innovative thinking of our talented team, the continued commitment of our management, and the support of our partners (by which I mean our farmers, patients and public and private-sector collaborators). These have been the three pillars of our sustainability progress. Thanks to them, we have been able to make astonishing leaps in our health and agriculture product portfolio – leaps like cell and gene therapy, next-generation, nitrogen-fixation fertilizers and climate-resilient crops. And also thanks to these three pillars, we have been able to build co-operations that accelerate and strengthen our sustainability efforts. Just last week, for instance, we announced a new partnership with the Pula Foundation that will roll out insurance to 10 million smallholder farmers and protect them from financial catastrophe in the face of extreme weather events, helping them rebuild and reinvest, while supporting global food security.
Breakthroughs and partnerships like these are transforming the face of farming and healthcare for the better, and crucially, they are also building the resilience of food and health systems in the face of a world beset by swift and colossal change.
Let’s muster our energy for the second half of the SDG game
These 60 months have passed quickly. The next 60 will fly by, too. Last year, we had intense internal discussions at Bayer on whether we should stick to our 2030 commitments. Our business performance, the ramifications of geopolitical power shifts, our competitors’ decisions to lower their level of ambition, and many more factors, complicated the debate. In the end, however, the outcome was in line with our mission of “Health for All. Hunger for None” – and will see Bayer stand by its commitments. And for the coming 60 months, the decision of our Board of Management and Supervisory Boards gives me hope that we will make best possible use of the time ahead.
2025 must be a year in which more companies step up to the plate, as my home country of the United States – the world’s largest and, in absolute terms, fastest growing economy – disengages on climate and other responsibilities. Some corporates are already demonstrating laudable sustainability leadership: Bloomberg recently announced it would help cover the UN climate funding gap created by the US’s withdrawal from the Paris agreement, for instance. Companies who reduce their efforts, reverse their commitments or revert to former business practices should think twice. In his 2019 book Losing Earth, Nathaniel Rich describes how we willfully neglected to address the climate crisis in the 1980s, a time when action would have been much easier – a failure for which we are all paying the price today. And a failure that future generations will pay the price for, most critically by jeopardizing global food security: on average, a 1°Celsius increase in global mean temperature would reduce global yields of wheat by 6.0%, rice by 3.2%, maize by 7.4%, and soybean by 3.1%. These are crucial crops – and such steep reductions would affect the availability and affordability of food for populations around the planet.
We can do better than finger pointing
If we want to get back and stay on track with our quest to allow humans to live well within the planetary boundaries, a lot must change. Participants in the various Conferences of Parties have noticed that discontent with multilateral efforts is rampant and widely distributed. I personally, for example, was upset to read about the role UNRWA staff played in aiding Hamas and distorting cause and effect after the horrific events of October 7 2023. Grievance and frustration have been played back to us by the latest Edelman Trust Barometer – sentiments that fuel today’s politics, and fuel the “Us versus Them” rhetoric which Amanda Ripley talks about in her fantastic book High Conflict.
What gives me hope, though, is how politics and policy are distinguished in the English language. Rather than wasting energy on futile quarrels about acronyms like ESG and DEI (does a critical mass really prefer homogeneity and exclusion?), we need to find ways to remain focused on the big picture. We need to listen intently to the frustrations with how the SDG agenda has been advanced until now. When looking for solutions, we need to make an effort to replace the word “or” with the word “and”. This way, differences in opinion about what to do might become much smaller than fiery emotions suggest. At a time where traditional institutions like the WHO will be hampered in advancing the SDGs, where businesses might feel drawn to opportunism and brinkmanship, where support for the most disadvantaged communities falls pray to budget cuts in Europe and the US alike, we need to find new ways to collaborate. Uncommon ways.
Amongst all the SDGs, my favorite is SDG #17:
"Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development."
What is yours?