Premier Giuseppe Conte and Environment Minister Sergio Costa didn't expect it: Italy is behind in the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN Agenda 2030.
The annual report of Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) led by economist Jeffrey Sachs with the Bertelsmann Foundation certifies that Italy is still in 30th place out of 193 Villages analysed. Just like a year ago. A position that does not go hand in hand with the many green measures announced and little implemented in the last year by the Government.
In fact, we are light years away from South Korea, at the top of the rankings, but also from the Baltic countries and the countries of the Asia-Pacific region that follow it. We are behind the other OECD countries, as well as France, Germany and Spain, often cited by Italian ministers as virtuous examples.
The data on theobjective Goal 3 (“Health and Wellness”) with a worsening of the health and well-being conditions of Italians, despite the health measures for the coronavirus.
The 2020 edition of the report highlights how the pandemic has shown shortcomings in public health systems. In the terrible days of the emergency, we saw what happened in Italian healthcare facilities with widespread anxieties, the appointment of committees and commissioners.
It's not even good for the Goal 9 (“Enterprises, innovations and infrastructures”). Italy has an inadequate level of investments and actions to promote industrial innovations and infrastructures. An opinion very similar to those expressed by the governor of the Bank of Italy, Ignazio Visco, and by the new president of Confindustria, Carlo Bonomi. It is not clear how in these conditions the Green New deal presented in Parliament last January can be implemented.
Jeffrey Sachs has been taking care of the dossier for four years to understand if and how countries are really marching towards the global sustainability goals they have subscribed to. The coronavirus pandemic has introduced a new index that measures the effectiveness of the response to the Covid-19 of 33 OECD countries and the short-term impacts that the pandemic has had on the achievement of the 2030 goals. The general upheaval is below the eyes of all, but Italy, which claims to be on the right track, becomes less credible in the eyes of the world. Furthermore, in its sad 30th place, our country does not show substantial changes compared to 2018, confirming a negative picture which sees an increase in the population at risk of poverty. Waiting for the next Report.
