What are negative spillovers and why do they matter for the SDGs?

While the world is not on track to achieve the SDGs, some countries have performed better than others. However, several “high performing” countries have made progress on the SDGs by exporting negative social and environmental externalities as “spillovers” to other countries.
 

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is intended to be a global social contract. The pursuit of sustainable development is similarly meant to be a global undertaking based on shared principles of solidarity and cooperation. Relying on spillovers to make progress on the SDGs runs counter to those intentions and principles.
 

Spillovers are multi-dimensional and often the byproduct of international trade and resource flows. Clarifying what spillovers are and how they could be managed can align global trade with the intentions and principles underlying the SDGs.
 

The global community also needs to tackle environmental spillovers resulting from unsustainable consumption and work towards more equitable burden and benefit-sharing among countries and across production and consumption.
 

Serious consideration of how to limit negative spillovers in the future would make global or regional cooperation more equitable. While negative spillovers are reflected in existing SDG targets to some extent, deeper discussions are needed on how they can be incorporated into the practical implementation of the SDGs through 2030 and beyond.