MDG 7 - Ensure environmental sustainability - CIDA

Targets

• Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programmes and reverse the loss of environmental resources
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• Reduce biodiversity loss, achieving, by 2010, a significant reduction in the rate of loss
• Halve, by 2015, the proportion of the population without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation
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• By 2020, to have achieved a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers

MDG 7―Ensure Environmental Sustainability- (PDF 170 KB, 2 pages)

Overview

The impact of environmental degradation and climate change threatens the achievement of all the Millennium Development Goals. The poor in developing countries are especially vulnerable and the least able to adapt to the effects of environmental degradation. There have been only modest improvements and many setbacks in meeting the targets of this goal. Progress on this MDG is extremely varied in terms of both geographic region, as well as individual targets. Global deforestation-mainly the conversion of tropical forests to agricultural land―is slowing but continues at a high rate in many countries.

While the target to halve the proportion of the population without sustainable access to safe drinking water may be met by 2015, more than 2.5 billion individuals still lack sustainable access to basic sanitation. The world is ahead of schedule in meeting the 2015 drinking water target, yet 884 million individuals worldwide still rely on unimproved water sources. Of these, 84 percent (746 million) live in rural areas. In 2008, an estimated 2.6 billion individuals around the world lacked access to an improved sanitation facility. If the trend continues, that number will grow to 2.7 billion by 2015.

Deforestation continues relatively unabated, and biodiversity continues to decline. Emissions contributing to climate change continue to increase, and there is increased migration to urban areas, threatening the modest progress made in reducing the number of urban slums. Nevertheless, over the past 10 years the share of the urban population living in slums in the developing world has declined significantly: from 39 percent in 2000 to 33 percent in 2010.

MDG 7 - Ensure environmental sustainability - CIDA