The environmental dimension of trade in the SDGs

Achieving better economic growth and better environmental outcomes is an indispensable condition for achieving the SDGs. If economic growth continues along its current environmentally unsustainable trajectory, the world risks compromising the prospects for future growth and human well-being, and even undoing much of the progress made on both fronts during the past 50 years, according to an OECD study. Forests, wetlands and other forms of “natural capital”, which make up almost 40% of the total wealth in developing and least-developed countries, are under increased pressure due to air, water and soil pollution along with rising greenhouse gas emissions, says a recent World Bank report.