The deadline is getting closer. We are past the halfway point. There is not much time left to implement the United Nations agenda by 2030. But one step at a time. What exactly does the agenda propose to make life on our planet more sustainable, fairer and better?

The agenda sets out the following 17 goals:
#1 No poverty
#2 Zero hunger
#3 Good Health and Well-Being
#4 Quality Education
#5 Gender Equality
#6 Clean Water and Sanitation
#7 Affordable and Clean Energy
#8 Decent Work and Economic Growth
#9 Industry, innovation and infrastructure
#10 Reduced inequalities
#11 Sustainable cities and communities
#12 Responsible consumption and production
#13 Climate action
#14 Life below water
#15 Life on land
#16 Peace, justice and strong institutions
#17 Partnerships for the goals

The 17 goals provide a more or less detailed roadmap for a better future. For example, #1 No poverty by 2030 aims to reduce by half the proportion of people living in poverty. Under #11 Sustainable Cities and Communities, the aim is to provide affordable housing and basic services for everyone, ensure safe, affordable and sustainable mobility, implement sustainable urban planning and land use, reduce environmental pollution (air quality and waste treatment), and provide better protection against disasters and the world's cultural and natural heritage by 2030.

The question now is to what extent we have come today, in 2024, and how great the challenges still are to achieve the goals? Each region and area has its own site-specific challenges, but metropolises in particular have to face up to the challenges together.

Since the adoption of the line by the United Nations and the noticeable consequences of climate change, the issue of sustainability has become more and more important to our consciousness and we are very interested in how things are progressing. To get an overview, we use evaluations that are available, among other things, in the Sustainable Cities Index (SCI's), which Arcadis has been publishing annually since the adoption of the goals in 2015.

The latest Sustainable Cities Index was published in June 2024 and, for the first time, assesses the progress of the top 100 cities towards meeting the 2030 targets under the Progress heading. Indicators for the analysis are the individual values from the pillars Planet, People and Profit, which are tracked over a period of 10 years. The Planet pillar measures environmental factors, the People pillar measures social performance and quality of life, and the Profit pillar measures business environment factors.

This year, the Dutch capital Amsterdam tops the Overall TOP100 ranking. It has economic power. The proportion of women in the labor market is strikingly high. Its RIA2030 master plan is designed to make the city carbon-neutral. It is probably the greenest city, having already been named European Green Capital in 2010. It is a city that, like Copenhagen (3rd place), is one of the most bicycle-friendly in the world.

In Copenhagen, the city with one of the highest standards of living, the globally recognized flagship project, the overall concept of the municipal waste incinerator, stands out. The facility is also used as a park and ski slope.

In second place in the SDI's2024 is the Dutch city of Rotterdam, which has launched the “Rotterdam Climate Initiative (RCI)” program with the aim of reducing CO2 emissions by 50% by 2025 compared to 1990 (European Commission, 2007). Work is also being done on innovative solutions for sustainable transport, such as the electrification of ferries. The air quality monitoring network is noteworthy. The city has also agreed on a resilience strategy.

Berlin, one of the most visited cities in the world, offers a wide range of cultural activities and has around 6,000 hectares of urban parks, making it one of the largest green lungs among European cities. In terms of sustainability, the focus is on appropriately designed urban planning.

London, with over 8 million inhabitants, is ranked 10th and is the city with the most electric buses in Europe. Under the London Green Grid program, the English capital is creating new green corridors to sustainably improve air quality and biodiversity in the city.

Warsaw makes it into the top 20 in the Progress category at number 14. In the overall ranking, the capital of Poland is already in ninth place behind Berlin. It is now considered the best destination in Europe. Green, friendly and cosmopolitan are some of the words used to describe it. So it's no wonder that the city is in fourth place in the People category.

Caution is advised with the newly introduced category Progress. Some cities that were already far ahead of the others at the start fall back to the bottom places in the 10-year focus. One example is the Norwegian capital Oslo. It ranks 96th in Progress, but leads the TOP100 overall.