Goal 12 of 17 Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns.
Sustainable development depends on producing and consuming far more efficiently. The global material footprint — the raw materials extracted to meet demand — has continued to grow with population and incomes, and agriculture alone accounts for about 70 per cent of freshwater use.
Food is wasted at enormous scale: around 1.05 billion tonnes of food were wasted in 2022, roughly a fifth of everything available to consumers, while food loss and waste generate an estimated 8 to 10 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions. Electronic waste tells a similar story — about 62 million tonnes were generated in 2022, and only 22.3 per cent was documented as formally collected and recycled.
Encouraging change means the whole chain: industries, businesses and consumers can recycle and reduce waste, governments can use procurement and regulation, and developing countries need support to move towards more sustainable patterns of consumption by 2030.
Goal 12 also speaks to equity — a large share of the world's population still consumes far too little to meet basic needs, so the goal is about better consumption everywhere, not simply less consumption in rich countries.