Up to You! & Global Goals

Learn how the UpToYou! simulation can help students understand the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are global goals for a better future.

“So it could be best to tell stories honestly in a way that activates a sense of the whole in the reader’s mind, that sets off the reader’s capacity to unite fragments into a single design, and to discover entire constellations in the small particles of events. To tell a story that makes it clear that everyone and everything is steeped in one common notion, which we painstakingly produce in our minds with every turn of the planet.” Olga Tokarczuk, Nobel laureate in literature

What challenges do we have in mind? Exploring new pathways towards sustainable development goals, adapting to and mitigating climate change, managing resources responsibly, transforming the energy sector, advancing individual and social well-being, or creating resilient communities: for all these challenges, it’s up to students to collaboratively possible futures.

Development must be inclusive. Inclusive development is crucial to reduce poverty and inequality in all dimensions. Many people are excluded from mainstream development because of their gender, ethnicity, age, sexual orientation, disability, or poverty. For development to be sustainable, it must engage people from every background; it also must protect those who are most vulnerable. No one can be left behind.

For development to be sustainable, it requires the practice of maintaining world processes of productivity indefinitely—natural or man-made—by replacing resources used with resources of equal or greater value without degrading or endangering natural biotic systems. This can be difficult in practice – the consumption of rare-earth metals or old-growth forests is not easily replaceable, and their use can have irreparable effects on natural systems. Finally, development must be resilient. This is related largely to adaptation. When we face unpredictable problems that vary in scope and size, we must be flexible enough to adapt to them.

 United Nations adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and defined 17 Sustainable Development Goals which cover most aspects of development. Each is defined by several subgoals and related targets so that each country can measure its progress towards achieving them. All in all, there are 169 targets for each state to achieve, from poverty reduction to infrastructure resiliency, to human and climate health.

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However, the scope and complexity of interactions across these goals exceed the current capacity of the science community to provide coherent guidance. In this chapter, we show an initial mapping of the major interactions between the 17 SDGs, and the essential elements of the coupled human-earth system relevant to assessing potential future pathways and make the case for taking a systems approach (rather than looking at each individual SDG separately or treating them independently of the others).

Fig. 5

Fig. 5 presents three systems that are always in play during the Up to You simulation, and the various interconnections between them. Let\’s take a look at the Earth system first. Its resources, such as energy and minerals, are used by the Production system. Its ecosystem services, such as forests, are used by both the Production system and the social system. The Earth system also contains multiple subsystems, located either above, on, or under the ground. Together with various by-products, such as waste and emissions, they influence how the system functions.

The Production system contains two major subsystems: Production Factors, which determine what you need in order to begin production in the first place, and Production itself, which is the actual process of producing. Both of these sub-systems generate waste and emissions on the one hand, but also provide essentials to the social system.

The Social system also contains multiple, interconnected subsystems: income determines lifestyle, which determines educational outcomes. Lifestyles determine consumption, which determines health status, etc. These generate demand from Production and waste to Earth. These are further connected to the Sustainable Development Goals.

Fig. 5 also shows the connections between the system modelled in Up to You! (which is based on our own world) and each SDG. This demonstrates the complexity of the goals all of us are trying to reach. The goals are deeply interconnected. This means that achieving a goal may lead to an improvement in one area but a setback in another.