Time is running out to meet the sustainable development goals as health inequities widen and trust in government falls

Abstract

More than 200 years ago, William Wordsworth illustrated in his sonnet “The world is too much with us” how the advancement of the Industrial Revolution was leaving too many people behind. The world is once again at a vital turning point, facing numerous linked challenges. The cost-of-living and climate crises, widening inequities, and increasing pressures on health and welfare services, are leaving more and more of us behind. Pressure is growing and time is running out to meet the United Nation’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030, particularly SDG 10: reduced inequalities. The world’s leading economists, in a letter to the UN Secretary-General and the World Bank Group President have called for urgent action as “extreme poverty and extreme wealth have risen sharply and simultaneously for the first time in 25 years.