Setting Environmental Data Targets
The current threat of climate change is so complicated that even those who agree on the relative severity of the situation are continually working on producing data that will help frame the situation and guide actions within and between nations. One of the many complicated aspects of setting environmental data targets is how embedded our social needs and outputs are tied to our impacts on the planet. Therefore, environmental data targets can be environment-based as goals but need to factor the more complicated political, cultural, and infrastructure requirements if they are to be accomplished in the proposed time frames.
The most recognisable targets to many are the 17 SDG goals created by the United Nations in 2015. These 17 goals are not arbitrary or random as they build on decades of previous work by countries and the UN, including the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs. The SDG goals are part of the global 2030 Agenda, considered the “most comprehensive blueprint to date for eliminating extreme poverty, reducing inequality, and protecting the planet.”
The idea behind initiatives like this are to set clear blanket outcomes, such as gender equality, clean water for all, or ending poverty, then creating comprehensive data that captures the situation as well as how we get to an outcome that fulfils the goal. Creating the baseline data to capture the current situation can be very complicated due to the previously mentioned political, cultural, and infrastructure requirements.
On a national level, the UK Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs produced the 25-Year Environment Plan which contains 66 indicators, arranged into 10 broad themes, similar to the SDG goals.
We can also look at the UK Environmental Agency’s plan to reach net zero by 2030, in line with the UK government’s goal to for a nation net zero emissions by 2050. Their net zero plan intends to cut their emissions by 45%, then offset the rest. It is less complicated to set targets like these for organisations because a lot of their activities, consumption, and output are documented already. Carbon is also one of the only emissions that can be offset since, at a reasonable amount, the natural environment is very capable of repurposing carbon.
What these examples show is how much more complicated setting environmental data targets gets as you scale from a single entity to the shared objectives between nations. Organisations can all do their part to find innovative ways of reducing their footprint through honest and comprehensive assessments of their activities. When we reach community and national levels, these targets must reflect the realities of the many stakeholders involved.
