Global Climate Change Risk and Millennium Development Goals Achievement: A Cross-National Comparative Study

In September 2015, world leaders affirmed the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) making SDGs the defining narrative of the development process. Fifteen years ago, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) focused development efforts on quantifiable and time-bound targets addressing issues of extreme poverty, health, hunger, education, environmental sustainably, and global partnerships. While building upon the MDGs 2000-2015, the SDG expand the development narrative beyond basic human need to include issues of climate change directly. Even before the direct focus of the SDGs on climate change, MDGs were linked to climate change through social factors. Climate change risk and adaption interact with extreme poverty and hunger, child and maternal health, and access to safe drinking water and sanitation to limit adaption and resilience within populations. The purpose of this presentation is to explore the relationships between global climate change risk and millennium development goals achievement. A cross-national comparative analysis of non-OECD countries is conducted using the Climate Risk Index 1994-2013 and selected Millennium Development Goals Indicators 2000-2015. The indicators used are proportion of population living below $1.25 (PPP) per day, prevalence of underweight children less than 5 years of age, proportion of population using an improved drinking water source, and proportion of population using an improved sanitation facility. The results show where links between climate change risk and MDGs exist. The results will help researchers and practitioners understand the relationship between climate change risk and social indicators of development conditions that will need to be addressed to facilitate effective adaptation processes in response to climate change through the sustainable development goals.