Making the Sustainable Development Goals Operational through an Urban Agenda: Perspectives from Science

Currently, there is a unique opportunity for the global scientific community to significantly contribute to sustainable futures through the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) process. A critical issue now under debate in the UN Open Working Group (OWG) on the SDGs is how they should deal with urban issues.1 At stake is whether there should be a stand-alone urban goal (and what it might be), and a choice between the alternatives of dedicated sub-national reporting or a continuation of the situation that prevailed under the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that are set to expire in 2015.