Goal 12: Responsible Consumption and Production

As the world falls further behind from its goal of ending hunger (SDG 2), countries must act to protect open and stable global food trading systems and urgently provide targeted humanitarian action to save lives and livelihoods.

A stronger U.S. dollar will likely exacerbate inflationary pressures, worsen fiscal and external balances and hinder recovery in developing countries, undermining their prospects for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.

Amid health, climate, food security and geopolitical crises, strengthened and effective multilateral cooperation will remain critical to stimulate growth, support the most vulnerable and put the world economy on track towards sustainable development.

Favourable terms of trade provide much needed policy room to combat the pandemic and advance transformative reforms that can sustainably reduce poverty and inequality.

To address the existing barriers to the adoption of these technologies, it is important to invest in digital literacy in rural areas, establish a new generation of agricultural extension services, make digital platforms user-friendly for smallholder farmers and build up infrastructure for agricultural e-commerce.

Policies that aim at facilitating the uptake of the lithium-ion battery without compromising environmental impacts should create incentives at various stages of the battery value chain, including the closed-loop recycling system.

The pandemic has exposed systemic vulnerabilities of the world economy. A robust and resilient recovery will require strengthening public finances and improving debt sustainability, combating inequality and expanding social protection, and promoting climate action and environmental sustainability.

The pandemic reached every corner of the world, infecting more than 90 million and, so far, has killed close to 2 million people worldwide. The crisis responses, however, entailed difficult choices between saving lives and saving livelihoods, between speed of delivery and efficiency, and between short-term costs and long-term impacts.

The drastic policy measures by the European Central Bank (ECB) over the past years, notably its asset purchase programmes, have led to fears of money flooding the economy and that this will ultimately result in run-away inflation further down the line.