Environmental destruction not avoided with the Sustainable Development Goals

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were designed to reconcile environmental protection with socioeconomic development. Here, we compare SDG indicators to a suite of external measures, showing that while most countries are progressing well towards environmental SDGs, this has little relationship with actual biodiversity conservation, and instead better represents socioeconomic development. If this continues, the SDGs will likely serve as a smokescreen for further environmental destruction throughout the decade. Comparing relevant indicators of the Sustainable Development Goals with other indicators of biodiversity trends shows little relation between the two, because the former more strongly reflect socioeconomic indicators.