This volume explores the meaning of the Paris Climate Agreement 2015 for business; it analyses its challenges and implications, and establishes required actions by the private sector in order to address climate change. We include contributions from diverse locations and disciplines on the challenges this poses for businesses across the globe.

This book seeks to revise and challenge the roles and traditional realms of influence that national and local governments, and businesses at a critical juncture in terms of achieving sustainable development, faces when tackling the dual challenges of climate change and post-COVID recovery. Using the broader lens of the 2030 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to assess the roles and responsibilities of each of these stakeholders and their relationships, the book offers policy, economic arguments, case studies and examples to argue that neither national or local governments, nor companies, could afford to deviate from the SDGs in the recovery from the current crisis, nor that the imperative of bold climate action should detract from the broader focus on sustainability. The analysis frames the debate of how a balance between people, planet, and profits can be achieved and how nations, regions and cities, and businesses, with their representative organizations, can achieve a sustainable recovery from the current global crisis, and contribute to climate smart, resilient and inclusive development.

The existential environmental crisis prompted the United Nations to formulate the Millennium Development Goals at the turn of the 21st century in order to embark on an era of sustainable development. The progress and deficiencies in achieving the Millennium Development Goals provided impetus to the intelligentsia and policymakers to map out the pertinent goals for a sustainable growth trajectory for humanity and the planet. The United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which was adopted in September 2015, took the shape of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 169 targets. In effect, the 17 Sustainable Development Goals focus on protecting the earth's life support systems for intra- and inter-generational equity and for development that is rooted in sustainability science. Attaining these goals is an uphill task; nevertheless, scientific knowledge, trans and interdisciplinary inquiries, concerted global action and capacity building would provide an enabling environment for achieving the SDGs. This book explores the synergies and trade-offs between climate change management and other SDGs. It highlights the policy imperatives as well as the interrelations between combating climate change and its impacts (SDG 13) and food and nutritional security (SDG 2), water security (SDG 6), soil security (SDG 15), energy security (SDG 7), poverty eradication (SDG 1), gender equality (SDG 5), resilient infrastructure (SDG 9), and sustainable and resilient cities (SDG 11).

The book showcases examples of university engagement in community initiatives and reports on the results from research and from a variety of institutional projects and programmes. As a whole, the book illustrates how actors at the community (microlevel) and other levels (meso and macro) can make valuable and concrete contributions to the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and, more specifically, to achieving the objectives defined at the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. It is one of the outcomes of the “Second World Symposium on Sustainability Science”, which was jointly organised by the Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Paraná (Brazil), the Research and Transfer Centre “Sustainable Development and Climate Change Management” and the “European School of Sustainability Science and Research” at Hamburg University of Applied Sciences (Germany), in cooperation with the Inter-University Sustainable Development Research Programme (IUSDRP).

This book discusses the impacts of climate change that are already being felt on every continent and provides the scientific basis for a number of modern approaches and state-of-the art methods for monitoring the environment, social behavior and human expectations concerning protection of the environment. The book approaches these issues from the perspectives of various disciplines, from physics to the social sciences, and highlights both current challenges and future prospects. On 1 January 2016, the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) defined in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development – 12 of which involve taking action on climate change – officially came into force. To achieve sustainable development, it is and will remain crucial to harmonize three interconnected core elements: economic growth, social inclusion and environmental protection.

The multidimensional and intergenerational nature of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) calls for integrated policies. Progress made in a particular social, economic or environmental area or individual goal may generate synergies and trade-offs across dimensions (spillover effects), and steps taken in one country could have positive or negative impacts beyond national borders (transboundary effects).

The United Nations action plan for sustainable development, named “Transforming Our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development” represents an international governance arrangement in response to the recent environmental challenges and social inequalities. Importantly, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) framework sets a purpose to protect human rights, end poverty, reduce inequality, protect the planet and its natural resources, and enhance sustainable economic growth. Recently, due to the deterioration in global environmental conditions, increasing stakeholder demands, and stricter regulations and law all over the world, firms have realized the importance of integrating Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into their strategic orientations in order to enhance their environmental, social performances and keep sustainable development.