This highly ambitious goal reflects the need to seriously address the devastating impact poverty has on millions of people across the world, writes Anna Gupta.

More than two billion people in the world currently lack access to adequate food, writes Ivica Petrikova. The official aim of the second Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) is to ‘end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture’.

Changing our food systems is probably the greatest challenge facing the world today, write a group of scholars in Humanities at Royal Holloway.

United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3 focuses on good health and well-being.

SDG 4 calls for action to ensure that education is available globally, is of high quality, and that access to it is fair. The COP26 summit provides an excellent moment to reflect on this goal, writes Jessie Ricketts.

Liz Gloyn writes on how her work in classics relates both to SDG 4, which calls for ‘inclusive and equitable quality education’, and SDG 5, which aims to ‘achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls’.

Recently, a wide variety of governments and international organisations have identified gender equality as a priority en route to achieving goals from security to sustainability.

Researchers at Royal Holloway are contributing to SDG 6 – ‘Clean Water and Sanitation’ – with a research project aiming at the development of a low-cost device to assay drinking water for lead, writes Alexander Deisting.

The seventh Sustainable Development Goal addresses the future of energy use. The subtitle highlights the scale and extent of the challenges involved, writes Stefanie Kuenzel.

SDG 8 addresses ‘decent work’ and this can be defined as work that is respectful of the fundamental rights of individuals and communities, writes Laurie Parsons.

In recent years, the world has been subject to several transformations that have changed the way people live, consume and work, writes Juan Pablo Rud, reflecting on SDG 9.

SDG 10, with the goal of reducing inequalities within and among countries, is intricately linked to principles of equality and non-discrimination in international human rights law, writes Jill Marshall.

As our global population becomes ever more urbanised, sustainability planning will need to focus on how we ensure that life in the city is adaptable and resilient, writes Paris Chronakis.

SDG 12 addresses ‘responsible consumption and production’, but a report argues that progress has gone backwards since 2019, writes Nisreen Ameen.

Failure to act on SDG 13 will lead to a growing number of climate-related disasters, but there are barriers to investment in its call for climate adaptation, writes Liam Beiser-McGrath.

Oceans and seas are integral to the ecological servicing of the planet – ‘life on land’ is made possible by ‘life below water’, writes Klaus Dodds.

‘We account the whale immortal in his species, however perishable in his individuality,’ wrote Herman Melville. Katie McGettigan considers the future of ‘Life Below Water’ in Moby-Dick.

SDG 15 is entirely about humans and the impact we have had, and will have, on ‘life on land’. Archaeologist Erica Rowan looks at how we might learn from past human practices.

SDG 16 aims to ‘promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels’, writes Sarah Ansari.

No single country, sector, organisation, or discipline alone can solve the global sustainability issues we face today, and that is why SDG 17 is important, writes Hilary Lynch.

Professor David Simon shares what he learned as a Royal Holloway official observer during the two days that he attended the Glasgow COP26 talks.