IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v15y2024i1d10.1038_s41467-023-44655-4.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Modelling six sustainable development transformations in Australia and their accelerators, impediments, enablers, and interlinkages

Author

Listed:
  • Cameron Allen

    (UNSW Sydney
    Monash University)

  • Annabel Biddulph

    (UNSW Sydney)

  • Thomas Wiedmann

    (UNSW Sydney)

  • Matteo Pedercini

    (Millennium Institute)

  • Shirin Malekpour

    (Monash University)

Abstract

There is an urgent need to accelerate progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and recent research has identified six critical transformations. It is important to demonstrate how these transformations could be practically accelerated in a national context and what their combined effects would be. Here we bridge national systems modelling with transformation storylines to provide an analysis of a Six Transformations Pathway for Australia. We explore important policies to accelerate progress, synergies and trade-offs, and conditions that determine policy success. We find that implementing policy packages to accelerate each transformation would boost performance on the SDGs by 2030 (+23% above the baseline). Policymakers can maximize transformation synergies through investments in energy decarbonization, resilience, social protection, and sustainable food systems, while managing trade-offs for income and employment. To overcome resistance to transformations, ambitious policy action will need to be underpinned by technological, social, and political enabling conditions.

Suggested Citation

  • Cameron Allen & Annabel Biddulph & Thomas Wiedmann & Matteo Pedercini & Shirin Malekpour, 2024. "Modelling six sustainable development transformations in Australia and their accelerators, impediments, enablers, and interlinkages," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-16, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:15:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-023-44655-4
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-44655-4
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-44655-4
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-023-44655-4?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Måns Nilsson & Dave Griggs & Martin Visbeck, 2016. "Policy: Map the interactions between Sustainable Development Goals," Nature, Nature, vol. 534(7607), pages 320-322, June.
    2. Cameron Allen & Graciela Metternicht & Thomas Wiedmann, 2021. "Priorities for science to support national implementation of the sustainable development goals: A review of progress and gaps," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(4), pages 635-652, July.
    3. Mintrom,Michael, 2019. "Policy Entrepreneurs and Dynamic Change," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781108461467, October.
    4. Geels, F.W. & McMeekin, A. & Pfluger, B., 2020. "Socio-technical scenarios as a methodological tool to explore social and political feasibility in low-carbon transitions: Bridging computer models and the multi-level perspective in UK electricity gen," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    5. Jeffrey D. Sachs & Guido Schmidt-Traub & Mariana Mazzucato & Dirk Messner & Nebojsa Nakicenovic & Johan Rockström, 2019. "Six Transformations to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals," Nature Sustainability, Nature, vol. 2(9), pages 805-814, September.
    6. Roberts, Cameron & Geels, Frank W., 2019. "Conditions for politically accelerated transitions: Historical institutionalism, the multi-level perspective, and two historical case studies in transport and agriculture," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 221-240.
    7. Jianguo Liu & Vanessa Hull & H. Charles J. Godfray & David Tilman & Peter Gleick & Holger Hoff & Claudia Pahl-Wostl & Zhenci Xu & Min Gon Chung & Jing Sun & Shuxin Li, 2018. "Nexus approaches to global sustainable development," Nature Sustainability, Nature, vol. 1(9), pages 466-476, September.
    8. Simon Sharpe & Timothy M. Lenton, 2021. "Upward-scaling tipping cascades to meet climate goals: plausible grounds for hope," Climate Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(4), pages 421-433, April.
    9. Normann, Håkon Endresen, 2017. "Policy networks in energy transitions: The cases of carbon capture and storage and offshore wind in Norway," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 80-93.
    10. Cameron Allen & Graciela Metternicht & Thomas Wiedmann & Matteo Pedercini, 2019. "Greater gains for Australia by tackling all SDGs but the last steps will be the most challenging," Nature Sustainability, Nature, vol. 2(11), pages 1041-1050, November.
    11. Jonathan Michie & Maura Sheehan, 2021. "Building back better?," International Review of Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(2), pages 111-116, March.
    12. Hof, Andries F. & van Vuuren, Detlef P. & Berkhout, Frans & Geels, Frank W., 2020. "Understanding transition pathways by bridging modelling, transition and practice-based studies: Editorial introduction to the special issue," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    13. Frances C. Moore & Katherine Lacasse & Katharine J. Mach & Yoon Ah Shin & Louis J. Gross & Brian Beckage, 2022. "Determinants of emissions pathways in the coupled climate–social system," Nature, Nature, vol. 603(7899), pages 103-111, March.
    14. David Burch & Geoffrey Lawrence & Libby Hattersley, 2013. "Watchdogs and ombudsmen: monitoring the abuse of supermarket power," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 30(2), pages 259-270, June.
    15. Broadbent, Gail Helen & Allen, Cameron Ian & Wiedmann, Thomas & Metternicht, Graciela Isabel, 2022. "Accelerating electric vehicle uptake: Modelling public policy options on prices and infrastructure," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 162(C), pages 155-174.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Dolores Gallardo-Vázquez & Sabina Scarpellini & Alfonso Aranda-Usón & Carlos Fernández-Bandera, 2024. "How does the circular economy achieve social change? Assessment in terms of sustainable development goals," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-18, December.
    2. Prajal Pradhan & Nina Weitz & Vassilis Daioglou & Gabriel M. Abrahão & Cameron Allen & Geanderson Ambrósio & Frederike Arp & Furqan Asif & Therese Bennich & Tim G. Benton & Frank Biermann & Min Cao & , 2024. "Three foci at the science-policy interface for systemic Sustainable Development Goal acceleration," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-4, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Cameron Allen & Graciela Metternicht & Thomas Wiedmann, 2021. "Priorities for science to support national implementation of the sustainable development goals: A review of progress and gaps," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(4), pages 635-652, July.
    2. Cameron Allen & Shirin Malekpour & Michael Mintrom, 2023. "Cross‐scale, cross‐level and multi‐actor governance of transformations toward the Sustainable Development Goals: A review of common challenges and solutions," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(3), pages 1250-1267, June.
    3. David Horan, 2022. "Towards a Portfolio Approach: Partnerships for Sustainable Transformations," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 13(1), pages 160-170, February.
    4. Ida Kubiszewski & Kenneth Mulder & Diane Jarvis & Robert Costanza, 2022. "Toward better measurement of sustainable development and wellbeing: A small number of SDG indicators reliably predict life satisfaction," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(1), pages 139-148, February.
    5. Geels, Frank W. & Ayoub, Martina, 2023. "A socio-technical transition perspective on positive tipping points in climate change mitigation: Analysing seven interacting feedback loops in offshore wind and electric vehicles acceleration," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 193(C).
    6. Jan Anton van Zanten & Rob van Tulder, 2020. "Beyond COVID-19: Applying “SDG logics” for resilient transformations," Journal of International Business Policy, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 3(4), pages 451-464, December.
    7. Peterson K. Ozili & Paul Terhemba Iorember, 2024. "Financial stability and sustainable development," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(3), pages 2620-2646, July.
    8. Myriam Pham‐Truffert & Florence Metz & Manuel Fischer & Henri Rueff & Peter Messerli, 2020. "Interactions among Sustainable Development Goals: Knowledge for identifying multipliers and virtuous cycles," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(5), pages 1236-1250, September.
    9. Kristin Linnerud & Erling Holden & Morten Simonsen, 2021. "Closing the sustainable development gap: A global study of goal interactions," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(4), pages 738-753, July.
    10. Yizhong Huan & Lingqing Wang & Mark Burgman & Haitao Li & Yurong Yu & Jianpeng Zhang & Tao Liang, 2022. "A multi‐perspective composite assessment framework for prioritizing targets of sustainable development goals," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(5), pages 833-847, October.
    11. Liu Suyu, 2020. "Interactions between industrial development and environmental protection dimensions of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): Evidence from 40 countries with different income levels," Environmental & Socio-economic Studies, Sciendo, vol. 8(3), pages 60-67, September.
    12. David Horan, 2021. "The SDGs as an Integrative Framework to Assess Coherence of Transnational Multistakeholder Partnerships for SIDS," Working Papers 202110, Geary Institute, University College Dublin.
    13. Jan Anton van Zanten & Rob van Tulder, 2021. "Improving companies' impacts on sustainable development: A nexus approach to the SDGS," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(8), pages 3703-3720, December.
    14. Winkelmann, Ricarda & Donges, Jonathan F. & Smith, E. Keith & Milkoreit, Manjana & Eder, Christina & Heitzig, Jobst & Katsanidou, Alexia & Wiedermann, Marc & Wunderling, Nico & Lenton, Timothy M., 2022. "Social tipping processes towards climate action: A conceptual framework," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 192(C).
    15. Sibel Eker & Charlie Wilson & Niklas Hohne & Mark S. McCaffrey & Irene Monasterolo & Leila Niamir & Caroline Zimm, 2023. "A dynamic systems approach to harness the potential of social tipping," Papers 2309.14964, arXiv.org.
    16. Di Vaio, Assunta & Palladino, Rosa & Hassan, Rohail & Escobar, Octavio, 2020. "Artificial intelligence and business models in the sustainable development goals perspective: A systematic literature review," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 283-314.
    17. Haddad, Carolina R. & Bergek, Anna, 2023. "Towards an integrated framework for evaluating transformative innovation policy," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(2).
    18. Lovell, Katherine & Watson, Jim & Hiteva, Ralitsa, 2022. "Infrastructure decision-making: Opening up governance futures within techno-economic modelling," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 174(C).
    19. Ana Raquel Nunes, 2023. "Mapping interactions between sustainable development and heatwave resilience," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 25(11), pages 12707-12733, November.
    20. Assunta Di Vaio & Flavio Boccia & Loris Landriani & Rosa Palladino, 2020. "Artificial Intelligence in the Agri-Food System: Rethinking Sustainable Business Models in the COVID-19 Scenario," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(12), pages 1-12, June.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:15:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-023-44655-4. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.