BERLIN, July 9 (Xinhua) -- A new online platform providing data on the status of development in Germany in relation to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations (UN) was launched by the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) on Tuesday.
The platform is open source and available in German and English. It contains data on Germany's progress for 62 percent of the SDG indicators. For one-third of the indicators, Destatis was still "exploring data sources".
The least data was available for Germany's progress on climate action (SDG 13), while at 83 percent industry, innovation and infrastructure (SDG 9) had the most comprehensive data published online.
The Sustainable Development Goals were adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2015 and are aimed at improving the living conditions of all people while protecting the planet.
To measure progress in this endeavor, an international working group involving the Destatis had developed a set of 244 indicators.
According to the recent 2019 Sustainable Development Report led by UN Special Adviser Jeffrey Sachs, four years after the adoption of the SDGs, no country was on the way to fulfilling all 17 goals.
Germany ranked sixth in an international comparison, but was "symptomatic" of the performance of the industrialized countries, according to Christian Kroll, co-author of the SDG report.
"Germany is on the right track with some UN goals, but we will miss the sustainability agenda if we do not change course politically in key areas," noted Kroll.
According to the SDG evaluation report, Germany currently met 80 percent of the UN requirements but lagged behind on climate protection and sustainable consumption.
The data on the Federal Statistical Office's new online platform showed, for example, that Germany's raw material consumption per capita had not declined since 2010. The recycling rate in Germany for municipal waste, meanwhile, had only risen from 62.5 percent in 2010 to 67.2 percent in 2017.
The data on SGD goal No.10, reduced inequalities, revealed that the income growth rate in Germany reached a peak of 4.5 percent in 2015 from a 0.2 percent baseline in 2010 but has since been steadily declining.
Destatis launched the online interactive platform in light of the meeting of the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) in New York this week.
