Welcome to the June edition of our In Case You Missed It monthly review.

As many working moms in the US, I rely on summer camps for daycare. Kids get to have fun while I get to do my job. This week, my children went to a nature camp. They waded through wetlands, caught shrimp and frogs, and learned about native plants.

Much to the kids’ chagrin, water activities in a local creek got canceled after a heavy storm.  Chemical runoff in the river containing fertilizer, pesticides, and insecticides from nearby agricultural fields and residential lawns had reached levels camp organizers deemed unsafe.

Alarming and disappointing, it doesn’t have to be that way. It is my hope the work we do at the SDG Knowledge Hub – and the work we all do as a sustainable development community – contributes to sustainable agriculture, healthy ecosystems, and happy children, for the prosperity of the planet and its inhabitants.

Let’s zoom out and see what is being done globally to address challenges that often manifest locally. 

Getting HLPF ready 

The 2026 UN High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) is less than two weeks away. Two major SDG assessments published annually ahead of the HLPF’s July session are out. The UN Secretary-General’s SDG progress report shows progress “is not only possible but already happening,” but unmet financing commitments “risk putting many SDG targets beyond reach.” The findings reveal:

  • The world is on track to meet or is making “moderate” progress on 36% of the 139 SDG targets with available trend data.
  • Progress on 49% of the targets is “only marginal.”
  • 18% of the targets have regressed from the 2015 baseline.

The 2026 edition of the Sustainable Development Report by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) confirms while only 16% of SDG targets are projected to be achieved by the 2030 deadline, global commitment to the SDGs remains strong. The report’s SDG Index and Dashboards, which rank SDG performance of all UN Member States, indicate East and South Asia have continued to outperform all other regions in SDG progress since 2015. The largest rank improvements among major economies belong to India (+18) and China (+14).

The SDG progress report by the UN Statistics Division is another key input to the HLPF, and its 2026 edition is tentatively scheduled to be launched on 7 July 2026.

The UN Secretariat has published a summary of the 2026 second global workshop for voluntary national reviews (VNRs). The workshop sought to strengthen countries’ capacity to conduct inclusive and evidence-based reviews of progress on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its SDGs by facilitating peer-to-peer learning and exchange of experiences related to preparing and presenting VNRs. The First Global Workshop for 2026 VNRs was held in December 2025, the Second Global Workshop convened in April, and a third one is to be confirmed for July.

The executive summaries of Major Groups and Other Stakeholders’ (MGoS) position papers on the theme of HLPF 2026 are now available. The theme is ‘Transformative, equitable, innovative and coordinated actions for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its Sustainable Development Goals for a sustainable future for all.’ Several contributions highlight the need for coherence with the Pact for the Future, the Doha Political Declaration, the Sevilla Commitment, and the UN80 reform initiative.

The EU’s statistical office Eurostat published a monitoring report on progress towards the SDGs in the EU. The report finds that over the last five or six years with available data, the EU has made moderate or significant progress towards most SDGs, albeit at varying paces. The data also reveal the EU has stagnated on SDG 17 (partnerships for the Goals) – and fallen back on SDG 15 (life on land) and SDG 6 (clean water and sanitation).

SDG 6 is one of five Goals undergoing in-depth review at HLPF 2026. The other Goals under review are SDG 7 (affordable and clean energy), SDG 9 (industry, innovation and infrastructure), SDG 11 (sustainable cities and communities), and SDG 17, which is reviewed annually.

Multilateralism in action

Senior UN positions to be filled this year include President of the UN General Assembly (UNGA), elected annually from the UN’s 193 Member States for a one-year term, – and UN Secretary-General, appointed by the UNGA on the recommendation of the Security Council, for a term of five years.

On 2 June, the UNGA elected Khalilur Rahman, Foreign Minister of Bangladesh, to serve as President of its 81st session. Succeeding Germany’s Annalena Baerbock, Rahman will assume the presidency on 8 September 2026. His tenure will be guided by the theme, ‘Restoring Trust, Managing Transformation: A United Nations that Delivers for All.’ 

The race is accelerating for the post of UN Secretary-General, with six candidates now in the running:

  • Michelle Bachelet Jeria, nominated by Chile, Brazil, and Mexico;
  • Rebeca Grynspan Mayufis, nominated by Costa Rica;
  • Macky Sall, nominated by Burundi;
  • María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés, nominated by Antigua and Barbuda;
  • Rafael Mariano Grossi, nominated by Argentina; and
  • Carolyn Rodrigues Birkett, nominated by Guyana.

On 15 June 2026 and 18 June 2026, Member States and civil society engaged in interactive dialogues with the most recent nominees – Espinosa Garcés and Rodrigues Birkett – to examine their visions for the future.

Meanwhile, the UN80 reform agenda is full steam ahead. Updating the UNGA on progress, the Secretary-General highlighted the need to align funding practices with the objectives of the UN80 Initiative and to apply the objectives of UN80 coherently across the UN system, among other actions. He said the 2027 proposed programme budget will highlight opportunities for further efficiencies.

As a reminder, the UN80 reform initiative seeks to:

  • achieve efficiencies and improvements (Workstream 1);
  • review mandate implementation (Workstream 2); and
  • introduce structural changes and programme realignments (Workstream 3).

In a briefing held in the margins of the 2026 June Climate Meetings, the UN provided an update on progress under UN80 Work Package 27 dealing with environmental governance, co-led by the UNFCCC and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP). Speakers presented preliminary findings from a forthcoming report to the UNGA, analyzing and mapping current arrangements across the areas of science, governance, coordination, and implementation. Initial findings point to fragmentation and highlight opportunities for improved coordination, integration, and synergies to enhance coherence and strengthen global environmental action at all levels. The final report is expected in September 2026.

Participants at the Fourth High-Level International Conference on the Water Action Decade reaffirmed water as a priority on the international agenda, calling for a high level of ambition at the 2026 UN Water Conference and the 2028 UN Water Conference. Much like in other areas of global environmental governance and sustainable development, the need for scaled up financing of water actions and other means of implementation emerged as one of the top priorities.

Meanwhile, the leaders of the Group of 7 (G7) agreed to foster mutually beneficial international partnerships. Highlighting the need for structured reforms to global development architecture to ensure its efficiency and impact, they pledged to support partner countries by strengthening domestic resource mobilization and mobilization of private capital, among other efforts. The G7 will only use concessional resources “strategically where they are most needed.” 

The message from the Global Environment Facility (GEF) meetings in Uzbekistan was similarly tentative. The meetings were praised for showing “renewed confidence in multilateralism.” At the same time, USD 3.9 billion in initial pledges for the ninth replenishment of the GEF Trust Fund is less than the last four replenishments. While many pointed to the 2026 meetings of the biodiversity, climate change, and desertification COPs as events that could potentially attract new financial pledges, resource mobilization is likely to continue to pose challenges, given global financial turmoil and countries’ shifting priorities.

Our guest authors sought to understand why money isn’t reaching the SDGs. Leveraging behavioral science, they argued the future of SDG financing depends not only on how much capital is mobilized but also on whether financial systems align with how people make decisions under uncertainty.

Raising ambition for climate

As financial constraints continued to loom large, negotiations at the June Climate Meetings in Bonn were difficult. Negotiators particularly struggled to find a way forward on the Mitigation Work Programme, the Global Goal for Adaptation, the transition of the Adaptation Fund to exclusively serve the Paris Agreement on climate change, just transition, and research and systematic observation. Divergences were such that on many agenda items, delegates were unable to agree to forward any document capturing progress to serve as a basis for negotiations at the 2026 UN Climate Change Conference (UNFCCC COP 31) in Antalya, Türkiye.

During the Meetings in Bonn, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) released its assessment of climate alignment of financial flows, pointing to untapped opportunities to transition financial flows across geographies. At the UNFCCC annual Ocean and Climate Change Dialogue, which serves as a dedicated space to advance Ocean-based climate action, many emphasized the need to align needs on the ground with existing financial mechanisms.

Momentum around the June Climate Meetings carried discussions on linkages and synergies with other areas of sustainable development:

Outside the UNFCCC process, an expert meeting examined the latest scientific evidence on climate change and agrifood systems, to provide targeted scientific and technical inputs to support the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Seventh Assessment Report (AR7). Participants acknowledged the need to move beyond sectoral approaches towards an agrifood systems perspective.

Resilience in the face of a changing climate was top of mind for many in June. Guest authors highlighted the role of peatlands in building a climate-resilient world. Organizers invited applications to Earthna Prize 2026, which highlights resilience by honoring solutions rooted in Traditional Knowledge. The deadline for submissions is 20 July 2026.

Data and partnerships to drive progress

At the SDG Knowledge Hub this June, we continued to shine the spotlight on the Beyond GDP movement. Following the May 2026 release of the report of the UN High-Level Expert Group (HLEG) on Beyond GDP, we took stock of how it has influenced the debate thus far. Our main takeaways are:

  • The HLEG report has decisively advanced the Beyond GDP debate by shifting attention from whether alternatives are needed to how they can be implemented.
  • This shift reflects a growing recognition that progress must be assessed through measures that capture human well-being, equity, and planetary sustainability.
  • The ultimate test will be whether governments, institutions, and societies can translate this agenda into practical action and acceptable tools that guide decisions and reshape how progress is understood and measured.

The UN published its third World Ocean Assessment, which offers policy‑relevant but not policy‑prescriptive insights into the latest data on the health of the ocean, the drivers behind the pressures facing it, interactions between them, and long‑term consequences of these changes.

To tackle the problems facing the ocean, the 11th Our Ocean Conference generated 320 new commitments to sustainable ocean action, together valued at USD 6.4 billion. The overall total for commitments mobilized since the first Our Ocean Conference in 2014 amounts to USD 175.6 billion. According to a 10 Year Progress Report by the conference Secretariat, as of January 2025, approximately 81% of commitments made since 2014 had been completed or were underway.

Driving progress beyond 2030

Like the movement to go Beyond GDP, preparatory work toward the 2027 edition of the Global Sustainable Development Report (GSDR) contributes to early conversations on the future of sustainable development post-2030. The UN published a summary of inputs to the 2027 GSDR that stakeholders had provided.

The GSDR is a quadrennial publication produced to support deliberations at the SDG Summit, which takes place every four years. The 2027 SDG Summit will review progress towards all 17 SDGs as the deadline for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development approaches.

Observers are also watching for early indications of how youth will be reflected in a post-2030 development framework. At the SDG Knowledge Hub, we give young people voices by welcoming guest articles for our dedicated Generation 2030 column. A recent contribution focused on the need for reporting under SDG 16 (peace, justice and strong institutions) to reflect the plurality of governance arrangements in the Sahel by bridging the “recognition gap.”

I hope this snapshot of June’s SDG news leaves you confident in the knowledge that while headwinds may be blowing, work for people, the planet, and prosperity goes on.