On 23 May, the European Commission through Eurostat (the statistical office of the European Union), published a report entitled ‘Sustainable development in the European Union — 2022 monitoring report on progress towards the SDGs in an EU context”.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2015, provide a new global policy framework aiming at ending all forms of poverty, fighting inequalities and tackling climate change divided into 17 goals, which relate to social, economic and environmental aspects. The report aims to monitor the progress towards the SDGs in an EU context and European Union`s progress towards SDGs and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The EU has fully committed itself to delivering on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its implementation, as outlined in ‘The European Green Deal’ and the Commission Staff Working Document ‘Delivering on the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals’

As a main enabler of sustainable development, sport is recognized as a unique tool to support this new global plan of action. One can find the benefits of using sport to address all 17 goals enshrined in the plan, but the following can be highlighted specifically:

• SDG3 (Good Health and Well-Being): Promoting the health benefits of sport and physical activity and disease prevention;
• SDG4 (Quality Education): High-quality physical education is important to children’s physical literacy and can also create other learning outcomes;
• SDG5 (Gender Equality): Well-run sports programmes can promote gender equality and promoting female leadership;
• SDG8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth): Sport organizations and sport events, if they adopt adequate policies and procedures, can be an opportunity for capacity building, creating jobs, and for economic, social and environmental sustainable development in general. 
• SDG11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities): Using the power of sport to unite citizens and creating sports facilities;
• SDG13 (Climate Change): Sport can promote sustainable consumption and production through education and awareness raising campaigns and incorporation of sustainability standards in the production and provision of sport products can contribute to sustainable consumption and production patterns;
• SDG16 (Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions): Through the role sport plays in bringing people together and amplifying important human rights messages, such as the value of inclusion, respect for diversity and non-discrimination;

The full set of sport contributions can be found here.