
ON SOURCE: SDG KNOWLEDGE HUB
SDG Knowledge Hub’s Most Read Stories of 2024 Reveal Hunger for Solutions
By Elena Kosolapova and Lynn Wagner, SDG Knowledge Hub
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
The most read story of 2024 is about the findings of the World Happiness Report.
Several of the top stories offer examples of positive solutions for sustainable development.
Stories about the process towards the ICJ advisory opinion on States’ obligations with respect to climate change also got a lot of attention.
In 2024, the Summit of the Future reaffirmed global commitment to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its SDGs. Yet, in the new year, we find ourselves in unchartered territory. In many countries, voters’ dissatisfaction with their leadership found expression at the ballot box. With more elections due to take place in 2025, there is growing uncertainty around how sustainable development will advance in the near future.
Increasing frustration with UN processes also prompted the exploration of other avenues towards effective multilateralism. To spur the climate negotiations – and responses, Member States asked the World Court to clarify countries’ legal obligations with respect to climate change.
Heading into the new year, we find it useful to reflect on our readers’ priority needs for knowledge and information so we can best support them by providing relevant coverage. We do so by looking back at the news that drew the greatest number of pageviews in 2024.
Against the background of the UN Secretary-General’s at times catastrophic framingof global challenges, some of last year’s most read stories on the SDG Knowledge Hub reveal our readers’ interest in examples of successful solutions across the board – from forests to water to air pollution to plastics. Stories about key UN processes that do not receive much visibility otherwise – such as review of the UN High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) and the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), and early stages of plastics negotiations – also received large numbers of pageviews.
The ten most read news stories published in 2024, beginning with #10, are as follows:
10. Why the SDGs are a Good Idea
In one of the first pieces we published in 2024, we responded to an op-ed that cast the SDGs as planet Earth’s lofty resolutions, arguing the Goals are too ambitious and complex. Acknowledging that with seven years left to go “we’re not nearly as far as we’d like to be on the SDGs,” we underscored the importance of safeguarding our collective vision for the world we want to share.
9. Co-facilitators of ECOSOC and HLPF Review Forward Resolution to UNGA
In 2024, the UN General Assembly (UNGA) conducted reviews of the ECOSOC and the HLPF. In May, the co-facilitators submitted the draft resolution to the UNGA for consideration. The General Assembly adopted it at its 88th plenary meeting on 7 June 2024. The resolution (A/RES/78/285) includes the HLPF themes for 2025, 2026, and 2027, as well as the sets of Goals to undergo in-depth review.
8. “Peace is the Missing Piece”: UN Secretary-General on Priorities for 2024
As in previous years, our story about the UN Secretary-General’s framing of global challenges and focus for the year generated a lot of interest. In his speech before the UNGA in February, António Guterres sent a message of hope, identifying the Summit of the Future (SoF) as an opportunity to shape more effective and inclusive multilateralism and calling for a new social contract, based on trust, justice, inclusion, and human rights. Guterres urged Member States to use the 2024 UN Biodiversity Conference, the UN Climate Change Conference, and the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) to “make peace with nature.”
7. Air Pollution Deaths in Children Under 5 Down 53% Since 2000: Global Report
Our story about the 2024 State of Global Air report received a lot of attention, revealing an appetite for examples of success in tackling global challenges. The report finds that while air pollution was the second largest risk factor of death for children under five in 2021, the death rate from air pollution for this group has decreased by 53% since 2000. The disease burden for household air pollution has also decreased, driven largely by reductions in exposure in China and South Asia. Deaths from household air pollution dropped 36%. Evidence presented in the report shows that improving air quality and global public health is practical and achievable.
6. ICJ Advisory Opinion and the Future of Climate Responsibility
A guest article by lead counsel for Vanuatu in the advisory proceedings on climate change before the ICJ was among our most read stories of 2024. Representing “a watershed moment in the global struggle for climate justice,” the ICJ advisory opinion, due to be delivered in 2025, “could shape the future of our planet and the lives of generations to come,” writes Margaretha Wewerinke-Singh. Her article reflects on the journey that has led to the UNGA’s request for an advisory opinion and on the future implications of this “unprecedented legal process.”
5. World Water Day 2024: Unleashing the Power of Water for Peace
On behalf of the UN-Water Task Force, the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) and UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) authored a piece exploring the critical relationship between water and peace. Examples of tools and good practices from around the world that can help protect and conserve water resonated with our readers, as did the promise of water “as a stabilizing force and a catalyst for sustainable development” that can foster peace for future generations.
4. Ahead of INC-4, UNEP Publishes Revised Draft Text of Plastic Treaty
This story’s popularity is indicative of our readers’ interest in the negotiations towards a plastic treaty, including their early stages, which suggests close engagement with the process. Following the outline of the zero-draft text, the revised draft discussed in the story is an early iteration of the text of the international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, including in the marine environment.
3. How Cattle Ranching in Brazil Could Lead to the End of the Amazon
This article featured in our Generation 2030 column that gives a platform for young people to share their perspectives on sustainable development. It discusses Initiative 20×20 – a country-led, forward-looking effort to mitigate deforestation in Brazil through the expansion of sustainable cattle ranching practices. Its goal is to alter the dynamics of land degradation in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) by protecting and restoring 50 million hectares of diverse landscapes encompassing forests, farms, and pastures by 2030.
2. ICJ to Rule on States’ Climate-related Obligations: How Did We Get Here?
A policy brief setting the tone for our coverage of the process leading up to the ICJ advisory opinion on obligations of States with respect to climate change was one of the SDG Knowledge Hub’s most popular reads of 2024. Mounting frustration with the UN climate negotiations was behind Vanuatu’s initiative that eventually gathered the support of 130+ Member States and resulted in the UNGA’s request to the World Court. The ICJ will deliver its advisory opinion in 2025, clarifying countries’ climate-related obligations – and the consequences of their breach.
1. World Happiness Report 2024 Assesses Happiness Across Generations
Our most read story of 2024 is about happiness. According to the 2024 edition of the World Happiness Report, the world’s “happiest” country is Finland, followed by Denmark, Iceland, Sweden, and Israel. The world’s “unhappiest” nation is Afghanistan. And while globally, young people aged 15 to 24 report higher life satisfaction than older adults, “this gap is narrowing in Europe and recently reversed in North America.”
At the SDG Knowledge Hub, we will continue to draw out links between processes and highlight inspiring examples of sustainable development solutions that can be replicated and built upon in 2025 – and beyond. We hope our solutions-oriented approach can help empower and energize our readers to drive impactful results that leave no one behind – and perhaps feel a little happier in the process.
Happy New Year!

ON SOURCE: SDG KNOWLEDGE HUB