Accelerating progress on the SDGs: policy guidance from the global modeling literature

There is an urgent need to accelerate progress if the world is to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. Global research has identified six transformation entry points as imperative for SDG achievement: well-being, the economy, and food, energy, urban, and environmental systems. Policymakers require evidence on transformative policies to accelerate progress across these entry points. Here, we present evidence on SDG policies from a scoping review of the global modeling literature. We find that policies have been modeled for all six entry points. Most studies model single entry points and have less coverage of urban systems and five of the SDGs. Initial quantitative estimates of policy ambition and costs and policy interactions are available but remain limited and challenging to compare. Future SDG modeling research to inform policy could emphasize modeling multiple entry points and policy interactions as well as policy standardization.