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IPS175 Jillian C. et al.
1. Introduction
The use of comparable data, which follow harmonized definition and
standards, for financial and economic decisions dates to initial systems of
writing and trade (Carmona and Ezzamel, 2007). By comparison, the work to
measure, account for and value the environment is quite recent with the first
attempt of a global environment statistics framework, the Framework for the
Development of Environment Statistics published in 1984, the first
environmental accounting framework, the System of Environmental Economic
Accounting published in 2012, and the initial establishment of the Group on
Earth Observation in 2005 (Daguitan et al., 2019, UN, 2014).
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (2030 Agenda), and its 17
goals, 169 targets and 244 indicators, provides a transformative framework for
development which aims to transcend the pursuit of siloed interventions and
monitoring (UN, 2015a; UN, 2017). At the core of the 2030 Agenda is an
attempt to identify the most pressing issues for global development while
keeping within planetary boundaries (Randers et al., 2018): How can natural
resources be sustainably managed while at the same time providing food,
energy and water for the growing global population? What are the underlying
governance and partnership requirements? What is the interaction between
human health and the environment? How can we protect biodiversity while
still achieving economic growth?
However, in order for the SDG framework to be useful for answering these
key questions, data, analysis and science for each of the 244 SDG core
development indicators are required. There are still gaps in definitions,
methodologies and standards for environmental data, geospatial data and
statistics. The data gaps are even more pronounced when trying to understand
specific local contexts or the interactions between gender, poverty and
vulnerable populations and the environment (Daguitan et al., 2019; UN
Environment, 2019b).

2. Methodology
This analysis is based on the 244 SDG indicators which have been adopted
for global monitoring by the UN Statistical Commission (UN, 2017b). This
indicator list includes some duplication of indicators which are listed under
multiple targets and thus there are 232 unique indicators; for the purpose of
this analysis, all 244 indicators were included as this provides a method for
understanding the availability of data for assessing each of the 169 targets
and 17 goals. The SDG Tier Classification was developed by the IAEG-SDGs
and endorsed by the UN Statistical Commission and can be summarized as:
Tier I: clear, established methodology with 50 percent of data available in every
relevant region; Tier II: clear, established methodology, but a lack of data; and

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