Patricia Garcia, national program Manager for UN Sustainable Development Goals at the United Nations Association of Australia, visited Charles Sturt University in Thurgoona at the invitation of professor Manohar Pawar.

“We are the first certified carbon-neutral university in Australia, so that fits in quite well with the goals,” Prof. Pawar said.

“There are similar areas in the university where we can show how we are meeting the goals.

“We can undertake research on the goals ... both in terms of action and dissemination.

“We reached out to Patricia and she was very receptive.”

Many of the researchers at the workshop belonged to the  Institute for Land, Water and Society, and Ms Garcia said all sectors were relevant to the goals.

“For me it’s the first time (I’ve spoken at a university) where there’s a collaborative group of researches from different disciplines, which is really good,” she said.

“I’ve been giving an overview of progress and talking about the importance of raising awareness amongst the Australian public about the STGs and urging our politicians to show more leadership.

“In the case of Australia, we don’t have a very good report card this year.

“In 2015 when the STGs were first agreed by all counties, Australia was 17th in ranking (for performance on the STGs), but three years later, we’ve dropped 20 places to 37.

“Australia needs to accelerate what they’re doing.”

Ms Garcia said progress was particularly lagging in regard to environment and renewable energy, considering the relevant timeframe for the STGs was 2030.

Prof. Pawar said it was important the general public think about the goals.

“Awareness is lacking; many people think the goals are only for developing countries and isn’t applicable to Australia,” he said.

“There are certain pockets in Australia where we need to achieve STGs … 10 per cent of our population is below the poverty line. 

“There is a lot of potential to do work with the help of external organisations and collaborating with them.”