IJCA Vol 5 Issue 1 - Flipbook - Page 62
The International Journal of Conformity Assessment
2026 | Volume 5, Issue 1
SDGs and Standards
By Anil Jauhri, Former CEO of the National Accreditation Board for Certification Bodies (NABCB) India
OPINION ARTICLE
DOI: 10.55459/IJCA/v5i1/AJ
The United Nations adopted the Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGSs) in 2015 to address
poverty, inequality and environmental challenges
by 2030.
The 17 SDGs are adopted by 193 countries as part
of the agenda for sustainable development and
officially came into force on 1 January 2016.
It may be desirable to list the 17 Goals:
1. No poverty
2. Zero hunger
3. Good health and well-being
4. Quality education
5. Gender equality
6. Clean water and sanitation
7. Affordable and clean energy?
8. Decent work and economic growth
9. Industry, innovation and infrastructure
10. Reduced inequalities
11. Sustainable cities and economies
12. Responsible consumption and production
13. Climate action
14. Life below water
15. Life on land
16. Peace, justice and strong institutions
17. Partnership for the goal
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They provide a comprehensive framework for
member countries to align their policies and
strategies with the objectives in view and ensure
that all members work towards the same goals.
Where do standards 昀椀t into this framework if at all?
Each of the goals needs actionable
methodologies, roadmap and milestones.
It has to be understood that many of these goals
may need regulations in each economy which
given the urgency of sustainable development,
are likely to rise further. For example, SDG 3 on
Health obviously lends itself to regulation of both
products and services– be it food or drugs or
medical devices or medical labs or hospitals. The
SDG13 on Climate action has lately become a
priority and India is responding to it by developing
the Carbon Credit Trading Scheme which has a
mandatory compliance mechanism and targets
for emission reduction for specific sectors of
industry. Not only India but many developing
economies are now developing national
regulations relating to emission reduction besides
adhering to the provisions of the Paris Agreement
signed in 2015.
Standards are an excellent tool to support both
regulations and voluntary action in meeting the
SDGs.
Standards provide a sound basis for such
regulations– from organizational quantification
(ISO 14064-1) to emission reduction projects
(ISO 14064-2) to methodology for validation and
verification (ISO 14064-3) to requirements for GHG
validation and verification bodies (ISO 17029 read
with ISO 14065). Standards also provide platform
