Floods, droughts and heat waves herald a changing climate.

# The current global population is around 7.8 billion. By 2030 it will be around 8.5 billion. Everyone will experience the effects of climate change. But the effects will not be felt equally.
# From 2010 to 2019 more than 1.3 billion people were affected seriously enough by extreme weather events such as floods, droughts, heat waves, and cold waves to require emergency assistance.
# For example, in the last decade alone droughts and floods have affected an estimated 338 million people in India and 383 million people in China.
# Many regions will become more drought-prone, especially mid-latitudes
# Under currently implemented policies, emissions are expected to reach 55–58 gigatonnes a year by 2030.

National pledges of reduction would slow this increase, but only slightly.

And though lower economic activity due to COVID-19 will reduce emissions in 2020, this will likely be temporary, with little effect on the longer term trend.
The widening gap between projected emissions and the paths required to reach the 1.5°C or 2°C target threatens the world's most vulnerable people. Without a long-term solution to climate change, there can be no sustainable development.

But as the world emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic, the gap may also present an opportunity. The investment required to decarbonize economies and close the gap could create tens of millions of jobs (see SDG 8) and bring long-term benefits beyond the impact on climate, such as healthier populations (see SDG 3), cleaner air (see SDG 11), and greater biodiversity on land (see SDG 15) and in the oceans (see SDG 14).

The Atlas of Sustainable Development Goals 2020 presents interactive storytelling and data visualizations about the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. It highlights trends for selected targets within each goal and introduces concepts about how some SDGs are measured. Where data is available, it also highlights the emerging impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the SDGs.

The Atlas draws from the World Bank’s World Development Indicators database, as well as from a wide variety of relevant data sources from scientists and other researchers worldwide.
We hope readers will find this third edition in the Atlas series engaging and informative, and will be inspired to discover, understand and visualize progress towards achieving the SDGs.

The Atlas of Sustainable Development Goals 2020 was produced by the Development Economics Data Group (DECDG) of the World Bank, in collaboration with various units across the World Bank. The World Bank Group’s Partnership Fund for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG Fund) provided generous financial support.