SDG0-1 | Tragedy Within SDGs

[Published] July 25, 2022 
[Updated] August 30, 2026

In 2015, the United Nations adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). They are a call for all of us to work together to preserve our planet for generations to come and create a world in which people everywhere can live happy and fulfilling lives. Today, governments, businesses, local authorities, organizations, and many others around the world are pursuing their own initiatives toward achieving these goals.

However, I have serious doubts about the declaration itself. Can we truly welcome this grand declaration without question?

The Preamble to the document states:

“As we embark on this collective journey, we pledge that no one will be left behind.”

I cannot help but feel a profound sense of unease at these few words. If such a beautiful pledge is being made, why is the “Renunciation of War”—surely an indispensable condition for world peace—not explicitly stated anywhere in the declaration?

We may be able to take part in this journey toward a sustainable world, but even at this very moment, countless children, civilians, and soldiers are losing their lives because of wars and armed conflicts.

Behind them are countless more families overwhelmed by despair and grief. There are also children who have lost even those families to war.

They are, in the truest sense, “those left behind” on what is supposed to be our journey toward a sustainable world. We must never forget that they exist. For, as I will discuss in greater detail in “SDG0-3 | Live and Let Live,” we too bear responsibility for their deaths and their suffering.

Renunciation of War Is a Prerequisite for the SDGs

The SDGs set out a total of 17 Sustainable Development Goals, beginning with “No Poverty (SDG1),” followed by “Zero Hunger (SDG2),” “Good Health and Well-Being (SDG3),” and others.

The goal concerning peace appears second to last, expressed in the relatively gentle and indirect terms of “Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions (SDG16).” Yet nowhere is there an explicit and fundamental rejection of war or weapons of mass destruction.

Under such circumstances, all 17 goals aimed at protecting our planet could be shattered in an instant by war. Did the United Nations really intend to achieve the SDGs by 2030 while leaving the renunciation of war unresolved?

It is well known that conflicts of interest exist among the nations that make up the United Nations. But can we justify putting national interests first when doing so results in the deaths of so many people? Should not these conflicts of interest among nations be the first challenge we confront?

War is humanity’s greatest act of killing. It damages the global environment through the destruction of forests and the contamination of water sources and soil. It diverts resources that should be devoted to education and healthcare, and mercilessly robs children of their hope for the future.

As long as we continue to accept war as an option, it is clear that the word “sustainability” has no solid foundation. If we truly seek a sustainable future, I firmly believe that the first step can be nothing other than the “Renunciation of War.”

To resolve this profound contradiction and breathe life into the SDGs as a whole, I propose defining the “Renunciation of War” as the fundamental prerequisite for the entire declaration—SDG0—and incorporating it into the declaration.

Specifically, the goal would be expressed in the clearest possible terms:

“War as an act of national sovereignty, as well as weapons of mass destruction including nuclear weapons, shall be permanently renounced.”

To this end, I also propose a call to action: “sdg0now” (sdg-zero-now).

It is a call for each of us to remain conscious of the need to act toward one goal: to renounce war now and achieve lasting peace.

There is no reason why human beings must willingly choose the brutality of war. We need only imagine what consequences it brings—and what those consequences truly mean.

A young girl stands alone where her home stood only yesterday. Before her lies a mountain of rubble. Her eyes seem to ask, even before grief can set in, “Why? Why did this happen?”

How could a young child possibly understand that the “adults” she so often sees on television news are the very ones responsible for such destruction?

A Future Without the Concept of War

Why do we wage war? Do we not have the wisdom to resolve our conflicts without it? If our own children or grandchildren were to ask us, “Why do grown-ups go to war and kill people?” how would we answer them?

Let us focus on the word “war” and imagine a future society without it. The first step is to fundamentally rethink our own concept of war. That is the very heart of the “sdg0now” call to action.

If we can establish the fundamental prerequisite of SDG0 (= Renunciation of War), the remaining 17 goals will move, one after another, much closer to realization.

Leaders around the world will begin to recognize the significance and far-reaching effects of this fundamental prerequisite and consider what is now required of them.

Once war itself is eliminated, the nations that have renounced it should also begin to see the world in a new perspective.

Instead of competing for supremacy through military power, they can develop a new determination to lead the world toward the far nobler purpose of building peace.

When we write all 17 SDGs on a single sheet of paper, we can see the declaration as a whole. And in the final goal, “Partnerships for the Goals (SDG17),” we can even glimpse, however faintly, a truly exciting ray of hope.

If the leaders of every nation possessing military power resolve to renounce war completely and immediately, and join together in a global partnership for a world without war, we may finally see a path toward a truly sustainable future.

Once war is renounced, there will no longer be a need to continue spending enormous sums on maintaining and developing military power. This would free up vast financial resources.

If those resources were instead devoted to rebuilding communities devastated by the countless wars of the past and to supporting those affected by them, achieving the SDGs would, for the first time, begin to seem genuinely possible.

Then surely children around the world would light up with joy and jump with excitement. At last, they would have been given hope. At last, they would be able to see the light of the future.

Imagine the leaders of the world, having made the courageous decision to renounce war and abolish nuclear weapons, walking proudly down a red carpet, surrounded by television cameras and led by representatives of children from around the world, as they gather to sign the historic SDG0 Global Partnership Treaty.

The great chorus of protest from the world’s eight billion people—“You took far too long!”—would turn into a thunderous wave of applause, and the names of those leaders would be inscribed forever in the history of humankind.

The debate over the renunciation of war has a long history. Politicians, legal experts, religious leaders, scholars, and many others have argued the issue from countless viewpoints.

Unfortunately, there is no way of knowing when—or even whether—these debates will finally bear fruit. In the meantime, countless people continue to become victims of war almost every day.

Is this the inevitable fate of a “civilized society”? War is by no means an inseparable part of civilization. The real problem is that we continue to accept war as an option.

There can be little doubt that the Renunciation of War is the wish of conscientious people around the world. If we could make it a reality, this planet could be filled with peace as early as tomorrow.

And yet, why are there still rulers, leaders, and politicians—in Japan and elsewhere—who seek to lead people in precisely the opposite direction?

It was this question that ultimately compelled me to write this blog.

Continue to ⇒ SDG0-2 | Young Time Binders

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