# 161

Dear Andreas Losch, Andre Galli, Thomas Schildknecht

I have read your article

History, concepts and challenges of proposing an 18th UN Sustainable Development Goal related to Space

My comments on this novel and very interesting subject:

1- In the abstract you say that the outer space has been left out of research regarding the SDS goals, and naturally, you are right. It is also new for me, but the reason as per my reasoning is that the goals refer to making mankind survival, and at present we do not have that problem. A different thing is if you consider the debris, because that is a problem, perhaps related to SDG 11, since sooner or later those debris will fall in our living spaces, and then the deadly Kessler Syndrome could become a reality

2- In page 2 you say “The main focus of these goals, however, was poverty eradication, and they were therefore not applicable to all countries”

In my opinion, this is not a fair statement, since poverty is present in all countries. Even the richest have poverty, perhaps at different levels, but unfortunately it exists all over the world

3- In page 3 you mention ‘sustainability’, and in my opinion, this is an aspect that is missing in the 17 SDGs since they do not consider the influence of one SDG over another

4- Page 3 you say with reference to the Club of Rome “they argue that the world should pursue an economic equilibrium instead of a constant growth scenario”

I had not read this paragraph of yours when I wrote the section 3 statement, and what you say here is very important and true statement, and it corroborates what I said in section 3, because to reach an equilibrium you need to compare are SDGs holistically, not in isolation. Why?

Because resources are limited. Assume that you have a budget of billons of dollars for all SDGs, and most part of it is employed in say SDG 1 ‘No poverty’, even if you have still a lot of many to build houses, produce food and give health assistance, there is a chance that these functions cannot be accomplished if there are not enough founds to develop them, because most are thought to be used in SDG 1. Therefore, it can be seen the impact that the use of a resource may have on the other SDGs. Forcefully, we must reach an equilibrium, we have to find the common place in the Venn diagrams with the thee dimensions, where all solutions involving the intersections of the three dimensions reside.

5- Page 3 “It is of course unclear “if and how a follow up to the UN sustainable development goals 2030 will be defined and negotiate”

In my opinion, that is utopian; maybe perhaps by 2050 we can reach that goal, and one reason is the lack of electrical energy to each house.

There is another problem: How much is ‘No poverty’? If there a limit of money for this, that possibly will be different in each country? This amount is the target for SGD 1 and if memory serves me well, UN established it at about USD 10 per person and per day. But can we apply it in the USA or Canada or Germany and at the same time than to Nigeria and Ghana? Possibly, the result will be too little for some and too much for others, due to their customs, food regime, construction costs, etc.

In on honestly, and recognizing the importance of your claim, I believe that mankind has first to solve or at least ameliorate its numerous problems here in Earth before thinking in the outer space. Are we going to repeat what happened in 1492 when Columbus discovered America, and that started a fight between Spain, England, France, The Netherlands and Portugal, for grabbing land? Right now, the competitors are USA, Russia, China and India, and already started with the Moon.

6- My views appear to be confirmed when in page 5 you quote “rather than reasoning for Space as a goal in itself, I deem it a powerful vehicle driving us towards a better future by immensely contributing to the existing goals”, former UNOOSA director Simonetta di Pippo argued in Geneva”

These are my comments. Hope they can be of some use

Nolberto Munier