Sustainable Environment

From SDG Interactions to Environmental Decisions: Evidence on Policy Coherence and Outcomes

The 2030 Agenda requires decision-makers to manage interactions among Sustainable Development Goals rather than pursue them in isolation, and Target 17.14 calls for enhanced policy coherence for sustainable development. Although methods for mapping SDG synergies and trade-offs have advanced, research has found limited evidence that these analyses shape policymaking, institutional change or resource allocation, and even less on their environmental consequences. This Collection focuses on that implementation gap. It asks when, how, and under what conditions SDG interaction analysis informs decisions affecting environmental sustainability and, where evidence allows, what outcomes followed. It welcomes critical accounts of successful uptake, limited influence and failure, including the institutional, political and financial factors that shape whether systems insights are used.

Policies that appear coherent on paper may still leave spending patterns and environmental performance unchanged. The Collection centers on decisions affecting water (SDG 6), consumption and production (SDG 12), climate (SDG 13), oceans (SDG 14) and land and biodiversity (SDG 15), where choices in one area can create costs or benefits in others. It seeks evidence connecting systems analysis to real decisions and, where evidence allows, to measurable environmental outcomes or trade-offs, such as changes in water quality, emissions, forest cover, land degradation or biodiversity. By examining the pathway from analysis to decision and outcome, the Collection aims to distinguish methods that generate insight from processes that influence environmental action. It also invites evidence on why uptake fails and what this reveals about governance, incentives, and finance.

The Collection welcomes original research, reviews, methodological papers with demonstrated decision relevance, and substantive policy papers. Contributions should identify the decision context and explain how systems evidence was used, contested or disregarded. Topics include:

1. SDG interaction analysis informing environmental plans, regulations or strategies
2. Institutional mechanisms for policy coherence under Target 17.14 and their effects on decisions
3. How trade-offs and synergies across SDGs 6, 12, 13, 14 and 15 are handled in practice
4. Tracing uptake from participatory mapping or systems modelling into decisions
5. Emerging evidence on environmental outcomes, including null or adverse effects, and approaches for tracing them

Papers that map SDG interactions without examining a concrete decision pathway are outside the intended scope. Single-country and comparative studies from Latin America and other underrepresented contexts are particularly welcome.

Keywords:

1. SDG interactions
2. Policy coherence
3. Environmental outcomes
4. Systems thinking
5. SDG target 17.14

This Article Collection is part of Taylor & Francis's SDG Article Collection Series. This series is dedicated to publishing groundbreaking research that addresses global sustainability challenges while accelerating progress toward achieving the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Articles published within this Collection will benefit from enhanced promotional activities across Taylor & Francis platforms, ensuring increased visibility and discoverability for your research.

This Collection supports the following SDGs:

SDG 6 Clean Water and Sanitation (Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all)

SDG 12 Responsible Consumption and Production (Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns)

SDG 13 Climate Action (Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts)

SDG 14 Life Below Water (Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development)

SDG 15 Life on Land (Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss)

SDG 17 Partnerships for the Goals (Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development)

­­All manuscripts submitted to this Article Collection will undergo a full peer-review; the Guest Advisor for this Collection will not be handling the manuscripts (unless they are an Editorial Board member).

Please review the journal scope and author submission instructions prior to submitting a manuscript. Sustainable Environment accepts the following types of article: Research Article, Review Article, Data Notes, Methods, Registered Report, Brief Report.

The deadline for submitting manuscripts is 13 August 2027.

Please contact Kara Roberts at kara.roberts@taylorandfrancis.com with any queries on discount codes regarding this Article Collection.

Please be sure to select the appropriate Article Collection from the drop-down menu in the submission system.

Please select Environmental Policy and Practice from the list of available sections during submission. Failure to select the appropriate Article Collection or Section name can result in delays.

Guest Advisors declare no potential conflicts of interests in line with our Editorial Policies.

Ivonne Lobos Alva is Team Leader for Sustainable Transitions and Senior Expert at the Stockholm Environment Institute’s Latin America Centre. Her research examines SDG interactions, policy coherence and environmental governance, with a focus on how integrated analysis is taken up in decisions. She authored the “Interaction and interlinkages” entry in Routledge’s Essential Concepts for Implementing the Sustainable Development Goals (2025), co-led the Earth System Governance working group on national policy integration of the 2030 Agenda, and co-chaired the T20 Task Force on the 2030 Agenda and Development Cooperation under Italy’s 2021 G20 presidency. She has led the development of decision-support tools including SDG Synergies, Sapient and JET-AFOLU.