The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have now been in place for 4 years, as the center-piece of the sustainable development program of the United Nations. This paper argues that the Earth system fundamentally represents the organizational framework of the planet and, therefore, any attempt at avoiding the existential threat to humanity that our activities are creating must be integrated within this system. We examine how complex systems function in order to identify the key characteristics that any sustainability policy must possess in order to deliver successful, long-term coexistence of humanity within the biosphere. We then examine what this means in terms of the SDGs, currently the dominant policy document on global sustainability and lying at the heart of Agenda 30. The paper explores what a sustainable program of actions, aimed at properly integrating within the Earth system, should look like, and what changes are needed if humanity is to address the multiple challenges facing us, based on systems theory. Central to this is the acknowledgement of shortcomings in current policy and the urgent need to address these in practice.

中文翻译：

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没有目标是孤岛：系统理论对可持续发展目标的影响

作为联合国可持续发展计划的核心，可持续发展目标 (SDG) 现已实施 4 年。本文认为，地球系统从根本上代表了地球的组织框架，因此，任何试图避免我们的活动正在创造的对人类的生存威胁的尝试都必须整合到这个系统中。我们研究了复杂系统的运作方式，以确定任何可持续发展政策必须具备的关键特征，以实现人类在生物圈内的成功、长期共存。然后，我们研究了这在可持续发展目标方面意味着什么，可持续发展目标是目前关于全球可持续性的主要政策文件，也是 30 世纪议程的核心。该文件探讨了可持续的行动计划，旨在正确整合到地球系统中，应该是什么样子，如果人类要根据系统理论来应对我们面临的多重挑战，需要做出哪些改变。对此的核心是承认当前政策的缺陷以及在实践中解决这些缺陷的迫切需要。