A Global Commons Framework for Systems Transformation toward the SDGs: Operationalizing pathways through coupling data infrastructures, integrated modelling, co-design, and sustainable financing

Phoebe Koundouri, Angelos Alamanos and Conrad Landis

No 2613, DEOS Working Papers from Athens University of Economics and Business

Abstract: The world faces a convergence of interconnected crises (climate change, biodiversity loss, sovereign debt stress, food-energy-water insecurity, widening inequalities, wars and geopolitical instability) interacting through nonlinear feedbacks to produce cascading effects invisible to sector-by-sector analysis. Despite the comprehensive vision of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), global implementation lags, constrained less by a lack of knowledge than by weak operational frameworks capable of translating systemic evidence into coordinated action. Influential sustainability transition frameworks such as the "Six Transformations" of 2019, and the "entry points and levers" of the 2023 Global Sustainable Development Report (GSDR) have organized what needs to change, but the categories they prescribe are imposed a priori on diverse country contexts and offer limited guidance on how to operationalize change. This Perspective argues that the persistent implementation gap is, at its core, an operational gap: entry points and levers should be the outcomes of measurement and modelling within a country-specific feasible set, not inputs assumed in advance. We propose a three-step operational framework: continuous monitoring and assessment, science-based co-designed transformation pathways bridging modelling and stakeholder engagement, and aligned financing and governance mechanisms, all delivered through an open-access digital Global Commons. Drawing on the architecture of the SDSN Global Climate Hub, we demonstrate how coupling data infrastructure, interdisciplinary modelling chains, digital twins, and stakeholder co-design processes can produce spatially explicit, policy-relevant, and implementable sustainability pathways at national to global scales. We further argue that embedding ecosystem services valuation into macroeconomic assessments and reforming the global financial architecture are essential complements to this approach. The framework is designed not as a universal prescription but as a replicable, adaptive methodology that can bridge the persistent gap between scientific assessment and policy delivery in the final push toward 2030 and beyond.

Keywords: Digital Global Commons; AE4RIA-SDSN Global Climate Hub; Systems Transformation; WEF Nexus; Beyond-GDP Computable General Equilibrium; Sustainable Finance; Participatory Co-Design; Accountability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-05-13
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