Recently, the international community decided to adopt a new set of development goals focusing on improving the sustainability of nation-states. The need for a new set of targets was developed at the Rio +20 Conference, held in Rio de Janeiro, in June 2012. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) build on the achievements of the Millennium Development Goals. As mentioned, in a press release, by Wu Hongbo, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs,

Sustainable development goals that build on the successes of the Millennium Development Goals, and that apply to all countries, can provide a tremendous boost to efforts to implement sustainable development and help us address issues ranging from reducing poverty and creating jobs to the pressing issues of meeting economic, social and environmental aspirations of all people.

Engineers will play an essential role in attaining these SDGs by creating the environmentally-friendly technologies of the future. Sustainable development is one of the main issues analysed in the Engineering: Issues, Challenges and Opportunities for Development (pdf) and is a major mandate of the UNESCO Engineering Initiative.