The chemical sciences and the quest for sustainability

Two years into the “decade of action” to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals set by the UN in 2015, how much has been accomplished, and how well is chemistry performing in its intertwined goals of enhancing sustainability and reforming itself? The 2015 UN agreement on Agenda 2030, setting 17 time-bound Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs),1) represented a challenge and opportunity for science, working in concert with other sectors, to provide effective, environmentally benign, and affordable solutions to many of the pressing problems faced by human beings and the physical and living systems of the planet we inhabit.2) The reach and inge...