Climate change, water scarcity, pollution, and energy poverty are just a few examples of the big problems that we face today. Chemistry has a central role to play in tackling these and many other coming challenges. Indeed, for de­cades chemists have provided countless solutions that have greatly contributed to the health, well-being, and development of humankind, from the discovery of new medicines to the purification of water.

Realizing certain SDGs will not only require better technology but also the political willingness to act. For example, there is no acceptable reason why over a bil­lion people have no access to safe drinking water, or that 2.6 billion people lack adequate sanitation. These factors explain why 1.8 million people die every year from diarrheal diseases and 90% of the victims are chil­dren under 5 years of age. Indeed, plenty of already available technologies can make a difference in the lives of millions of people, such as mosquito nets, more robust and nutritious crops, and decentralized energy systems. The benefits of making these technologies available around the world would have an overwhelm­ing effect.

 In many ways, there is a misalignment between the SDGs and the goals of many scientists, granting programs, and major research and academic institutions. A new generation of chemists is needed to achieve these goals, one trained with a bias toward the needs of our planet and supported by na­tional and international research funding calls that ad­dress these Goals. Here, IUPAC and other international organizations can be key players in aligning the incen­tives and the priorities of the global R&D agenda

An opinion article that appeared in Nature men­tioned that, “Addressing climate change, renewable energy, food, health, and water provision requires coor­dinated global monitoring and modeling of many fac­tors—social, economic, and environmental”. [7] This is a major task that will be possible only through a global multi-stakeholder approach of unprecedented scale, including governments, natural scientists, social scien­tists, engineers, industry, and civil society.

The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), as many other international science organizations, has a central role to play in this regard. IUPAC’s new mission statement positions the organization as “the global organization that provides objective scientific expertise and develops the essential tools for the application and communication of chemical knowledge for the benefit of humankind and the world.” In this way, IUPAC is already making significant contributions towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.