China has made notable advances toward the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), meeting or nearing 60.5 percent of 2030 targets, according to a recent report released on the UN website.

The report, titled "Big Earth Data in Support of the SDGs: Special Report for a Decade of the SDGs," credits China's progress across clean energy, forests and public services, while warning that global SDG efforts remain off track.

The study, compiled by the International Research Center of Big Data for Sustainable Development Goals (CBAS) with more than 40 partner institutions, assesses China's performance across all 17 SDGs from 2015 to 2024 using satellite remote sensing, ground observations and international datasets.

China has met or is close to 141 of 233 indicators. The country leads the world in wind and solar installations, with forest cover surpassing 25 percent, and more than 90 percent of urban residents having access to convenient public transport.

It accounts for 39 percent of global wind power capacity and added 68.21 percent of new capacity last year. All provincial-level governments have adopted disaster-reduction strategies ahead of schedule.

Globally, however, the picture is bleak. Of 59 indicators monitored, only 16.9 percent are on track for 2030, while 27 are progressing slowly, five have stalled, and 17 have regressed. Hunger remains persistent, clean energy finance is declining, and land degradation has accelerated, increasing by 3.38 percent between 2015 and 2022, equivalent to 2.6 times the area of Indonesia. Health risks are on the rise, with heat-related mortality in major cities of the Global South increasing from 0.29 percent to 0.36 percent over the decade.

With five years remaining until 2030, the report urges the development of stronger data infrastructure, closer ties between monitoring and policy simulation, and cross-goal governance in areas such as climate, energy transition and ecosystem protection. It also calls for national SDG indicator systems aligned with official statistics, and for big-data-driven monitoring and evaluation methods to support the post-2030 agenda.