| Long-term goals of global development in the 21st century are presented in the conceptual documents of the United Nations (UN). Sustainable Development Goals for 2016–2030 were approved by all countries at the UN conference in September 2015 [1]. In December 2015, the UN adopted a program to combat climate change and its impacts beyond 2020, setting out greenhouse gas emissions and temperature change targets [2]. A strategy for the future of mankind based on the concept of sustainable development and the transition to a green economy was approved in June 2012 [3]. Russia has officially supported these development priorities and considered the related documents to be important in the long term. An analysis of the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the possibility of adapting them to the Russian context as part of long-term policy-making has exposed certain differences in the interpretation of the sustainable development concept worldwide and in Russia. In Russia, this term is used in the present strategies and programs primarily in the context of sustainable economic growth, whereas globally sustainable development is understood as a more fundamental process associated with balanced economic, social, and environmental development. The latter interpretation was recorded in the documents issued by various international organizations and the development strategies of all developed countries following the adoption of Agenda 21 at the UN conference in 1992 [4], which recognized the limits of sustainable development at the expense of economic growth. Sustainable Development Goals. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are the successor to the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which were effective in 2000–2015. The MDGs were officially recognized globally and nationally by many countries1 . From a methodological and practical viewpoint, the MDG system oriented towards the solution of social, environmental, and economic problems was pragmatic and easy to use. All UN member states committed to achieving these goals and the related targets by 2015. Generally, important progress has been made by mankind towards MDGs [6]. Similar to the MDG approach, the SDG system relies methodologically on a set of goals, tasks, and indicators and has a three-tier configuration. Seventeen goals of this system encompass three pillars of sustainable development, i.e., social, economic, and environmental dimensions, as well as institutional aspects (Table 1). The SDGs take into account various system and structural barriers to sustainable development (inequality, poverty, ecological problems, structural institutional gaps, etc.). They also consider ways to overcome these barriers and ensure further progress. Unlike the MDGs, which were primarily focused on developing countries, the SDGs are designed for all countries in the world with certain variations [1]. Therefore, these goals provide an important step forward in securing a sustainable future for the globalized world. |