Abstract:Achieving the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by United Nations is a critical task for countries around the world from 2016 to 2030. Yet, recent assessments indicate that progress on half of the SDGs has stagnated or even regressed, and that most goals are unlikely to be met by 2030. This study reviews the progress globally and in China towards achieving the 17 SDGs, and summarizes five key challenges that are impinging their realization: 1) the data gaps and insufficient monitoring capacity, 2) the high complexity of interlinkages among the SDGs, 3) the influence of regional disparities and negative externalities, 4) the lack of integration among science, policy, and society, and 5) the uncertain impacts of global change on SDG progress. Accordingly, four countermeasure suggestions are proposed to accelerate China’s realization of the SDGs: strengthening policy coherence, focusing on priority goals, enhancing basic theoretical research, and improving data acquisition capacity.