The Priority Implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals in Underdeveloped Mountain Regions

ABSTRACT At the midpoint of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development implementation, over half of the targets remain unmet due to insufficient government funding and tradeoffs among the sustainable development goals (SDGs) globally. The shortage of government funding and tradeoff between goals is a major bottleneck affecting SDGs realization. Underdeveloped mountain areas face multiple challenges such as weak infrastructure, shortage of human capital, and slow economic development, which may hinder achieving the goal of “No one left behind.” In underdeveloped mountain regions with limited financial input for sustainable development, prioritizing the SDGs through research can optimize government funding efficiency, promoting synergies between goals and reducing tradeoffs, and accelerate progress toward local SDGs. Lincang city is a typical underdeveloped mountainous region; thus, the cost‐benefit maximization criterion, correlation analysis, cluster analysis, and progress evaluation are adopted to propose priorities for advancing the SDGs in three stages: 2010–2015, 2016–2020, and 2010–2020. The findings reveal that the environmental and social dimension goals in underdeveloped regions have made positive progress, while the economic dimension goals are relatively lagging behind. Economic goals take precedence over environmental and social goals in underdeveloped regions. The specific order of priority is as follows: SDGs 9, 7, 11, 15, 4, 17, 12, 13, 16, 1, 6, 3, 8, 2, 10, and 5. Through developing green economies such as organic agriculture, clean energy, and eco‐tourism, the ecological environment advantage is transformed into an economic development driving force, and enhancing institutional support and implementation is crucial for promoting sustainable development in underdeveloped mountainous areas.