The Sustainable Development Festival 20022 represented an important step in the path towards the realization of the 2030 Agenda just 8 years before its expiry. 2022 saw the achievement of one of the historic objectives of the Alliance, the inclusion in the Constitution of the principle of sustainable development, with the reform of Articles 9 and 41 of the Charter definitively approved in February 2022 with a cross-cutting political majority. The reform has seen the inclusion of the protection of the environment, biodiversity and ecosystems among constitutional rights, in favor of intergenerational justice. ASviS believes that this has been a fundamental change and a step forward with which the country has passed a historic milestone and is moving even more directly towards the horizon of sustainability indicated by the 2030 Agenda.

However, if the reform of the Constitution was an important step forward for the 2030 Agenda, the war in Ukraine represented a dramatic setback. Russia's aggression against Ukraine led to war in Europe, with terrible human losses, movements of millions of refugees and very serious economic consequences, due both to the effect of the sanctions against Moscow - decreed by the countries that wanted to respond to the violation of international law - and to the disruption of many lines of production and of international trade. The impact was terrible for the Ukrainian population, but it was serious for many other countries, and risks affecting especially the weakest groups, for example by increasing world hunger due to the interruption of food supplies from Ukraine and Russia.

The solution to the war, the resolution of other conflicts around the world, and the prevention of new crises had to go through the revitalization of multilateralism and of international institutions, aiming at the defense of minority rights wherever they are violated. Furthermore, this crisis had to become a stimulus to accelerate the just ecological transition, also with the support of scientific and technological research, capable of providing solutions to help mitigate the climate crisis, while respecting the rights of future generations, a particularly relevant issue as 2022 had been the European Year of Young People.

As usual, among the main initiatives there will be three appointments directly organized by ASviS, which will explore topics of transversal importance for sustainable development, also with an international perspective: the inaugural event on 4 October (in which the new ASviS Report “Italy and the Sustainable Development Goals), the central event on the 12th and the closing of the Festival on October 20th.

In addition, the national thematic events organized by the Alliance Working Groups will be of particular importance, which will see in-depth studies dedicated to the many issues related to the 2030 Agenda and the related Sustainable Development Goals. In addition to these initiatives there will be hundreds of voices from the territory that will animate the Festival with a rich schedule of initiatives including conferences, workshops, seminars, book presentations, shows and much more, as well as new paths of contamination of different worlds, from culture, to technology, from information to education.

All these events will deal with the 2030 Agenda Goals, and other major sustainability issues related to the recovery from the pandemic and geopolitical crises, the inequalities between countries and in countries, with the aim of making them close and interesting for the general public, thanks to the involvement of experts from all sectors and collaborations with key stakeholders.

The Festival will also be increasingly enriched by a series of "new paths": debates on the future, online training courses, artistic illumination of monuments, concerts, document presentations and much more, with the aim of spreading the messages of the 2030 Agenda also through contamination with the languages ​​of art, culture and multimedia.