This paper examines how local governments monitor the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through voluntary local reviews (VLRs), focusing on localised practices from 2016 to 2024. Given the crucial role of local authorities in SDG implementation, the research aims to analyse differences in monitoring approaches and indicator usage across various types of local governments worldwide. The analysis involved 120 VLRs, using both quantitative methods to assess the number of indicators per goal and semantic clustering techniques to explore thematic patterns. Results show that cities are the most active in SDG localisation, especially for goals aligned with urban governance, such as Goal 11 (Sustainable Cities) and Goal 4 (Quality Education). Some goals, such as Goal 15 (Life on Land) and Goal 17 (Partnerships), are less frequently monitored, reflecting challenges in translating national objectives to local contexts. Semantic clustering highlighted both strong alignments and gaps in SDG indicator usage, particularly for overlapping goals. The paper underscores the need for more tailored, context-specific indicators for local authorities to effectively monitor SDGs, while highlighting the leadership role that cities play in this process.

This article investigates issues in the local operationalization of the Planetary Boundaries concept (PBc), crucial for assessing human impacts on the Earth system and guiding sustainable development policies. Originally designed for the global scale, this concept requires local adaptation to align territorial actions with global environmental goals. Following a qualitative analysis of 34 review articles, a systematic categorization method is employed to identify recurrent localization and operationalization issues. Their analysis provides three main contributions that improve the understanding of PBc downscaling mechanisms. First, it identifies a prevalent quantification-based localization approach. Second, it categorizes local operationalization constraints into three distinct groups. Third, it reveals underlying patterns demonstrating that the prevalent approach, despite ensuring scientific rigor, generates methodological and practical constraints to effective local operationalization. This “operational paradox” reveals fundamental tensions between the PBc’s biophysical interpretation, localization by quantification, and local operationalization, contrasting measurement or meaning, precision or participation, and standardized solutions or locally adapted responses. For future research, the analysis of the interactions between these contributions suggests operating a paradigm shift based on a socio-biophysical interpretation of the PBc and the contextualization of the resulting components. This alternative approach could prioritize territorial anchoring, stakeholder inclusion, and the co-construction of sustainability trajectories.

The Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission (EC) has been running one of the first attempts by an intergovernmental organization to provide local governments implementing the UN’s 2030 Agenda with guidance on how this could be undertaken more successfully. The aim is to support the monitoring and possibly the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by providing an inspirational framework of indicators for the monitoring that could be relevant specifically for European cities, as well as providing overall support on the various technical aspects that must be considered when preparing Voluntary Local Reviews (VLRs). The main output of the JRC in this respect is the European Handbook for SDG Voluntary Local Reviews. Its first version was published in 2020 when only a few VLRs had been published in Europe. Since then, a growing number of local governments are engaged in this exercise. To facilitate the learning from these experiences, the JRC organized advanced training and coordination sessions with several European cities. These training sessions were the occasion to share experiences and good practices and to provide cities with additional insights and guidance. In 2022, a new edition of the European Handbook was published. This revision includes the refinement of indicators and methods for monitoring, aspects of the Handbook that cities found problematic or complex, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. The new Handbook of local SDG monitoring addresses related challenges and opportunities, expanding the definition of VLRs from output-oriented to process-oriented. Additional activities include in-depth analyses of SDG interlinkages and implementation and monitoring of the European ‘Leave No One Behind’ principle at the local level. <!----> <!----> <!----> <!---->