AUTHORS: Eline Blot, Nora Hiller, Auriane Flottes de Pouzols

This policy brief examines how animal welfare intersects with sustainable development, and presents how EU and global trade policy can advance sustainable development ambitions by improving animal welfare. 

Discussions around sustainability often focus on climate, biodiversity, and food systems, but animal welfare is a critical piece of that puzzle. However, there is a recognition gap in global policy systems, whereby animal welfare is not explicitly referenced in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and their metrics. This report highlights the connections to public health, resilient food systems, and long-term environmental outcomes, concluding that improving animal welfare can support progress across numerous SDGs. 

Welfare improvements for both livestock and for working animals, including donkeys, mules and horses, are key for communities worldwide. The report discusses the economic and physical contributions of working animals to their owner, for instance during disasters, and how their recognition in the United Nations can support sustainability efforts. The report highlights, among others, the following SDGs, which can be advanced through improved animal welfare.  

• Ending Poverty (SDG 1) – Better welfare improves livelihoods of smallholder farmers and working animals  

• Zero Hunger (SDG 2) – Shifting away from resource-intensive industrial livestock systems can improve food security 

• Good Health & Well-Being (SDG 3) – Welfare improvements reduce disease risk and improve public health outcomes, in the EU framed through the One Health and One Welfare approach 

• Climate Action & Life on Land/Below Water (SDGs 13, 14, 15) – Higher welfare systems lower the prevalence of environmental degradation of land and water 

Trade policy should be considered a key lever, with EU and international trade agreements presenting opportunities to adapt welfare standards and to reduce negative environmental and social impacts. The report explores how the EU has progressively integrated sustainability and animal welfare into its trade policy framework, and the evolution in recent Free Trade Agreements. Animal protection within the World Trade Organisation has advanced gradually, driven mainly by jurisprudence rather than policy. 

With the 2030 Agenda approaching its deadline, and the progress remaining limited, the synergies presented underline that addressing animal welfare is central to achieving the SDGs in the EU and globally. 

This report was commissioned by the Eurogroup for Animals, as a timely update and outlook to the Eurogroup for Animals’ policy brief on trade and the SDGs from 2019.