Only four of the 21 MDG targets or sub-targets have been met worldwide, two years before the 2015 deadline.
But with scores of countries participating in consultations, there are now hundreds of targets, sub-targets, and ancillary targets within the over-all goals.
And through rigorous accountability checks, we must effectively pursue 7bn sub-targets – one for the sustainable development prospects of each citizen.
There are eight of these so-called Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) with 21 sub-targets, from educating girls to cutting maternal mortality.
Two "sub-targets" of 27%, on the renewable share of the energy mix and on improvements to energy efficiency, were included in the deal but have no teeth (the renewables goal is binding only at "EU level", which leads one to wonder if the club will sue itself should it be missed).
Sources in the Department of Energy and Climate Change (Decc) insisted Rudd had not misled parliament because she only specifically said that the UK was "on course" to meet a sub-target for 30% of all electricity to come from renewables.
The starting-point for the next battle will be a much longer list of proposed goals that has already been trimmed to 17 (including ones on oceans, income inequality and renewable energy), accompanied by some 169 sub-targets.Some attempts will be made to increase the number of goals (and targets).
Without binding sub-targets for the different sectors, it will be all but impossible to move systematically towards a sustainable society.
Because one target can yield hundreds or thousands of incidental sub-targets — people connected to the target whose call records will be requested and stored — it's possible that 2017's targets just had fatter, longer contact lists and deeper networks than 2016's.
As a pair, the central repeat regions of TALENs determine the DNA binding specificity for the two sub-target sites; and the dimeric non-specific FokI cleavage domains cause a DNA double strand break (DSB) between the bound sequences.
It is reassuring to see that "ensuring universal sexual and reproductive health and rights" is among the five sub-targets proposed within this goal.
