Article https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-46491-6 Intranational synergies and trade-offs reveal common and differentiated priorities of sustainable development goals in China Received: 12 June 2023 15 Check for updates 1234567890():,; 1234567890():,; Accepted: 28 February 2024 Qiang Xing 1,2, Chaoyang Wu 3,4 , Fang Chen 1,2,4 , Jianguo Liu 5, Prajal Pradhan 6,7, Brett A. Bryan 8, Thomas Schaubroeck9, L. Roman Carrasco 10, Alemu Gonsamo 11, Yunkai Li12, Xiuzhi Chen 12, Xiangzheng Deng 3,4, Andrea Albanese 13, Yingjie Li 5,14 & Zhenci Xu Accelerating efforts for the Sustainable Development Goals requires understanding their synergies and trade-offs at the national and sub-national levels, which will help identify the key hurdles and opportunities to prioritize them in an indivisible manner for a country. Here, we present the importance of the 17 goals through synergy and trade-off networks. Our results reveal that 19 provinces show the highest trade-offs in SDG13 (Combating Climate Change) or SDG5 (Gender Equality) consistent with the national level, with other 12 provinces varying. 24 provinces show the highest synergies in SDG1 (No Poverty) or SDG6 (Clean Water and Sanitation) consistent with the national level, with the remaining 7 provinces varying. These common but differentiated SDG priorities reflect that to ensure a coordinated national response, China should pay more attention to the provincial situation, so that provincial governments can formulate more targeted policies in line with their own priorities towards accelerating sustainable development. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, consisting of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 169 targets, is a global agenda for people, the planet, and prosperity to lead the world onto a sustainable and resilient path1. However, the SDGs have had a limited transformative impact so far2,3. One reason for this failure of SDGs is their selective implementation without considering their complex interactions4. As a system of interacting components, SDGs have complex interconnections with synergies (a pair of SDGs improve or deteriorate together) and trade-offs (one SDG improves while the other deteriorates), which play essential roles in achieving or inhibiting their effectiveness4–6. These complex interactions largely depend on the strategies applied to achieve an SDG. For example, infrastructure 1 International Research Center of Big Data for Sustainable Development Goals, 100094 Beijing, China. 2Key Laboratory of Digital Earth Science, Aerospace Information Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 100094 Beijing, China. 3The Key Laboratory of Land Surface Pattern and Simulation, Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China. 4University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China. 5Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability, Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA. 6 Integrated Research on Energy, Environment and Society (IREES), Energy and Sustainability Research Institute Groningen (ESRIG), University of Groningen, Groningen 9747 AG, Netherlands. 7Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), Member of the Leibniz Association, 14473 Potsdam, Germany. 8 School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Deakin University, Burwood, Victoria, Australia. 9Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology, Belvaux, Luxembourg. 10Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Republic of Singapore. 11School of Earth, Environment & Society, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada. 12College of Water Resources and Civil Engineering, China Agricultural University, Beijing, China. 13Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research, Maison des Sciences Humaines, 11, Porte des Sciences, L-4366 Esch-sur-Alzette/ Belval, Luxembourg. 14Natural Capital Project, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA. 15Department of Geography, the University of Hong Kong, Hong e-mail: wucy@igsnrr.ac.cn; chenfang@radi.ac.cn Kong, China. Nature Communications | (2024)15:2251 1 Article like roads is necessary for poverty alleviation (SDG1) and economic development (SDG8) but may be detrimental for coast (SDG14) and land ecosystems (SDG15)7. Thus, to rescue SDGs from failure, one essential ingredient is to understand their synergies and trade-offs for determining priorities and improving the balance and integri