Asia-Pacific Regional Review of knowledge and experiences on environmental dimension of VNRs

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Virtual Side Event for the United Nations High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development, 7 July 2022 18:30-20:00 hrs (GMT+7/Bkk)

Background

Annual reports by the United Nations show the Asia-Pacific region is falling behind on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). At current rates, the SDGs are slated to be achieved by 2065—or 35 years behind schedule. Though there has been progress on select SDGs (mainly in SDGs 7 and 9), the region is not making enough progress or is regressing on most SDGs. The trend is especially worrying for the environment-related SDGs. At the halfway point of the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development, it is therefore prudent to look at how the region has performed on the main reporting vehicle for the SDGs: the Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs).

Organized by UNEP in partnership with the Government of Indonesia and the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies, the side event will share key findings of a partnership project between UNEP and the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES), with funding from the Norwegian Government, on 50 VNRs produced by 36 Asia-Pacific countries in the period 2016-2021, and submitted to UN High-level Political Forum on the Sustainable Development Goals. The purpose of the project was to harness the knowledge and experiences from the VNRs as a vehicle to strengthen the implementation, monitoring, and reporting progress of environmental SDGs and related targets.

Guiding questions:

On institutions: What are effective institutional structures to ensure that the environment is sufficiently discussed in the VNRs?

On geographical balance: How to ensure VNRs are not just ‘capital focused’ but also capture what is happening in the entire country?

On core principles of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development: How to operationalize foundational principles such as Leave No-one Behind (LNOB) in the VNRs to ensure important social dimensions are considered?

On synergies: References to other environmental agreements such as Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs) in VNRs have increased in recent years. What are some approaches that can help align these different frameworks and processes?

On data and indicators: The study found that the 50 Asia-Pacific VNRs have an average reporting of only 29% of environment-related targets using data and indicators. This means over 70% of environmental indicators have not been reported. How can we improve environmental reporting?

On the need to accelerate action between now and 2030: The annual UNESCAP SDG progress reports confirm that the SDG goals and targets most lacking behind are often those related to the environment. How to achieve transformative changes to this challenge and develop in a more environmentally sustainable way?