Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development
Stronger partnerships across all sectors and industries are integral in advancing the environmental agenda and supporting adaptation and recovery. Building resilience in the environment is particularly important in the wake of conflicts, including in Ukraine, and recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Goal 17 and the environment
Stronger partnerships will contribute to environmental protection and sustainable development by mobilizing resources, sharing knowledge, promoting the creation and transfer of environmentally sound technologies, and building capacity. There is tremendous scope for making the existing financial system more sustainable by integrating the environment dimension. This will be crucial to overcoming the triple planetary crisis of climate change, nature and biodiversity loss, and pollution and waste.
Up-to-date and high-quality data are critical in guiding decision-making for sustainable development. In 2021, 150 countries and territories reported implementing a national statistical plan. However, funding for this sector in many least-developed countries has stagnated, meaning that data from those most vulnerable to the triple planetary crisis may be outdated or less detailed.
Growing cooperation among multilateral organizations, donors and the private sector can provide least-developed countries and other stakeholders with the best practices and technology needed to increase efficiency in data collection, natural resource use, waste management and processing, and mitigation.
UNEP’s work on Goal 17
Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals is only possible when governments, civil society, the private sector, the United Nations system, and other actors work together and mobilize all available resources. Increasing support to least-developed countries, in particular the least developed countries, landlocked developing countries, and Small Island Developing States, is fundamental to equitable progress for all.
UNEP is the custodian agency for 24 SDG indicators, meaning it monitors progress by collecting data and producing reports to inform policymaking. UNEP is also actively helping numerous countries build capacity to collect and analyze data, including through financial mechanisms. This helps inform many of UNEP’s reports, toolkits, and technical guides, all of which help shape the future of the environment.
UNEP has joined three other institutions (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) in a global effort to support what is known as the One Health approach. This initiative aims to improve the well-being of humans, animals and ecosystems. The effort is based on the idea that all three of those elements are intertwined.
The UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021–2030
Led by UNEP, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), it covers terrestrial as well as coastal and marine ecosystems. A global call to action, it will draw together political support, scientific research, and financial muscle to massively scale up restoration.
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