City2City
Viet Nam is creating its first zero plastic waste city: Here's how
03 July 2024 - Only 10-15 % of collected waste in Viet Nam is reused or recycled. A new Zero Plastic Waste City project will model local solutions. The project is centred on a social business-driven approach. The chosen pilot city will be announced later in 2024.
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03 July 2024 - Five South-East Asian countries are responsible for more marine plastic waste leakage than the rest of the world combined - and Viet Nam is one of them. While the Mekong River plays a crucial role in the socio-economic development of the region, it also ranks among the 10-most impactful sources of global marine litter.

The main causes behind Vietnamese land-based marine litter can be attributed to a combination of rising consumption and poor national waste management. Alongside Viet Nam's rapid economic development over the past decades, the country's solid waste generation has also increased consistently at annual rates of around 10%. Only about 10-15% of collected waste in Viet Nam is reused or recycled; much of the remainder is sent to dump sites and incineration facilities, underlining the necessity of more sustainable approaches to solid waste management in the country.

With currently more than 2,000 small-scale enterprises and high industrial growth rates, plastic recycling constitutes a very promising industry in Viet Nam. However, until recently, most of the plastic material recycled in Viet Nam was imported from other countries such as China. In an effort to avoid a dramatic increase of global waste streams to the country, the Vietnamese government banned the import of material for recycling in 2018, an act that has boosted demand for recyclable domestic plastic waste. Accordingly, the most severe barriers that hinder an improvement in Vietnamese plastic waste management are found in the inadequate or non-existent disposal, collection and segregation of waste at household and provincial level. Due to insufficient investments in waste recycling technologies and resources, most Vietnamese provinces are not adequately equipped for the separated collection of waste at source.

On-the-ground studies show that neighbourhoods that enjoy regular waste collection benefit from an effective and cost-efficient service. However, many communities remain unreached by regular collection services. In response, local households dispose of their municipal waste independently via measures such as incineration or dumping. While these informal and uncoordinated activities not only cause harmful direct effects such as air pollution and the spread of mosquitoes, they also indirectly foster marine litter along the entire Mekong Delta.

It is precisely against this backdrop of much-needed capacity building in strategic municipal waste segregation, collection and recycling that the Zero Plastic Waste City project was initiated as a collaboration between The Grameen Creative Lab and The Alliance to End Plastic Waste. Consisting of a modular social business approach, the programme aims to increase the waste collection rates of currently unconsidered waste types and increase the amount of waste being reused for new purposes, while simultaneously empowering local waste pickers. The modular approach allows for the development of a social business based on the needs of local communities as well as the gaps in the waste value chain, and which is integrated into the existing ecosystem of local waste management stakeholders. Social businesses - a concept developed by Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and co-founder of The Grameen Creative Lab, Muhammad Yunus - base their business activities not on the maximization of profits but on solving their customers' specific social or environmental problems. They combine the best of two worlds: the social mission of a charitable organization with the business acumen of traditional for-profit businesses, ensuring long-term financial self-sustainability.

To ensure the successful implementation of the Zero Plastic Waste City approach in terms of both a long-lasting socio-environmental impact within the project region as well as a contribution to the global effort to reduce marine plastic litter, the project’s specific locations will be identified according to a variety of factors such as their proximity to rivers or the sea, and a current high volume of solid waste leakage. Furthermore, in order to specifically target municipal waste collection schemes, the project will be primarily implemented in small and medium-sized urban areas. In Viet Nam, these criteria should ensure a high probability of success for the Zero Plastic Waste City programme. Furthermore, the project is potentially scalable along the entire Mekong Delta as well as through an extensive local network of partner organizations.

In the Mekong Delta particularly, the price sensitivity of existing informal schemes of waste collection and recycling constitutes a remarkable finding by our on-site investigations and a particular challenge of local waste management schemes. In many municipalities, informal waste pickers collect and recycle household waste in addition to governmental waste management services or as full substitution of them. However, interviews with local waste pickers indicate that their informal collection and recycling services highly depend on local market prices for recyclable materials. If revenues on secondary materials are low, informal collection and recycling rates drop. These findings not only stress the importance of market mechanisms in understanding informal sector value creation; more importantly, they underline the need for formal employment opportunities and stable wages for waste collectors from the informal sector – one of the major contributions of the Zero Plastic Waste City project.

Grameen Creative Lab is currently identifying local partners for implementation, aligning other stakeholders in the areas and initiating pilot assessments. The city will be announced in early 2024 and Grameen Creative Lab will also explore approaches to scale these social businesses to additional cities in 2021. We look forward to working with platforms like the Global Plastic Action Partnership, which launched its first pilot in Indonesia and will soon partner with the Government of Viet Nam, to drive effective action against plastic pollution in Viet Nam and its neighbouring countries, paving the way towards a more sustainable and pollution-free ASEAN region.

ORIGINAL ARTICLE LINK: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2024/01/viet-nam-is-building-its-first-zero-plastic-waste-city-heres-how

Image: Grameen Creative Lab

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Chairman of Indonesia's Waste Pickers Union (IPI) on COVID-19
03 July 2024 - This video message was created by IPI and shared during the NPAP Indonesia Digital Conference on 22 April 2024.
The business case for tackling plastic waste
03 July 2024 - Plastics reduction and climate change are sustainable investors' top priorities. Solutions to plastic waste must come from all sectors. Financial institutions have a unique vantage point from which to address this issue.
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03 July 2024 - The World Economic Forum's Global Plastic Action Partnership sat down with Audrey Choi, Chief Sustainability Officer and CEO of the Institute for Sustainable Investing at Morgan Stanley, to discuss the role financial institutions can play in tackling plastic waste.

What is ‘sustainable finance’? How is it different from ‘business as usual’?

We define sustainable investing as taking traditional investment practices and strategies and enhancing them with additional insights gained from considering environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors. We believe this can provide added insights into risks that could affect investments, as well as provide unique opportunities for investors.

Morgan Stanley’s Institute for Sustainable Investing has been polling investors since 2015 on their thoughts and attitudes around ESG. Over that time, investor interest in sustainable investing has grown from 71% in 2015, to 75% in 2017, and jumped to 85% among US investors last year. Investors have also told us they believe their investment decisions can impact the issues they care about most, with 84% wanting products that will allow them to match their investment choices with their values, and 86% saying that they believe ESG practices may potentially lead to better profitability and maybe better long-term investments.

When we asked investors last year about which areas of ESG they were most passionate, climate change and plastic reduction topped their list. In 2018, the number of earnings calls that included mentions of “plastic waste” increased 340% year over year. Matching this growth in interest, the amount of assets allocated towards sustainable investing has also grown; in the US, $3 trillion was allocated to sustainable investments in 2009, and by 2018, this had quadrupled to $12 trillion. Globally, one in every three dollars is now focused on sustainable assets, topping $30 trillion — up 34% over the previous two years. More recently, green bonds have experienced significant growth — from $2.6 billion in 2012 to more than $200 billion in 2019.

One obstacle to sustainable investing is the myth that doing so means sacrificing returns. In fact, our own analysis of 11,000 mutual and exchange-traded funds over 15 years finds that sustainable funds do not deliver lower returns – but they may offer lower downside risk. They exhibit less volatility, and on average, the downside deviation of sustainable funds is 20% smaller than traditional funds.

I believe sustainable investing will continue to accelerate and attract more assets as investors increasingly recognize the value of ESG data, driving the full integration of sustainable investing into mainstream investing.

You’ve pledged to prevent, reduce and remove 50 million metric tons of plastic waste from the environment by 2030. How will you achieve this?

In April 2019, we made a major firm-wide commitment, the Morgan Stanley Plastic Waste Resolution, to facilitate the prevention, reduction and removal of 50 million metric tons of plastic waste from rivers, oceans, landscapes and landfills by 2030. We believe that tackling the plastic waste problem will take a systemic and holistic approach across the economy that considers everything from materials engineering and industrial design to consumer use and recycling infrastructure. It will require cross-sector collaboration from governments, philanthropy, industry, finance and individuals.

To meet this goal, we are leveraging all of Morgan Stanley’s businesses and our operations to reduce plastic waste by developing new investment products, underwriting bonds to help reduce plastic waste and offering low-minimum portfolios to positively influence the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal on ocean conservation while we continue to work with municipalities, public agencies, universities, hospital systems and other public and not-for-profit entities to finance improvements to collection, recycling and disposal systems for plastic waste.

We hope that our pledge inspires other businesses and financial institutions, and so far we’ve seen some really amazing progress. In April, we underwrote a $10 million World Bank blue bond with proceeds focused on plastic waste reduction in oceans and the promotion of marine resources. Just six months later, we were the sole green structuring advisor and lead underwriter for PepsiCo’s $1 billion inaugural green bond offering that focused on key initiatives around PepsiCo's sustainability agenda, including their commitment to reduce the virgin plastic content across their beverage portfolio by 35% by 2025.

What role can – and should – financial institutions play in accelerating action on plastic pollution?

We’ve always believed that solutions at scale have to come from across the plastics value chain because no one company, industry sector or individual alone can clear away the billions of metric tons of plastic waste already in our environment or curb the ever-increasing amount of new plastic waste that is generated daily. Currently 79% of all the plastic waste ever produced remains with us. Plastic packaging worth up to $120 billion per year is used once and then thrown away. This is an enormous waste of resources.

As a global financial institution, we believe that we have a unique vantage point from which to work with the different actors who need to be a part of plastic waste solutions. We can also connect investors seeking to align their portfolios with plastic waste reduction to the entrepreneurs and corporations focusing on creating less plastic waste. By bridging these investors and companies, we believe we can contribute to the systems change we need to retain the beneficial qualities of plastic in the economy, while reducing the environmental downside of plastic waste.

Read the full article here: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2024/01/the-business-case-for-investing-in-sustainable-plastics/

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Hamamatsu Voluntary Local Review Report 2019
01 July 2024 - 
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Hamamatsu City is a government ordinance designated city, located between Tokyo and Osaka along the Pacific coast, with an area of 1,558km2 and a population of about 800,000. The population of the city is on a downward trend from its peak in 2008. It is projected that the population trend will continue and the aging ratio (27% as of 2018) will increase. One of the features with regard to the population in Hamamatsu is the number of foreign nationals, which accounts for 3% of the total population, 1% higher than the national average.

As a result of the merger of 12 local municipalities in July 2005, Hamamatsu became the second largest municipal area nationwide with diverse natural and social environment that includes urban, rural, mountainous and hilly areas. For this reason, it is referred to as a government ordinance-designated city that is a model of Japan in miniature. With rich forest and fishery resources, the primary industry is thriving in Hamamatsu. In addition, the city is famous for manufacturing and is the location of large corporations that are active on the global stage, such as Suzuki, Yamaha, Kawai, Hamamatsu Photonics, Roland, and FCC. Not only large companies but also small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and venture companies are also active. The higher ratio of primary and secondary industries compared to other government-ordinance designated cities in Japan is one of the characteristics of Hamamatsu.

Challenges

Hamamatsu City faces various challenges including the administrative costs to maintain and upgrade municipal services covering large administrative area, independence of underpopulated areas, administrative services that can meet to socio-economic environment and social needs that changes according to the population decline, low birthrate and progressive aging society, and co-existence with foreign residents. Against the background of the nuclear disaster as a result of the Great East Japan Earthquake and the subsequent deregulation of the electric power industry, Hamamatsu is also facing the need to put measures in place to continue to secure a stable supply of energy and to protect people’s lives and livelihoods against natural disasters (disaster prevention and mitigation).

Localisation and mainstreaming of the SDGs in Hamamatsu City

To tackle with a lot of local challenges, Hamamatsu City is managing city administration in partnership with various local stakeholders and by leveraging municipal budgets and local resources effectively. The Hamamatsu City Comprehensive Plan, the 30-year plan from 2015 is integrated with the principles of the SDGs, and therefore the city is promoting the SDGs implementation through the implementation of the comprehensive plan. The comprehensive plan of the city was drawn up using backcasting techniques. The comprehensive plan includes 12 vision-points for the desirable future of city called the “One Dozen Futures” and sets out comprehensive policies to achieve the vision. In the process of making the comprehensive plan, "the Hamamatsu Future Design Council" composed of experts and citizens having different backgrounds was established to review and discuss the plan. In addition to the discussion at the Council, the city interviewed citizens to hear and reflect more voices from citizens.

Read the full report here or download the attached PDF of the report.

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Voluntary Subnational Review: Oaxaca, Mexico
01 July 2024 - This preliminary version of the Voluntary Subnational Review is a first report on the activities that Oaxaca has carried out in relation to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda, as well as a space for reflection and self-evaluation that identifies the challenges and lessons learned.
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This exercise will be complemented by a methodology that enables the inclusion of citizens, academia, and the productive sector to evaluate the implementation of the 2030 Agenda in the state and municipalities. Additionally, management and performance indicators will have to be built to allow monitoring and faithful monitoring of the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and its impact, in order to generate periodic evaluations of the work carried out in the state and municipalities.

Subnational Level

1. As part of the efforts at the subnational level, a diagnosis was made of the situation in Oaxaca to determine the level of linkage between the planning structure and the state priorities with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs):

  • An analysis of the compatibility of the goals of the 17 SDGs with the objectives set out in the 2016-2022 State Development Plan
  • An exercise to link the 97 indicators of the 2018 budget programs with the 240 indicators of the 2030 Agenda
  • A classification of the 240 indicators of the 2030 Agenda according to the competencies, attributions, and scope of the 32 dependencies that make up the State Public Administration

2. The Legal Group made a proposal to reform the State Planning Law with the modification of 27 of its 121 articles, with the objective that the SDGs are considered in the planning process and that sustainable development is understood in its three dimensions: social, economic, and environmental.

3. The 2016-2022 State Development Plan is the governing document of public policy in Oaxaca. Currently, work is being done to update this plan with a focus on sustainability framed in the 2030 Agenda.

4. In 2018, the 12 sector plans, which establish the priorities, objectives, goals; as well as the current expenditure and investment estimates of each sector for the fulfillment of its objectives, were aligned in its strategic framework to the 2030 Agenda.

5. Three trainings were carried out during 2019 related to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for state public officials, municipal authorities, the staff of the Technical Liaison Modules, and for students of the Economics Department at the Benito Juarez Autonomous University.

Multi-Actor Alliances

1. The methodology for the inclusion of civil society, academia, and the productive sector was set up through which three Working Committees have formed: 1) Social Inclusion, 2) Economic Growth and 3) Environmental Sustainability, considering the three dimensions of sustainable development. These committees are integrated by representatives of state agencies, civil society, academia, and the productive sector. They aim to be a space for public policy innovation.

2. The Government of the State of Oaxaca has a technical cooperation agreement with the GIZ, which has the purpose of contributing to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda at the state and municipal level so that the vision of sustainable development is adopted for the fulfillment of the SDGs.

Municipal Level

1. As part of the technical cooperation with the GIZ, the Municipal Sustainable Development Plans Guide was prepared, which has as its main objective to guide the municipal governments in the preparation of the Municipal Development Plans with a participatory approach and sustainable development.

2. Likewise, in this same cooperation, a pilot sample of 10 municipalities was chosen to work in a coordinated manner with the GIZ and the Technical Work Committee in municipal planning, the prioritization of works, and citizen participation.

3. In order to strengthen the implementation of the 2030 Agenda, 547 Municipal Social Development Councils have been installed, which are spaces for a plural and inclusive participation and dialogue for the implementation of this agenda and are constituted as instances of linkage of the three levels of government, the social, and private sectors.

Read the full report here or download the attached PDF of the report.

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Local Action, Global Impact - Celebrating Three Decades of Local Action for People and Planet

This commemorative publication celebrates 30 years of the GEF Small Grants Programme's local action and global impact. The publication highlights the important role of local communities, civil society and Indigenous Peoples, youth, women and persons with disabilities in addressing global environmental issues – such as biodiversity loss, climate change mitigation and adaptation, land degradation, international waters, and chemicals and waste management – while improving well-being and livelihoods. Throughout its journey, SGP has continuously evolved and has now grown into a unique global delivery mechanism to scale up local actions that can develop and deliver solutions to these multiple challenges.

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Local Action, Global Impact - Celebrating Three Decades of Local Action for People and Planet

Originally published by UNDP on 22 August 2024

This commemorative publication celebrates 30 years of the GEF Small Grants Programme (SGP)'s local action and global impact. The publication highlights the important role of local communities, civil society and Indigenous Peoples, youth, women and persons with disabilities in addressing global environmental issues – such as biodiversity loss, climate change mitigation and adaptation, land degradation, international waters, and chemicals and waste management – while improving well-being and livelihoods. Throughout its journey, SGP has continuously evolved and has now grown into a unique global delivery mechanism to scale up local actions that can develop and deliver solutions to these multiple challenges.

Access the full report here or download the attached PDF of the report

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Rescuing SDG 11 for a resilient urban planet

Rescuing SDG 11 for a resilient urban planet

SDG 11 Synthesis Report for the High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) 2024 by UN-Habitat</</div>…

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The current report shows that the world is off track in achieving SDG 11. Rescuing SDG 11 is urgent for the sake of present and future generations. The report points to the immense opportunities that exist and the innovations that are already underway.

The report was prepared by UN-Habitat as a lead coordinator, with inputs from several UN custodian agencies, other UN entities, civil society, academia, United Cities and Local Governments, and various other stakeholders and partners.

Full Report | Executive Summary | Key Highlights | Facts and Figures

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The Global Sustainable Development Report 2024
The GSDR 2024 highlights key transformations needed in different sectors and provides key findings from the literature, practical examples and tools for progress towards the SDGs. It provides a stylized model to help unpack and understand the transformation process over time and outline the roles of different levers in facilitating various stages of transformation through a systematic and structured approach. As history has shown, transformations are inevitable, and this report emphasizes that deliberate and desirable transformations are possible - and, indeed, necessary.
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The Global Sustainable Development Report 2024

"Times of Crisis, Times of Change: Science for Accelerating Transformations to Sustainable Development", the 2024 Global Sustainable Development Report (GSDR), finds that at this critical juncture, midway to 2030, incremental and fragmented change is insufficient to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the remaining seven years. Implementation of the 2030 Agenda requires the active mobilization of political leadership and ambition for science-based transformations. This must be achieved globally - leaving no country, society or person behind. The report is an invitation to embrace transformations with the urgency needed to accelerate progress towards the SDGs.

Background

The Global Sustainable Development Report (GSDR) originated in “The Future We Want,” the outcome of the Rio+20 conference on sustainable development, when Member States were laying the groundwork for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the 17 associated Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The negotiators knew that the 2030 Agenda would be complex, and unprecedented in ambition, and that a siloed approach to development would not be adequate. They recognized the power of science to understand and navigate relationships among social, environmental and economic development objectives, and so they called for a report to strengthen the science-policy interface.

In 2016, Member States decided that the report should be produced once every four years, to inform the quadrennial SDG review deliberations (SDG Summit) at the General Assembly, and that it should be written by an Independent Group of Scientists appointed by the Secretary-General. They mandated that the Group would consist of 15 experts representing a variety of backgrounds, scientific disciplines and institutions, ensuring geographical and gender balance.

The 2019 Global Sustainable Development Report, The Future is Now: Science for Achieving Sustainable Development, was the first report prepared by an Independent Group of Scientists appointed by the United Nations Secretary-General. The 2024 Global Sustainable Development Report, "Times of Crisis, Times of Change: Science for Accelerating Transformations to Sustainable Development", is the second.

Access the full report here or from the attached PDF

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Governments must seek win-win synergies by tackling climate and sustainable development crises together, urges expert group report
A groundbreaking report by a group of independent experts released today by the United Nations outlines steps governments should take to maximize the impact of policies and actions by tackling the climate and sustainable development crises at the same time, creating synergies.
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Governments must seek win-win synergies by tackling climate and sustainable development crises together, urges expert group report 

Press Release by UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA) | Original article published on 13 September 2024

New York, 13 September 2024 --

The expert group, with fourteen diverse members co-led by Luis Gomez-Echeverri, Emeritus Research Scholar at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, and Heide Hackmann, Director of Future Africa, University of Pretoria, was co-convened earlier this year by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA) and the UN Climate Change secretariat (UNFCCC) to produce this report, the first of its kind.

"Maximizing synergies between climate action and the SDGs has never been more critical," said Li Junhua, UN Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs. "We must get the SDGs on track and keep the goal of 1.5 degrees alive,” he said, also stressing that an integrated approach that seeks to strengthen synergies between these two global agendas is critical to that end."

"Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and stabilizing our climate to build resilient societies are two sides of the same endeavour," said Simon Stiell, UNFCCC Executive Secretary. "I am confident that the work of the Expert Group will spur additional efforts that can result in win-win outcomes for both climate action and the SDG agenda and transition us towards a just, equitable, and sustainable world."

The report preface also cites UN Secretary-General António Guterres' rallying cry that “climate action is the 21st century's greatest opportunity to drive forward all the Sustainable Development Goals."

Building the evidence base

Evidence indicates strong synergies between addressing climate change and achieving the SDGs, the report states, whereby advancements in one can lead to improvements in the other. Therefore, pursuing the 2030 Agenda and implementation of the Paris Agreement in concert can significantly advance both agendas. Co-benefits of climate actions often directly achieve the SDG goals, and evidence suggests that co-benefits outweigh trade-offs in most cases.

Among the examples cited, achieving universal electricity access in sub-Saharan Africa by 2030 (SDG 7) would require an annual investment of USD 27 billion under existing climate policies, but would require an additional USD 6 billion without climate policies. Stringent air pollution control and GHG mitigation measures would help bring 40% of the global population exposed to unhealthy particulate matter levels below the WHO air quality guideline, with the largest improvements realized for India, China and the Middle East.

According to the report, the factors blocking more synergistic actions revolve around knowledge gaps, political and institutional arrangements, and economic disruptions. In particular, the main barriers include lack of funding to analyse and finance more integrated policy actions; institutional rigidity that puts climate and development policy in separate silos; the dominance of top-down policy making; a general lack of data and indicators, and a lack of understanding about the value of synergies and the capacity to identify and implement them.

Report recommendations

The report calls for greater institutional coordination and policy coherence across sectors and departments at the national level, to better integrate SDG and climate policy development and action. It also recommends that the governance and policy frameworks for both the Paris Agreement and the 2030 Agenda will need to be changed in order to align climate action with the SDGs.

The expert group suggests that country commitment and reporting mechanisms, such as the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement and the Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs) undertaken under Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development, should include synergistic targets or co-benefits. Currently, only 23 of the 173 NDCs explicitly refer to SDGs, even though they have a major impact on achieving the SDGs at regional and global levels, and none go into detail about how climate policy affects SDG outcomes.

Among positive examples referenced, in Kenya, the Climate Change Department conducted an SDG impact analysis of the proposed measures of the National Climate Change Action Plan for 2018-2022. This analysis helped capture SDG-climate synergies and identify opportunities for low-carbon development in the country. Mexico evaluated how existing NDCs would affect implementation of the 2030 Agenda nationally. All 169 SDG targets were examined and 64 were found to have potential co-benefits to climate mitigation and adaptation.  

The report also recommends that policymakers have stronger links with researchers studying climate and development, who could assess possible synergies. Addressing the significant disconnect between scientific evidence and applied policy action can ensure the best scientifically verified policies are agreed and carried out.                          

Differences across countries

North and South. Synergies are highly dependent on national priorities and context, the report finds. In the Global South, GHG emission reduction goals are primarily focused on regulating land use, which also advances several SDGs. in the Global North, synergies often emerge from the region’s pathway to a clean energy transition. The interlinkages between SDG and climate action are more pronounced for low-income and lower-middle-income countries, the report states, as SDG progress and financing gaps are far more pressing for many of these countries than reducing the impacts of climate change.

Cities. The report also notes that, with some 56% of the global population living in cities, expected to rise to 70% by 2050, the drive for sustainable cities (SDG 11) presents a major challenge and opportunity to advance climate action at the city level, especially in the Global South. There are many examples of cities around the world where these synergies have brought significant benefits in sustainable transport, sustainable use of urban space, lower greenhouse gases, less air pollution and improved health.

Finance. The large investment gap in climate and development action, and insufficient finance to enhance the synergies needed, are rooted in the deep failure of the global financial architecture and finance fragmentation that makes policy coherence difficult, the report finds. Current efforts to address these failures at the international level should include measures that encourage multilateral development banks and international financial institutions to introduce instruments that enhance climate and development synergies.

Next steps

The report issued today is a first edition that will be expanded with deeper analysis, more data and more developed recommendations in time for the major UN summits in 2024, particularly the Summit of the Future. The dialogue and engagement that has been building, including through the Fourth Global Conference on Climate and SDG Synergies in July 2024, will continue to be expanded through the upcoming UNFCCC Regional Climate Weeks and other avenues, and a fifth global conference is being planned in 2024.

Read the full report here.

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There's Still Time to Enter the AIPH World Green City Awards 2024

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tyle="white-space:normal">There’s still time for your city to enter the AIPH World Green City Awards 2024. The awards celebrate innovation, achievement, and commitment to the globally recognised imperative to embrace nature-orientated solutions that harvest the power of plants and associated ecosystems services to help address the major challenges facing cities.

tyle="white-space:normal">The 2024 edition of the AIPH World Green City Awards is offered in seven categories, with three finalists in each category from which one category winner is selected, and with one Grand Winner chosen from the seven category winners. Don’t miss this unique opportunity for your city to participate in the only global awards for cities where plants and nature are at the core.

tyle="white-space:normal">All cities, large and small, are invited to showcase the bold and innovative actions they are taking to build greener, healthier, and more resilient cities. The deadline for submission of entries is 15th September 2024. For your convenience, a Step-by-Step Guide is available to assist in compiling and submitting your city’s entry/ies.

Find Out More and Enter Today

tyle="white-space:normal">If you are a representative of a local government, you are invited to create an account on the online submission portal, which is the first step in compiling your city’s entry/ies. After doing so, you will gain access to the online entry form where you can make your city’s submission/s. Get started here.

tyle="white-space:normal">For queries and assistance, please reach out to .

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