Welcome to the United Nations
Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES)
This side event shares analytics and findings of a partnership project of UNEP and the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES), with funding from Norwegian Government, on 50 Voluntary National Reviews (VNR) produced by 37 Asia-Pacific countries in the period 2016-2021, and submitted to UN High-level Political Forum. The purpose of the project was to harness knowledge and experiences from the VNRs as vehicle and national strategy to strengthen implementation, monitoring and reporting progress of environmental Goals and Targets. To that end, this side event is a key outlet to share and discuss analytics and findings of the Regional Review.
The focus on VNRs, SDGs, and data in the context of the environment is relevant and timely. At current rates, the SDGs are slated to be achieved by 2065—or 35 years behind schedule. The trend is especially worrying for the environment-related SDGs. At the half-way 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).
This side event invites UNEP and the Government of Norway to open the session talking about main environmental challenges and the rationale for commissioning this project. IGES will then present key findings of the research. Particular attention is placed on the environment and challenges, governance, and data and indicators.
