July 2017: The UN Environment Management Group (EMG) has announced plans for the third and fourth events in its nexus dialogue series. The third EMG Nexus Dialogue will focus on partnerships between the environmental and humanitarian sectors. The fourth dialogue will take place in December, alongside the third meeting of the UN Environment Assembly (UNEA 3), and will consider linkages between pollution and health. Pollution will also be on the UNEA 3 agenda.

The EMG Dialogue Series seeks to contribute to a common understanding of the integrated Goals and targets of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on selected “nexus” themes. The first nexus dialogue presented the nexus approach and introduced the dialogue series. [First Nexus Dialogue]

The second dialogue convened on the sidelines of the 2017 session of the High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) and considered the nexus between poverty and environment and the SDGs. At the close of this dialogue, speakers cited the need for rigorous, evidence-based evaluation mechanisms to ensure that future policies are informed by practice, while also stressing that there is enough learning about existing approaches for society to take the complexity of the SDGs seriously while taking action now. [Second Nexus Dialogue] [SDG Knowledge Hub story about Second Nexus Dialogue]

A wrap-up side event for the second dialogue convened at the HLPF on 19 July 2017, on the theme, ‘Poverty Reduction and the Environment.’ Paloma Duran, Director, SDG Fund, moderated the event. Ibrahim Thiaw, UN Environment Deputy Executive Director, noted that the poorest have no money but they have land, and since their assets are nature, their gross domestic product (GDP) can only be measured by the health of the ecosystem in which they live. Aslak Brun, Director of the Section for Development Policy, Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, stressed that the 2030 Agenda represents a transformative agenda. Hossein Fadaei, Head of Secretariat, EMG, emphasized the importance of discussing overlaps and synergies to ensure that implementation of one SDG will contribute to other SDGs.

Nik Sekhran, Director for Sustainable Development, Bureau for Policy and Programme Support, UN Development Programme (UNDP), stressed the need to attack the challenge of sustainable development on many fronts. He highlighted the launch, with the IPECA and International Finance Corporation (IFC), of a guide on how to address the SDGs in the oil and gas industry. Edgar Guitérrez, Minister of Environment and Energy, Costa Rica, and President of UNEA in 2017, emphasized the need to embrace a different paradigm and stressed that the UN plays an important role in achieving this change.

Måns Nilsson, SEI, highlighted the need for coherent policies, saying that while “silos” are necessary for specialization and accountability, people should step out of their silos and speak with people in other silos.

Andrew Norton, Director, International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), stressed the need for effective frameworks to support private sector efforts related to natural capital, and emphasized the need to understand issues at local and municipal levels. Måns Nilsson, Research Director, Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI), highlighted the need for joined up, coherent policies, and noted the need for integrated perspectives to achieve such policies. He said that, while “silos” are necessary for reasons of specialization and accountability, we should ensure that people step out of their silos and speak with people in other silos. [Video of side event] [EMG Side Event Webpage][Guest Article on IPECA, UNDP and IFC report on oil and gas industry linkages with SDGs] [IISD Sources]