After a full schedule of high-profile events, statements, and commitments in April, policy work in May 2016 will be guided by key documents on sustainable development.
Leading the list of documents to keep track of during May 2016, the record breaking number of signatories on the first day that the Paris Agreement on climate change was opened for signature has led to anticipation regarding how quickly the Agreement will come into force. The Agreement must be ratified by a minimum of 55 Parties representing at least 55% of global greenhouse gas emissions for it to come into force. Fifteen countries deposited their ratifications as they signed the Agreement, although their collective emissions levels did not yet register on that criterion. However, several countries, including Australia, Argentina, Cameroon, Canada, China, France, Mali, Mexico, the Philippines and the US, announced plans to ratify the Agreement in 2016 during their statements at the 22 April high-level event at UN Headquarters in New York. Others, including Brazil, the EU and the Russian Federation, pledged to work swiftly towards completion of the necessary steps for ratification. Decisions to be taken at the first session of the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the parties to the Paris Agreement (CMA 1), which will take place once the Agreement comes into force, are expected to shape the Agreement’s governance structure. Pressure is on those countries that want to exercise influence over the development of the future climate regime to quickly ratify the Agreement, or risk being observers at the first meetings of the CMA.
Other key documents related to the Paris Agreement are the provisional agenda, and any outcome, from the first session of the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Paris Agreement (APA 1), which will convene from 16-26 May in Bonn, Germany. The APA, which was established by the 21st session of the Conference of the Parties in December 2015, is mandated to prepare for the entry into force of the Agreement and for the convening of CMA 1. According to the agenda, APA 1 will consider, inter alia: additional guidance relating to nationally determined contributions; modalities, procedures and guidelines for the transparency framework for action and support; matters relating to the global stocktake, which is to assess the collective progress towards achieving the purpose of the Paris Agreement and its long-term goals; and modalities and procedures for the effective operation of the mechanism to facilitate implementation and promote compliance.
As Year One in the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) unfolds, many are focused on adding details to the agreed framework for follow-up and review of the 2030 Agenda and its SDGs. Discussions in New York, US, on this topic, under the leadership of co-facilitators Lois Young (Belize) and Ib Petersen (Denmark), center on elements for a UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution to be adopted before the 2016 session of the High-level Political Forum (HLPF) in July. Belize and Denmark recently released an “elements” document for the resolution, which will focus on follow-up and review at the global level. This paper will be discussed with governments and stakeholders on 28 April 2016. Some are anticipating that a zero draft of the UNGA resolution will be presented in early May.
Also anticipated for release in May is the first annual progress report on the SDGs. This year’s report is expected to focus exclusively on data for the SDG indicators designated as Tiers 1 and 2, which have more robust methodology and data available. This progress report was mandated by the 2030 Agenda and further discussed by the High-level Group for Partnership, Coordination and Capacity-Building for post-2015 monitoring (HLG for post-2015 monitoring) and the Inter-agency and Expert Group on SDG Indicators (IAEG-SDGs).
At the end of the month, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) is expected to launch the regional Global Environment Outlook (GEO) assessments. These assessments will be released during the second meeting of the UN Environment Assembly (UNEA), which is the first UNEA to convene since the SDGs were adopted. The regional assessments will inform the sixth GEO report, which will identify the state and trends of the global environment and progress towards meeting internationally agreed goals, and is expected to be released in 2018. UNEA 2 itself will focus on the theme of “Delivering on the environmental dimension of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development,” and will provide an opportunity for environment ministers to assess the direction, and define future directions, that the 2030 Agenda is taking.
UNEA 2 will also be the final UNEA for Achim Steiner, who will step down as Executive Director of UNEP in June 2016, one of many departures in 2016 with regard to sustainable development leadership. The Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, Christiana Figueres, will also step down at the conclusion of her second term, in July 2016. On 25 April 2016 – the first day of the 20th meeting of the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) – CBD Executive Secretary Braulio Dias informed delegates that he will not pursue renewal of his mandate at the end of his term in February 2017. Also in April, the UN held conversations with the candidates for the position of Secretary-General. The next UN Secretary-General will assume the role in January 2017.
May 2016 will also feature a number of key meetings that will contribute to implementation of the integrated 2030 Agenda. The first of a number of high-level events focused on humanitarian and refugee crises to be held in 2016 will convene in Istanbul in May. This first ever World Humanitarian Summit is expected to result in a Chair’s Summary and a Commitments to Action document. This event will take place at a time when the scale of humanitarian crises has elevated the issue on the international agenda, and in the shadow of concerns that funding requirements to deal with it will compete with the needed funding for the SDGs. Following the Summit, a report of the Secretary-General is expected to be produced based on its outcomes. Also in May, the Secretary-General is expected to issue a report that will serve as the basis for negotiations on the September High-level Meeting refugees and migrants. The high-level midterm review of the implementation of the Istanbul Programme of Action (IPoA) will assess the implementation of the Istanbul Programme of Action (IPoA) by the least developed countries (LDCs) and their development partners, and will conclude with an intergovernmentally negotiated and agreed outcome.
The importance of stakeholders in implementing the 2030 Agenda, and opportunities for stakeholders to build the networks that will be required if the Agenda is to successfully “leave no one behind,” will be highlighted during other meetings to look for in May. Adaptation Futures 2016 will bring together academics, practitioners, policymakers and the private sector to discuss a range of challenges and options to address the impacts of climate change impacts. Women Deliver will focus on implementation of the SDGs, with a specific focus on health, gender equality, education, environment, and economic empowerment for girls and women. Discussions among stakeholders and governments will also consider the next steps for implementation, with the conference on Jump-starting the SDGs in Germany, which is focusing on natural resources and sustainable consumption and production (SCP), organizing one such discussion.
Lynn Wagner, Alice Bisiaux, Faye Leone and Lauren Anderson
We are pleased to bring you the second Monthly Forecast. Please contact us with any comments or suggestions on this column. For more information on key sustainable development events in May 2016, please consult our calendar of upcoming events: http://sdg.iisd.org/events/. For information after these events conclude, visit our Policy & Practice knowledgebase: http://sdg.iisd.org.