Click here to visit the IISD's SDG Knowledge Hub knowledgebase.  SDG UPDATE A compilation of items recently posted to the SDG Knowledge Hub Wednesday, 29 June 2022 GUEST ARTICLES Building Urban Resilience in the Caribbean: Policies, Practices and Prospects By Professor Michelle Mycoo, Professor of Urban and Regional Planning, The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine and Coordinating Lead Author of the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report Working Group II, Small Islands Caribbean cities face urban issues that warrant transformative solutions for inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable urban development. Urban planning policymakers and practitioners, as they launch a multi-pronged approach to address rapid urbanization, increasingly high levels of urban population, and rising demands for land, housing, and basic urban services, are confronted by past colonization, current climate change, and the socio-economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic. These unprecedented challenges require a bold, innovative reimagining of what the urban future will look like in a Caribbean Small Island Developing State (SIDS) context. A new urban orthodoxy is central to achieving transformative urbanization, the key ingredients of which are enabling processes aimed at improved urban governance, citizen activism, strengthening a pro-marginalized perspective geared toward inclusivity, fiscal autonomy of urban agencies, effective climate change adaptation and mitigation in cities, and efficient use of information communication technology to improve the science-policy-practice interface. The Urgency of Transforming Biodiversity Governance By Elsa Tsioumani, IISD/Earth Negotiations Bulletin and University of Trento, Italy, Marcel T. J. Kok, PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, and Ingrid J. Visseren-Hamakers, Radboud University, Netherlands Biodiversity loss continues unabated. Despite an array of international law and policy instruments, past and ongoing governance efforts have not been effectively supporting the conservation and sustainable and equitable use of biodiversity. Charting a More Sustainable Course for the Tourism Industry By Hon. Edmund Bartlett, Minister for Tourism, Jamaica As the world continues to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic, travelers are increasingly globetrotting with the planet in mind. Recent studies show that over two-thirds of travelers are prioritizing sustainability and insisting on a lighter environmental and social footprint as they take to the skies. For destinations like Jamaica, sustainable tourism practices are essential for ensuring the long-term health of the ocean and its ecosystems, as well as for protecting the local communities and economies that rely on valuable tourist dollars. Climate of Compromises: How Climate Finance Commitments Slow SDG Progress By John Nordbo, climate adviser at CARE Denmark At Copenhagen Climate Change Conference in 2009, developed countries committed to supporting climate change adaptation and mitigation activities in developing countries. The Copenhagen Accord stipulates that developed countries would provide scaled-up climate finance to developing countries, reaching USD 100 billion a year in 2020. Healthy Planet Needs “Ocean Action” from Asian and Pacific Countries By Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana, Under-Secretary-General of the UN and Executive Secretary of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) As the Second Global Ocean Conference opens today in Lisbon, Portugal, governments in Asia and the Pacific must seize the opportunity to enhance cooperation and solidarity to address a host of challenges that endanger what is a lifeline for millions of people in the region. If done right, ocean action will also be climate action but this will require working in concert on a few fronts. The Moment of Local Multilateralism By Emilia Saiz, Secretary General of United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) In a time of unprecedented challenges, global governance needs a transformation capable of reconciling us with the planet and fostering caring for each other. To do this, the municipalist movement, to which the author belongs, calls for a greater political voice for local and regional governments. POLICY BRIEFS World Forum to Address Urban Crises, Urban Recovery As the world is becoming increasingly urbanized, it is expected that by 2050, 70% of its population will live in cities. National, regional, and local governments are coming together with representatives from the private sector and academia, community leaders, urban planners, and civil society to discuss sustainable urban development, urban resilience, and urban governance for a better urban future. The eleventh edition of the biennial World Urban Forum (WUF11) will seek to catalyze transformational change to support these objectives. WTO Members Look to the Future in Wake of “Geneva Package” By Sofia Baliño, Senior Manager, Communications & Engagement, IISD The Twelfth Ministerial Conference (MC12) of the World Trade Organization (WTO) was gaveled to a close in the early hours of Friday, 17 June 2022, with the adoption of the “Geneva Package” following days and nights of intense negotiations that went well over time. The final outcomes, which range from a large multilateral trade agreement to reduce harmful fisheries subsidies to individual decisions on select agenda items, are slated to open a new chapter in the institution’s history, as officials look to where else the trading system can serve to address crucial sustainability challenges. NEWS Global Policy Dialogue Explores SDGs 14 and 15, Ways to Protect Biodiversity The UN Department for Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) organized a Global Policy Dialogue on the theme, ‘Protecting Biodiversity in Times of Crisis: Exploring SDGs 14 and 15,’ which also sought to identify ways to build and scale partnerships to achieve these Goals. The event convened in preparation for the July 2022 High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) where countries will conduct in-depth review of five SDGs, including SDGs 14, 15, and 17 (partnerships for the Goals). DESA Event Examines Linkages Between Education and Gender Equality In preparation for the 2022 session of the High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF), the UN Department for Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) convened a Global Policy Dialogue to examine the linkages between SDG 4 (quality education) and SDG 5 (gender equality), with SDG 17 (partnerships for the Goals) underpinning the discussions. All three Goals are among the SDGs to undergo in-depth global review in July. G7 Agrees to Establish “Climate Club” Amid Energy Security Concerns The Group of 7 (G7) leaders from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK, and the US have concluded a two-day summit where climate action and energy transition, global food security, and the war in Ukraine featured prominently. In a communiqué, the G7 leaders condemn “Russia’s illegal and unjustifiable war of aggression against Ukraine,” and pledge to “take immediate action to secure energy supply and reduce price surges driven by extraordinary market conditions.” GEF Council Approves USD 165.8 Million Work Program The Council of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) approved the final Work Program under the GEF’s seventh replenishment (GEF-7) cycle amounting to USD 165.8 million. Convening as the Council for the Least Developed Countries Fund/Special Climate Change Fund (LDCF/SCCF), the Council also endorsed the last GEF-7 work program for the LDCF totaling USD 72.4 million. Global Biodiversity Framework Talks Achieve “Varying Levels of Progress” The Open-ended Working Group on the post-2020 global biodiversity framework (GBF), charged by the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) with developing a “new set of global goals and targets to guide parties towards a nature-positive future,” achieved progress on several issues, including unanimous agreement on the framework’s relationship with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Much work remains, however, and parties supported convening an additional negotiating session ahead of the UN Biodiversity Conference in December, which is expected to adopt the GBF. CURRENT & UPCOMING EVENTS SEE MORE » Eleventh Session of the World Urban Forum (WUF11) 26-30 June 2022 | Katowice, Slaskie, Poland SAICM Regional Meeting for Africa 2022 27-29 June 2022 | Accra, Greater Accra, Ghana High-Level UN Conference to Support the Implementation of SDG 14 (Second UN Ocean Conference) 27 June - 1 July 2022 | Lisbon, Lisboa, Portugal UN High-level Meeting on Road Safety 30 June - 1 July 2022 | New York City, US Webinar on HLPF 2022: All You Need to Know 1 July 2022 | virtual Ninth Session of the Plenary of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ec... 3-9 July 2022 | Bonn, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany SAICM Regional Meeting for Asia-Pacific 5-7 July 2022 | Dead Sea {greater region}, Jordan High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) 2022 5-15 July 2022 | New York City, US World Population Day 2022 11 July 2022 | worldwide 44th Meeting of the Montreal Protocol OEWG 11-16 July 2022 | Bangkok (Krung Thep), Thailand ECOSOC High-level Segment 2022 13-18 July 2022 | New York City, US Nelson Mandela International Day 2022 18 July 2022 | worldwide 27th Session of the International Seabed Authority Assembly and Council (Part II) 18 July - 5 August 2022 | Kingston, Jamaica High-Level Thematic Debate: Moment for Nature 19 July 2022 | New York City, US Special High-level Dialogue on the Sustainable Development of Africa 20 July 2022 | New York City, US Third Global Conference on Strengthening Synergies between the Paris Agreement and the 2030 Agenda f... 20-21 July 2022 | Tokyo, Japan Funding for the IISD's SDG Knowledge Hub has been provided by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) The IISD's SDG Knowledge Hub is a knowledgebase tracking implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, including its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). 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