July 2011: The Secretariat of the High-level Panel on Global Sustainability (GSP) has released the report of the Panel’s third meeting, which took place from 16-17 May 2011, in Helsinki, Finland; as well as the report of the accompanying meeting of the Sherpas and Advisers to the Panel members.

According to the report of GSP 3, the meeting reached its objectives of: agreeing on an outline and priority areas for the final report, based on the “framework” established at GSP 2; identifying the report’s added value; and developing a work plan from GSP 3 to GSP 4, which will be held from 18-19 September 2011, in New York, US.

Panel members reviewed a draft of the narrative report and suggested that the final report include an analysis of the business-as-usual scenario, to help explain current failures to address poverty and inequity. Still under consideration by the Panel is whether and how it would call for the development of long-term sustainable development goals and indicators.

Panel members suggested that the Panel’s final report could provide added value in the following ways: understanding why efforts towards sustainable development have fallen short to date; providing solutions that consider synergies and trade-offs between sectors, to enable the closely linked relationship of the three pillars of sustainable development (economic, environmental and social) to be reflected in policy design and implementation; building on the shared interest for long-term sustainability and living within planetary boundaries; using Panel members’ political influence to catalyze action toward the “tough political calls and at times radical new approaches” needed for sustainable development; and providing concrete yet visionary recommendations for a sustainable and equitable future.

On the Panel’s work program going forward, the first two sections of the report were expected to be made available to Panel members and Sherpas toward the end of June 2011. Currently under consideration is a proposal made by GSP co-chair President Halonen to accelerate the Panel’s work in order to inform States of its key recommendations by the end of October 2011. This would require that the last meeting of the Panel take place in late October. Finally, the Panel agreed on the need for additional outreach with the Panel’s findings and recommendations, which could inform various intergovernmental processes, including preparations for the UN Conference on Sustainable Development.

The Sherpas and Advisors met before the Panel meeting, on 15 May, as well as afterwards, on 18 May. They participated in a “scenario exercise” on integrated sustainability planning and long-range scenario analysis, and heard a presentation on planetary boundaries, which outlined a framework for measuring stress to the Earth systems and identifying ranges or thresholds below which humans can live in a safe operating space, without crossing dangerous tipping points in the natural world.

In terms of the way forward, the Sherpas and Advisers agreed, inter alia: on the need for heightened communication among and engagement by Panel members, Sherpas and Secretariat to support the development and drafting of the Panel’s final report; that Sherpas would liaise closely with their principals and would be more proactive on specific issues of interest as “champions”/initiators or facilitators; that the Secretariat would create a compendium of emerging recommendations for the Sherpas to refer to, based on the Panel members’ inputs, Panel discussions, papers produced by working groups and “champion” Panel members; and that recommendations by the Panel should be limited in number, specific and concrete.

The next two Sherpas meetings would take place in late June and late August 2011, to prepare and support the writing of the first full draft of the report for consideration by Panel members at GSP 4. [Publication: Report of GSP 3 and Sherpas’ Meeting] [Sustainable Development Policy & Practice story on briefing on GSP 3, with additional information on structure, priority areas, recommendations of Final Report]