Dr. Arvind Kumar*
While the world was grappling with the adverse socio-economic impacts caused by the triple planetary crisis of pollution, climate change and biodiversity loss it was burdened by another 2C of COVID, and Conflict challenging the ability of countries to focus on attaining the SDGs by 2030. The consequences of our recklessness are already apparent in human suffering, towering economic losses and the accelerating erosion of life on Earth. These consequences range from deaths due to weather-related disasters to the 21.5 million people displaced by climate-change related disasters every year. It also means more extreme and more frequent floods, droughts and storms, which not only means a huge human cost, but a huge environmental and financial cost as well. Goals designed to uplift people and to ensure provision of basic services cannot be realised without adequate safeguards and prudent management of our natural resources and environmental capital. We are highly reliant on India’s success to demonstrate the global success on achieving the 2030 Agenda. It is going to depend on ambition and vision at the highest level of government and also depends on money and investment.
During the South Asia Forum on SDGs at Islamabad all the experts came to a consensus that although the Asia-Pacific region had been progressing slowly but steadily in achieving the Goals, the same level of progress has not been achieved across the region. Just as it looked like countries could come out of the pandemic, recovery efforts have been hampered by the war in Ukraine and natural disasters. The general food price index reached its highest level in 10 years and disruptions to production and shipping, coupled with the depreciation of currencies, have also contributed to inflationary pressures. Many countries are substantially occupied with the immediate problems that time, resources, and energy are being diverted towards crisis response and away from longer-term development investments. A 2021 report from Swiss Re, one of the largest providers of insurance to other insurance companies, revealed that climate change could cut the value of the world economy by $23 trillion by 2050 – with developed nations such as the US, Canada and France losing between six and ten per cent of their potential economic output.
From APFSD to HLPF
Follow-up and review are crucial elements for the successful implementation of the SDGs, and living up to the principle of no one left behind. They are part of the global learning process towards sustainability. To deliberate on the same and find out the trends on various SDGs in the region, theAsia Pacific Forum on Sustainable Development (APFSD) 2023 is organized annually, an inclusive intergovernmental forum to support follow-up and review of progress on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the regional level, while serving as a regional preparatory meeting to the High-Level Political Forum (HLPF). Inequality in the region is not just in income and wealth, but also in terms of access to vital services like education, health, social protection, environmental degradation and impact of disasters.
The 10th APFSD will be organized from 27-30 March 2023 under the theme “Accelerating the recovery from the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and the full implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development at all levels in Asia and the Pacific” in Bangkok. In alignment with the focus of the 2023 HLPF, the Forum will assess progress on the SDGs under review: Goal 6 (Clean water and sanitation); Goal 7 (Affordable and clean energy); Goal 9 (Industry. innovation, and infrastructure); Goal 11 (Sustainable cities and communities) and Goal 17 (Partnership for the Goals). The Forum will also support the presentation of Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs) for the 2023 HLPF. Additionally, the APFSD will feed into the 2023 SDG Summit by providing a regional platform to comprehensively review progress at the mid-point of the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and identify priorities and solutions for accelerating the implementation of the SDGs in the remaining years to 2030.
Although voluntary National Reviews (VNR) provide an opportunity for governments to create multistakeholder partnerships and to strengthen policy coherence and inclusivity towards the Sustainable Development Goals, governments are not very prudent in sharing them especially in SSWA region. Governments found that the first VNRs provided a good baseline for a country’s progress and identified existing gaps in monitoring and evaluating progress on the Goals. Subsequent VNRs enabled wider stakeholder engagement, deeper dialogue on sustainable development, and greater societal awareness and ownership of the Goals. A key lesson learned from the VNRs was that issues such as inclusivity and equity were key to ensure sustainability.
We should applaud India’s efforts towards increasing the renewable energy component in its overall energy mix. India is undertaking the transformation of its energy mix towards renewable energy, with particular emphasis on expanding the use of solar and wind power, including off-grid. By 2022, India plans to produce 175 GW of renewable energy that will include 100 GW of solar power. The rate of expansion in this sector in India is highest in the world.
Way forward
As the number of players working on the 2030 Agenda increases in the region and the quality of inclusive discussions at APFSD is enhanced, it will become even more important to feed Asia-Pacific perspectives into HLPF, so that global discussions are grounded in the wealth of experience and reality of the region. To achieve this objective, the efforts can be two directional. Firstly, the region can aim to approach HLPF with a stronger voice. On this element, strengthening ownership by Member States in reporting the results of APFSD to HLPF may lead to stronger voice from the region. Secondly, the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, which organizes HLPF, should seek ways to strengthen the feed-in mechanism from regional forums, to increase their relevance while also making the HLPF more applicable to the regional, national and local efforts on the 2030 Agenda.
In a similar way, APFSD should strengthen its connection with the subregional forum on sustainable development organized by ESCAP subregional offices. The Asia-Pacific region is diverse in terms of the types of megatrends faced by countries. For example, challenges related to poverty, literacy and health are daunting yet mostly specific to South Asian countries. Initiatives and experiences related to these issues can be better discussed at subregional level with various stakeholders. Such subregional platforms can foster dialogues among different stakeholders, which is difficult to hold at a larger platform.
Just economic growth will not help with sustainable and inclusive development. If we have a challenge when it comes to inequality, we cannot just grow out of that problem. We need to invest in overcoming that problem, we need to invest in education, healthcare, reducing the vulnerability of various populations and those that constantly get dragged back into poverty after each financial crisis and extreme weather events. The message is that economic growth alone really will not resolve our problems and has not resolved our problems. It is important but it is not enough. We have to see investments in the SDGs, in building the social safeguards, in building the resilience that will bring ultimately the SDGs success in the region.
*President, India Water Foundation
