The thriving cities of tomorrow will be sustainable cities. To make our cities more healthy, prosperous and sustainable, while reducing carbon emissions, we must close the gap between cities’ growing demand for more sustainable urban services and their ability to access innovative solutions and financing options.
The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) has released a report on the state of biodiversity. Oliver Greenfield, Convenor of the Green Economy Coalition, responds : “The report is powerful and compelling. But it does not go far enough into the cause of nature’s decline, which is that our current ‘brown’ economic system is geared towards rapacious expansion and is blind to its dependence on nature."
How can businesses, large and small, make their supply chains more climate resilient and simultaneously more profitable? A recent study by Acclimatise for the IDB’s PROADAPT program shows that assessing climate risks helps businesses better understand their supply chains, strengthen their resilience and gain a competitive advantage.
What do Hawaii, Kelowna, Baltimore and Winnipeg have in common? They are all developing systems to track citizens progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) against specific indicators.
"The Green Industrial Policy and Trade: A Tool-Box provides an overview of trade-related green industrial policy tools, including border measures, support schemes, standards, sustainable public procurement and manufacturing, environmental clauses in trade agreements, and employment-related schemes," says Professor Jorge E. Viñuales, Harold Samuel Professor of Law and Environmental Policy at the University of Cambridge and Adjunct Professor at the Graduate Institute Geneva.
"Fighting corruption alone can save money beyond what Arab countries need to fill the gap in the additional funds needed to achieve sustainable development goals," says Najib Saab is Secretary General of Arab Forum for Environment and Development (AFED).
"The mainstreaming of biodiversity depends on coherent policies across sectors," says Megha Sud, policy researcher at the Environment Division of the OECD. It also requires better, up-to-date data to inform policy responses, incentive reform, and strong links to other development objectives.
Data and information are paving the way for a great revolution in governance of our natural resources, but they are remarkably absent from the formal discussions and negotiations that move the global conservation agenda through multilateral processes.
Pilot projects in India, Indonesia and South Africa showcase new approaches to filling service delivery gaps in marginalised communities. Many of these projects rethink the role of government, private sector companies and investors, and beneficiaries.
Local governments are improving how they identify, value, and manage their natural assets by incorporating them into financial and asset management planning decisions. But what about the portions of natural assets not owned or managed by local governments?