SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN POLICY CONTEXT

 Climate Change Sustainable Development Goals

 Aid for International development Finance for SusDev
 International Governance and SusDev

I. INTRODUCTION
A. Overview of SusDev in policy context
a. Millennium Development Goals (2000-2015)
1. To eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
2. To achieve universal primary education
3. To promote gender equality and empower women
4. To reduce child mortality
5. To improve maternal health
6. To combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases
7. To ensure environmental sustainability
8. To develop a global partnership for development
b. SDGs (2015-2030)
1. No Poverty
2. Zero Hunger
3. Good Health and Well-being
4. Quality Education
5. Gender Equality
6. Clean Water and Sanitation
7. Affordable and Clean Energy
8. Decent Work and Economic Growth
9. Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
10. Reducing Inequality
11. Sustainable Cities and Communities
12. Responsible Consumption and Production
13. Climate Action
14. Life Below Water
15. Life On Land
16. Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions
17. Partnerships for the Goals.
All of these goals are the policies devised by the international community to combat the
leading global problems that inhibits wholistic growth and development. These policies served as
the framework and guidelines for the member states towards a more sustainable future for
everyone.

II. Main Lecture

A. Climate Change Sustainable Development Goals
Climate Change is one of the greatest challenges that the world is facing
today. It is the culmination of all the environmental destruction that the traditional
form of growth and development in human civilization have brought. Though the
positive impacts of the said growth cannot be overlooked, the negative
implications that it entails, remain with utmost concern.
The burning of fossil fuel, deforestation to pave way for urbanization and
industrialization, garbage, air, water and soil pollution. Massive conversion of
forests to agricultural lands, the rampant use of toxic chemicals in human
activities and so on, all have contributed to the massive greenhouse gas emission
that have both, melted the ozone layer and concealed the heat rays from the sun
which led to the gradual rise in global temperature that threatens to melt the
global ice caps that is projected to bring a gradual rise in the sea level which
threatens the low-lying areas and the diversity of organisms that depends on it.
 The far more destructive storms, unpredictable weather changes and climate
patterns, among others have been a huge threat to both humans and other living
organisms in the planet. In response to our self-destructive actions for
development, now that the impacts ae far more visible, the global community is
scrambling to find solutions. Ion connection to this, the following policies by
international conventions have emerged.
a. Kyoto Protocol
Prior to the creation of the MDGs and SDGs, the Kyoto Protocol
was already adopted by the 1997 United Nations Assembly. Though it
took 8 years before its ratification, it is still considered as a landmark
convention as it is the first time that the global community came into
consensus as to the measures to reduce the carbon emission of each
country. This have already been discussed by Sir Pava, so we will not
delve further, but we will just revisit how the Kyoto protocol was
confronted by the problems on the clash of economic and environmental
interests, especially by the first world countries.
It should also be remembered how there is a clash on whether the
first world countries are the only ones who need to cut out carbon
emission, or should it include the developing countries, in which we
realized that the third world countries should also adopt the emission
reduction, because if not, the efforts of the developed countries will be
useless. There are more issues relating to Kyoto protocol that can be
reflected and is seen in the succeeding policies and conventions.

b. MDG 7 (Sustainable Environment) and SDG 13- (Climate Action)

The Millennium Development Goals has goal number 7 or the goal
to ensure a more sustainable environment for everyone. This have been the
primary policy which guides the global actions towards addressing the
problems of environmental degradation, however, this goal is somewhat
vague as a sustainable development has a lot of underlying variables,
hence the actions taken were not that centered towards climate change.
However, when the MDGs ended in 2015, the SDGs were
developed as the continuation. Under the SDG, there is the SDG 13 or the
climate action. This goal is a more specific policy that deals with the
problems in climate change. It calls for an urgent action to combat climate
change.

c. Paris Convention COP-21

Paris Convention happened in the same year as the creation of the
SDGs. It is an agreement between the signatories of the UNFCCC to come
together in reducing the rise in global temperature to below 2 degrees
Celsius, with 1.5 degrees Celsius as the ultimate goal. The convention
provided a road map to climate action and in the building of climate
resiliency.
d. COP 22-25
Following the Paris Agreement, during the COP 22 on 2016 the
Secretary General of UN Ban Ki-moon, called for representatives of all
countries to sign the Paris agreement on April. In September of the same
year, the Secretary again convened the countries as the last chance to
publicly commit to the Paris agreement. This was made to keep the global
spotlight in the challenges posed by climate change. It is dubbed as a high-
level event towards entry into force of the Paris convention.
Meanwhile, COP 23 in Germany (2017) brought together the
leaders of the different countries together with the cities, states, business,
investors, NGOs and civil society to speed up the Climate action to meet
the goals set by the Paris convention. COP 24 on the other hand, in
Poland, Finalized the plan of action for the Paris Agreement Work
Program (PAWP). after this, the IPCC released a 2018 report which calls
 to reduce the rise in global temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius, instead of
the 2 degrees Celsius. The report summarized the years of research done
by different universities from all around the world which have proven the
unequivocal cause of Climate change are the humans and their activities.
Accordingly, global warming is caused by the green house gasses and its
impacts are catastrophic. It further claimed that any fraction of degree that
we can reduce in the rise of temperature will greatly reduce the impacts of
the problem.
With this, the COP 25 was focused on the strengthening of the
implementing policies in each member states. The conference was
designed to take the next crucial steps in the UN climate change
process. The conference served to build ambition ahead of 2020, the year
in which countries have committed to submit new and updated national
climate action plans. Crucial climate action work was taken forward in
areas including finance, the transparency of climate action, forests and
agriculture, technology, capacity building, loss and damage, indigenous
peoples, cities, oceans and gender.
The COP 26 was supposedly scheduled for 2020, but due to the
pandemic, it was cancelled and was conducted just recently in Glasgow.
COP 26 called for the leaders to have the sense of urgency in tackling the
problems of climate change.

e. Climate positive actions

Since the pandemic, there have been a sudden decrease in global
carbon emission. But this is not something to be proud of, because the
decrease in carbon emission is a mere effect of the slowing down of
economic activities and productions due to the restrictions put by the
pandemic. What more worrying, is that, as soon as the economies will try
to rebuild their momentum, the increase in carbon emission is seen to rise
in a much higher level since countries have to double their production and
economic activities to cope with the losses during the pandemic.
With this, the secretary general of UN said that, the decline of the
economies during the pandemic is an opportunity to convert these
economies into a much greener form. Accordingly, countries should take
this opportunity to rebuild their economies under the framework of
environmental sustainability. With this, he proposed 6 climate positive
actions that countries can adopt to aid their rebuilding process.
1) Green transition: Investments must accelerate the decarbonization of
all aspects of our economy.
2) Green jobs and sustainable and inclusive growth
3) Green economy: making societies and people more resilient through a
transition that is fair to all and leaves no one behind.
4) Invest in sustainable solutions: fossil fuel subsidies must end and
polluters must pay for their pollution.
5) Confront all climate risks
6) Cooperation – no country can succeed alone.
As countries move toward rebuilding their economies after COVID-19, recovery plans
can shape the 21st century economy in ways that are clean, green, healthy, safe and more
resilient. The current crisis is an opportunity for a profound, systemic shift to a more sustainable
economy that works for both people and the planet. To address the climate emergency, post-
pandemic recovery plans need to trigger long-term systemic shifts that will change the trajectory
of CO2 levels in the atmosphere. Governments around the world have spent considerable time
and effort in recent years to develop plans to chart a safer and more sustainable future for their
citizens. Taking these on board now as part of recovery planning can help the world build back
better from the current crisis.

B. Aid on International Development Finance for Sus-Dev

No policy nor programs can ever be implemented without… FINANCE.
 a. International Conference on Financing for Development

i. Monterrey Consensus (Mexico 2002)

Is the United Nations first international conference on
financing for development. 6 methods of financing
development:
 Mobilizing domestic financial resources for
development
 Mobilizing international resources for development:
foreign direct investment and other private flows
 International trade as an engine for development
 Increasing international financial and technical
cooperation for development
 External debt
 Addressing systemic issues: enhancing the
coherence and consistency of the international
monetary, financial and trading systems in support
of development
ii. Doha Declaration (Qatar 2008)
Second United Nations Conference on Financing for
Development. Follow up on the progress of the Monterey
Consensus.
iii. Addis Ababa Action Agenda (Ethiopia 2015)
Third international conference on financing for
development. Financing the post 2015 agenda on
Sustainable Goals.
 Addition of Science Technology innovation and
capacity building.

For developed countries, financing for their Sus-dev goals is not a problem
since they are economically stable and capable. However, the situation is different
for developing and least developed countries. These are the nation-states that are
still struggling with financial stability and are confronted by local social problems
like poverty and corruption.
These countries have more things to worry than the SDGs, hence,
sustainability is sometimes in the end of its priority list. With this, developed and
economically stable countries have annual contributions to aid sustainable
development programs in these countries. How?

a) Official Development Assistance (ODA)

ODA is the annual contribution that the developed and economically
stable countries have pledged to allocate as a financial aid for the developing and
least developed countries (LDCs) for their SDGs. The last Conference on
Financing for development or the Addis Ababa Action agenda have Reaffirmed
the existing ODA commitments – 0.7 per cent of gross national income (GNI) to
developing countries and 0.15-0.20 per cent of GNI to least developed countries
(LDCs). It also committed to reverse decline in ODA to the LDCs; Encourages
ODA of 0.2 per cent of GNI to LDCs; is encouraged by countries that allocate at
least 50 per cent of ODA to LDCs. It also Committed to open, inclusive and
transparent discussions on the modernization of ODA measurement

The UN estimates the gap in financing to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs) at $2.5 trillion per year in developing countries alone (UNCTAD, 2014).

C. International Governance and Sustainable Development

International Governance is the form of governance that binds multiple
actors in a global scale. This includes nations-states, private sectors, non-
 governmental organizations and civil societies. These actors join forces for a
collective action towards global phenomena that no state can single handedly
address. Its purpose may vary but it can be roughly delimited to providing global
public goods particularly for peace and security, justice and mediation systems for
conflict, functioning markets and unified standards for trade and industry.
Another important aspect of international governance is its catastrophic risk
management where it formulates mediating solutions to avoid or at least, reduce
the risks of global casualties in times of global catastrophic incidents. Stages of
international governance includes Agenda setting, Policy making, Implementation
and enforcement.
At present, the United Nations is the leading institution that manages
global governance. Its member states convene and provides recommendations
through the UN general assembly which sets the agenda, creates the policy and
decides the implementation and enforcement of the policies.
The problem of Climate Change is considered one of the most pressing
problems faces by the global community, hence the Sustainable development
goals were set and the global governance serves as the primary driver of its
attainment.
Attaining sustainable development is a global dream, hence it requires
global efforts. But no efforts would be sufficient if the actions are fragmented and
unorganized. Therefore, international governance is what binds the collective
actions made by the individual actors towards the goals of sustainability. This is a
very important aspect of the plans towards sustainability since different states and
actors have different agendas based on, the varying problems that they are facing,
hence, unifying these actions is what global governance is all about.
International Law is what makes global cooperation synchronized,
however, since there is no world government that has sovereignty over the global
community, international laws are proven to be insufficient. This is because
whether these laws and conventions be followed are merely reliant on the
preference of its signatories. Countries can just renounce their pledges in the
convention if they think it is at their disadvantage. This is also one of the reasons
why the attainment of globally sustainable form of development remains to be a
dream.

CONCLUSION
The attainment of sustainable development will be possible through the policies that were
created for the different sustainable goals. However, these policies are greatly reliant on the
financial capacities of each nation states which makes the SDGs for developing and least
developed states more challenging to obtain. Though there is a global effort to fill in the financial
deficiencies, budget gaps remain rampant for the most states. Other than financial factors, the
global synchronization through international governance also remained a huge challenge as there
is no sovereign power that can oversee the global efforts towards sustainability.
In the case of climate action, as part of the SDGs, financial and international governance
remains an essential factor towards the efforts of combating climate change and the risks that it
entails. This brings us back to the conflicting interest of economic growth and environmental
conservation with the question that the world must come to a consensus. Should the policies
point towards balance or should it direct towards risk reduction?