GUEST ARTICLES
Do you recall Shakespeare’s masterpiece, ‘The Merchant of Venice?’ The story is set in the 16th century “Floating City.” Although past its heyday, it is still teeming with wealthy merchants making huge gains from silk or spice trade. Antonio, one of those wealthy merchants, has defaulted on his loan because he lost his ships at sea. His moneylender, Shylock, is pursuing his debts, asking for a pound of flesh.
FEATURED
2 December 2018: Held under the theme, ‘Investing in Biodiversity for People and Planet,’ the UN Biodiversity Conference resulted in the adoption of numerous decisions on strategic, administrative, financial, and ecosystem-related issues of relevance to the implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, and the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit-sharing (ABS).
ESCWA Adopts ‘Beirut Consensus’ as Input to FfD High-level Dialogue
29 November 2018: The UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) organized a conference to crystalize its input to the 2019 High-level Dialogue on Financing for Development (FfD) and the UN High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF). The resulting ‘Beirut Consensus on Financing for Development’ calls for redirecting attention from incentivizing the private sector towards addressing de-risking practices and the loss of corresponding banking relations, as well as towards the use of innovative ways to bridge the small and medium enterprises (SME) funding gap.
Mobile Industry Reports Increasing Impact Across all SDGs
28 November 2018: The third edition of the Mobile Industry Impact Report finds that the mobile industry’s impact has increased across all 17 SDGs, with mobile operators aligning activities with the SDGs and integrating the SDGs into their core values, strategies and services. The report, produced by GSMA, emphasizes the mobile industry’s commitment to leverage the power of mobile networks and the services they provide to accelerate achievement of the SDGs.
UNEP, Partners Launch Tool to Assess Economic Impact of Environmental Degradation
26 November 2018: The Natural Capital Finance Alliance (NCFA) launched “the world’s first comprehensive tool” linking environmental change with its consequences for the economy. ENCORE (Exploring Natural Capital Opportunities, Risks and Exposure) is a web-based tool that will help global banks, investors and insurance firms assess the risks that environmental degradation, such as the pollution of oceans or destruction of forests, poses for financial institutions.
ESCAP Estimating Total Investments Needed to Achieve SDGs
15 November 2018: The UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) is attempting to estimate the full amount of investments that countries will need to make to achieve the SDGs. The regional commission convened a two-day Expert Group Meeting (EGM) on the topic, and noted that, while current indications are that most countries will be able to invest sufficiently, the 12 least developed countries (LDCs) in the Asia-Pacific region will need financial and technical assistance.
NEWS
Experts Share Efforts to Harmonize Statistics on SDGs 1, 10 in Europe
30 November 2018: Statistical experts and other stakeholders met to discuss recommendations on disaggregated poverty measures, to support governments in the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) in measuring progress on SDG 1 (no poverty) and SDG 10 (reduced inequalities). Countries shared their efforts to harmonize poverty statistics and improve cross-country comparability as part of broader efforts to monitor progress towards the SDGs.
Data Professionals Discuss SDG Indicator Platform
30 November 2018: A group of young data professionals discussed data sources for the SDG indicators, as well as a new platform that will provide visualizations of the indicator data at global scale.
WMO Provisional Statement on Global Climate Points to Continued Warming Trend
29 November 2018: The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has released a provisional version of the ‘WMO Statement on the State of the Global Climate 2018,’ which points to a continued long-term warming trend, with the average global temperature for the year set to be the fourth highest on record.
Sustainable Blue Economy Conference Concludes with 62 Commitments
28 November 2018: The Sustainable Blue Economy Conference concluded with hundreds of pledges to advance a sustainable Blue Economy, including 62 concrete commitments related to: marine protection; plastics and waste management; maritime safety and security; fisheries development; financing; infrastructure; biodiversity and climate change; technical assistance and capacity building; private sector support; and partnerships.