Policies, Goals and Objectives
Key Messages The complex mix of geographic, environmental, political, economic and social issues across Asia and the Pacific
has often generated tangled environmental issues, which require improved sub-regional cooperation.
• Many countries have successfully established adequate policies and governance frameworks, but the outcomes from policy implementation still need continual effort and capacity building at all levels.
• Sound scientific knowledge and analysis will support and provide collaborative mechanisms to solve shared problems.
• Strong governance and institutional capacity is another major condition for producing a well-implemented and inclusive framework.
• Efficient and comprehensive resource mobilization for trans-boundary issues should promote stronger collective action.
Significant national variations with regard to the performance of a range of environmental, social and economic indicators urgently need to be addressed. Such disparities can be critical, with some countries lagging behind or making little progress. These gaps, including in developed countries in the region, can result in regional and environmental issues with important transboundary effects not being taken into account. Transboundary issues such as resource sharing, air pollution and water management need adequate attention from the countries in the region. Chronic issues, such as natural disasters, increasing vulnerability and climate change, will also create more challenges to all countries, and these call for effective policy tools and instruments to overcome threats to human life and livelihood, crops and livestock, private property and public infrastructure.
3.3.1 Encouraging climate change adaptation as a main pillar of sustainable development
Putting local climate change adaptation policy upfront
Despite the region’s many successes in establishing climate change policies at the national level, the amount of carbon emissions is still increasing in most sub-regions as a result of
rapid economic development and human activity (UN 2015). Many global and regional programmes such as the Green Economy Initiative, Clean Development Mechanism, Low- Carbon City, Kyoto Protocol and Montreal Protocol, aim to encourage low-carbon development to control emissions at mainly national levels, but extending these to develop climate change adaptation policies at the sub-regional or local level is a new challenge in the region.
For the successful establishment and adoption of such policies at the local level, a series of combined support mechanisms is needed in the form of effective policy, improved institutional capacity and governance mechanisms, financial incentives and scientific know-how. In most countries, the revision and establishment of legislation usually takes a long time, and the disparity of ministerial power across government structures often prevents environment and climate change issues from being incorporated into national and local development plans (Zhang 2015).
More targets to achieve in the SDGs; stronger institutional capacity required
Since many of the sustainable development goals have clear linkages to environmental sustainability, the future developmental policies to be coming up in the next 15 years
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