GEO-6 Regional Assessment for Asia and the Pacific


The co-benefits concept highlights that integrated approaches to environmental issues can be more cost- effective than current silo approaches (Global Commission on the Economy and Climate 2015), since many related environmental issues have common causes. Climate change and air pollution are a prominent example in the region. Many solutions, such as renewable energy and energy efficiency, directly address both issues simultaneously, thereby leading to cost synergies (ACP 2014). Other relevant areas include buildings, transport and waste (De Oliveira et. al. 2013).


Enhanced capacity is as important as financing. Many countries in the region, to varying degrees, lack sufficient capacity to expand domestic financing, strengthen relevant policies or implement existing policies to the extent that would be necessary to achieve the SDGs and address other environmental issues. Simply spending more money or transferring more technology will not be successful without sufficient capacity to use these assets effectively.


The SDGs themselves can be considered means of implementation because complementarity between goals enhances the potential of the SDG framework to deliver broader results for people and the planet. Each goal is a means of implementation for the others, directly or indirectly. For example, achieving the water goals and targets will reduce poverty and hunger, enhance health, reduce land degradation, facilitate gender equality, provide jobs, assist sustainable industrialization and make consumption and production more sustainable. In general, environmental protection is necessary for poverty reduction and improved health and well-being, while poverty reduction and greater prosperity in turn can help to reduce environmental degradation. Education is one SDG, but it is also a means to achieve the other SDGs. This includes environmental education more specifically, as well as education for sustainable development more broadly.


Moving along transformative pathways towards sustainable development is a matter of urgency. There is a wide range of basic environment-related policies that could be


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strengthened or adopted by the countries in the region, depending on their individual situations. An important first step towards transformational change should be for countries to strengthen and fully implement existing basic policies, or adopt them if they are absent. These encompass measures such as ambient and emission standards for various pollutants and other related policies in order to prevent and control pollution of air, water and land, including ensuring the sound management of chemicals and waste. Supporting biodiversity and maintaining the provision of ecosystem services that support human well-being are basic requirements. Decarbonizing economies is also a key priority, and there are many well-known measures to address this, such as renewable energy, energy efficiency and sustainable transport (UNEP 2015a). Individually, these basic measures are not necessarily transformational, but if all the countries in the region were to implement them consistently, it would make a significant difference.


Integrated approaches to resource management are a major implication of the SDGs. For example, water, land and air are needed in order to produce energy, and producing water for human applications uses significant amounts of energy. Reducing poverty and hunger requires agriculture, which also needs land, water, energy and air. Climate may also be considered a resource, and is related to all these other resources. It is clear that all resources are necessary to achieve the SDGs and human well-being. The environment provides critical ecosystem services which are being damaged by pollution and overuse. Without integrated management, resources will be degraded, shortages will occur, the SDGs will not be achievable, and human well-being and prosperity will suffer. Implementing such integration will not be easy, however, since it requires cooperation between different ministries in each country, so it will be necessary to consider how to do this.


Transforming the region’s economy is a key to putting the region on transformative pathways. SDG 12 on sustainable consumption and production should be at the centre of economic transformation. Countries have already agreed


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