Name: Climate Action and the SDGs — Closing Gaps and Strengthening Synergies
Start: 2022-07-07T07:30:00-0400
End: 2022-07-07T09:00:00-0400
Location: Online

Accelerated and equitable climate action is critical to sustainable development, yet a stronger connection is needed between these two global priorities. Scaling up climate action presents gaps and challenges — including trade-offs — as well as opportunities.

On 7 July at 07:30–09:00 (New York, UTC -4), UNU will co-organise a side event at the 2022 High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) that will identify gaps and needs in knowledge about synergies and trade-offs between climate change and sustainable development. The event will explore ways to close these gaps through research on transformations in energy, food, urban, and other related socio-economic systems. The event will be an opportunity to discuss options for systemic approaches to transform these systems for sustainability at the local, national, and global scales, while enhancing synergies between climate action and other SDGs.

The event will explore the following key questions:

In what areas do we see the critical gaps between climate action and sustainable development?
What are the existing and potential ways to close these gaps — minimising trade-offs and promoting co-benefits to realise synergies between climate change and SDGs?
What role can research and education play in closing the gaps and strengthening the synergies.

The outcomes of this HLPF side event will contribute to preparations and presentations for the 3rd Global Conference on Synergy between the Paris Agreement and the SDGs in Tokyo in late July. The outcomes will also be important inputs for the Transforming Education Summit, to be convened by the UN Secretary-General during the 77th UN General Assembly.

Participation

This online event is open to the public. Please register in advance.

Language

This event will be held in English.

Programme

07:30–07:35	Opening Remarks	Hiroshi Ono (Vice-Minister for Global Environmental Affairs, Japan) Framing presentation: Shinobu Yume Yamaguchi (Director, UNU-IAS)
07:35–07:50	Keynote Speech	Gabriela Iacobuta (Researcher, German Institute of Development and Sustainability)
07:50–08:55	Panel Session	Facilitator: Shen Xiaomeng (UNU Vice-Rector in Europe & Director, UNU-EHS) Minoru Takada (Team Leader, Sustainable Energy, UN DESA) Sergey Kononov (Manager, Department for Programmes Coordination, UNFCCC Secretariat) Bartel Van de Walle (Director, UNU-MERIT) Melissa Brown Goodall (Senior Director, Penn Environmental Innovations Initiative, University of Pennsylvania) Erick Tambo (Academic Officer, UNU-EHS) Junko Akagi (Research Manager, Kitakyushu Urban Centre, IGES) Q&A Summary by panel moderator
08:55–09:00	Concluding Remarks

All times UTC -4

Organisers

This side event is organised by UNU, the UN Department of Social and Economic Affairs, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Secretariat, the Ministry of the Environment, Japan, and the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies, Japan.