The Asia-Europe Environment Forum (ENVforum) will be contributing to the annual Sustainable Development Transformation Forum (SDTF) as a knowledge partner from 22-24 October 2019 in Incheon, Korea.
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is nearing four full years of implementation. On the positive side, millions of people continue to raise themselves out of extreme poverty in the developing world. Life expectancy and the quality of life continue to improve for people in the developing world.
On the flip side, despite the recognition that our growth model is unsustainable over the long run, there is little to suggest that world leaders have gotten to grips with the scale of the transformations needed to put the world economy onto a sustainable development path. We continue to emit greenhouse gas emissions, clear forests, deplete fish stocks and destroy biodiversity at a rapid rate.
SDTF 2019 will focus centrally on what it will take to achieve the fundamental transformations in energy, industrial, food and other systems needed to shift courses from a Business-as-Usual path. It will consider not merely the technicalities but the political economy and behavioural economics of a sustainable development transition as well. With regard to behavioural economics, the forum will also explore the psychology of consumer choice and how sustainable choices can become the default across all types of consumers.
The forum will accommodate approximately 100 participants from Civil Society Organisations, Think Tanks, Academic Institutions, governments, UN Agencies, Development Banks, and private sector from around the world.
SDTF is hosted by the United Nations Office for Sustainable Development (UNOSD). Since 2013, ASEF, via the ENVforum, has been regularly contributing to the SDTF as a knowledge partner, bringing experts on sustainable development and presenting outcomes of ENVforum research on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).