The Asia-Europe Environment Forum (ENVforum) organised the conference as part of a contribution to a world-wide effort to discuss and support sustainable development as an answer to sustainable development implementation challenges.

The main theme of the conference focused on the obstacles hampering the realization of a greener future, bringing together experts from the fields of business innovation and academia, representatives of Small & Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and renowned international experts on sustainable development.

The Conference took place in Seoul, Republic of Korea in collaboration with ASEF’s partner organization ASEIC (ASEM Small & Medium Enterprises Eco-Innovation Centre). Participants had the opportunity to cement their knowledge on:

• Green Growth
• SDGs and the Post-2015 Sustainable Development Agenda following the 2012 Rio+20 Conference in Brazil.

Launch of the New ENVforum “Small Planet” Report

This year’s Conference in Seoul provided the ideal venue to launch the ENVforum’s most recent publication titled: “Sustainable Development Goals and Indicators for a Small Planet-Interim Report.” The project aims to contribute to the development of a universal set of SDGs in terms of its substantive content and process design. Its specific objectives include the following:

1. Develop and test a methodology in selected Asia-Pacific and European countries to identify a system of SDGs, and to provide guidance for the methodology’s broader application at the global and national levels.

2. Identify illustrative SDGs and underlying targets and indicators that are guided by global and informed by national priorities as expressed in existing national sustainable development strategies and strategic development plans in selected ASEM countries.

3. Provide countries in Asia-Pacific and Europe a foundation for developing their own SDG and indicator sets by producing national thematic templates that reflect their respective priorities, goals, targets and indicators.

4. Support the implementation of SDGs by providing guidance regarding their integration into policies and programs.

The research was guided by the principles and priorities expressed in various fora and agreements for SDG development; considered various processes related to the global post-2015 development agenda and SDGs; and was grounded in applicable findings of social and natural sciences and the results of high-level integrated assessments and thematic reports of the UN System. Complementing guidance available through global processes and documents, the project drew on national goals and priorities from sustainable development strategies, medium-term development plans, and similar documents of eight Asian (Australia, Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Singapore) and six European (France, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland) ASEM-member countries.

In order to identify a short set of illustrative SDGs, the project developed and adopted a unique methodology that connects global and national perspectives through an iterative process. This dual-level approach ensured that the SDGs have universal relevance and meet global criteria for sustainability while being grounded in national sustainable development priorities, goals and targets.

A PDF version of the interim report is available for download on the top-right corner of this page. A final version of the Report is available here.