The seminar titled “Sustainable Development Assessment: Towards Measureable Goals” took place on 21-22 November 2012 and was followed by 14th Asia-Europe Environment Forum Steering Committee Meeting on 23 November 2012.

The participants represented international environmental think tanks and environmental governance experts from organisations in Asia and Europe.
The seminar initiated the Post-Rio discussions on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and their indicators under the Asia-Europe Environment Forum programme. It provided the information about the status of the SDGs related initiatives and an overview of existing indicators that could be used to measure sustainable development.

There were several SDGs Goals suggestions proposed by member states and other stakeholders involved in Rio process. As a result of Rio+20, several focus areas were identified:
1. Green jobs, youth employment and social inclusion
2. Energy access, efficiency, sustainability
3. Food security and sustainable agriculture
4. Water
5. Sustainable cities
6. Management of the oceans, fisheries and other marine resources
7. Improved resilience and disaster preparedness

There is a strong support to elaborate on a possible SDGs on national and regional level created by bottom up process. These SDGs should also build on the Millennium Development Goals experience and be perceived as a complimentary process to the MDGs.

After the seminar during the Steering Committee Meeting the ENVforum launched the 3-year programme that supports the dialogue on SDGs creation. The programme will conclude in 2015 alongside the Millennium Development Goals process. It will build on ASEF’s 2-year work towards Rio and research results on Architectures for Sustainable Development.

The Asia-Europe Environment Forum is an initiative of the Asia-Europe Foundation, the Hanns Seidel Foundation, the Institute of Global Environmental Strategies, the Swedish International Development Agency (Sida) with the United Nations Environment Programme. The co-organising partner for the seminar was ASEM SMEs Eco-Innovation Center (ASEIC).