SDGs and the GST: A vision for our future

C2ES @ COP28

“We must solve the climate emergency and sustainable development challenges together, or we will not solve them at all.” The outcomes of first global stocktake in this critical decade need to send clear and specific signals as to what Parties and non-Party stakeholders could usefully do after COP28 in order to collectively achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement, both as part of an immediate response as well as through more ambitious NDCs in 2025. These efforts must also go hand-in-hand with enhancing sustainable development.

The report “Synergy Solutions for a World in Crisis:  Tackling Climate and SDG Action Together” highlights this imperative. Published in September, the report illustrates that integrated and synergistic action on climate and development is critical to achieve the course correction needed to build a more sustainable future. It provides data, case studies, an overview of existing barriers, and offers ten recommendations to support enhanced coordination, policy coherence, and revised governance frameworks at national and international levels.

Speakers will outline a theory of change for moving from incremental progress in the UNFCCC to transformational levels of ambition, implementation, and international cooperation. Speakers will elaborate examples of key operational and transformational signals, including the tripling of renewable energy capacity, through the lens of the SDGs, highlighting synergies and trade-offs that can inform and drive effective progress in the GST and beyond COP28. The normative potential of both regimes – UNFCCC and SDG – can be leveraged to ensure that all stakeholders – national governments, local authorities, civil society, the private sector, national level practitioners, multilateral organizations and UN agencies, among others – align their efforts in our global transformation.

This event will feature the Expert Group on Climate and SDG Synergy Co-Lead Luis Gomez Echeverri.