Background
As the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development approaches the halfway mark, no country is on track to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Importantly, countries are falling particularly short in efforts to reduce inequality (SDG 10). Instead, inequality is widening both within and between countries.
Similarly, progress to achieve the the Paris Agreement goals is not on track, as countries’ climate action plans (Nationally Determined Contributions, or NDCs) fall well short of the required commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase climate resilience. The lack of collective progress raises questions not only about political will and ambition, but also how to enable fair and effective implementation going forward. Meanwhile, clear and increasing evidence shows that successful climate action needs to address all dimensions of sustainable development, and vice versa.
One important mechanism for effective implementation of the Paris Agreement and the 2030 Agenda is policy coherence – policy-making that encompasses multiple goals to increase synergy and reduce conflicts.
Our research so far confirms that potential goal conflicts or untapped synergies exist between climate action and sustainable development, which tends to lead to unequal outcomes. To date, ambitions to improve policy coherence at a rhetorical level have not translated into strategies and practices that advance climate goals and the SDGs without exacerbating inequality.
Objectives
The core objective of this programme is to explore the causes and consequences of policy incoherence at the global, regional, national and sub-national levels with a specific focus on reducing inequality, and to what extent efforts that strive towards greater policy coherence lead to more or less inequality.
Particularly important is the national level, where the project aims to demonstrate examples of how countries can improve synergies between climate change and sustainable development, as well as how to tackle often unavoidable trade-offs, while leaving no one behind.
This programme includes a comparative study of nine country cases: Australia, Fiji, Colombia, Sweden, Germany, Kenya, Philippines, South Africa and Sri Lanka. We will also update the NDC-SDG Connections tool to visualize synergies between climate action and the Sustainable Development Goals to aid decision-makers implementing the Paris Agreement and the 2030 Agenda at different levels.
Overall, we intend to provide critical insights and policy recommendations to inform the achievement of the SDGs and any post-2030 goals. In addition, we will provide recommendations for how countries’ climate policies can enable progress on both climate action and the SDGs without exacerbating inequality.
Partners
- Linköping University (LiU)
- German Institute of Development and Sustainability Institute (IDOS)
- Utrecht University (UU)
In addition to core partners, local partners from the case study countries are also involved in co-leading the national case study work. These include:
- University of Canberra
- University of Fiji
- WWF South Africa
- Centre for Poverty Analysis (CEPA)
- University of the Philippines
Funder
SEI team
- Research Fellow
- SEI Headquarters
- @Adis_Dzebo
- Research Fellow
- SEI Headquarters
- @KTBrowne
- Research Director and Deputy Director
- SEI Headquarters
- @Perssonasa
- Senior Research Fellow
- SEI Headquarters
- Senior Expert Researcher
- SEI Latin America
- @ILobosAlva
- Centre Director
- SEI Africa
- @PMOsano
- Research Fellow
- SEI Africa
- @cassildemuhoza
- Research Associate
- SEI Headquarters
- Research Assistant
- SEI Latin America
- Research Assistant
- SEI Latin America
Core partners team
- Björn-Ola Linnér (LiU)
- Sara Gottenhuber (LiU)
- Maria Jernnäs (LiU
- Mathias Fridahl (LiU)
- Ines Dombrowsky (IDOS)
- Alexia Faus Onbargi (IDOS)
- Gabriela Iacobuţă (IDOS)
- Tanja Beck (IDOS)
- Marjanneke Vijge (UU)
Local partners team
- Jonathan Pickering (University of Canberra)
- Pierrick Chalaye (University of Canberra)
- Priyatama Singh (University of Fiji)
- Karin Fernando (CEPA)
- Navam Niles (CEPA)
- Shaneendra Amarasinghe (CEPA)
- Minuri Perera (CEPA)
- James Reeler (WWF – South Africa)
- Caroline Gelderblom (WWF – South Africa)
- Ruth Beukman (WWF – South Africa)
- Cecilia Therese T. Guiao (University of Philippines)
- Alaya de Leon (University of Philippines)
- Tonee Bayhon (University of Philippines)
- Vuj Justice Mabini (University of Philippines)
SEI US Associate Scientist Zoha Shawoo outlines why countries must strengthen policy coherence when implementing climate goals.
- Perspective
- Climate
- Governance
- Energy
- Economy
- 22 February 2022
- Australia
- Colombia
- Kenya
The disconnect between global climate and sustainable development agendas is often reflected in policy incoherence at the national level fostering inequality.
- Perspective
- Climate
- Governance
- 2 December 2019
- Kenya
- Philippines
- Sri Lanka
- Germany
- South Africa
- Sweden
- Press release
- 29 January 2018
- Greening recovery – overcoming policy incoherence for sustainability transformations
- Aligning climate and sustainable development finance through an SDG lens. The role of development assistance in implementing the Paris Agreement
- The European Green Deal and the war in Ukraine: addressing crises in the short and long term
- The climate change – inequality nexus: towards environmental and socio-ecological inequalities with a focus on human capabilities
- Addressing climate goals and the SDGs through a just energy transition? Empirical evidence from Germany and South Africa
- Political drivers of policy coherence for sustainable development: an analytical framework
- Increasing policy coherence between NDCs and SDGs: a national perspective
- The 2030 Agenda and the Paris Agreement: Voluntary contributions towards thematic policy coherence
- The Sustainable Development Goals viewed through a climate lens
- Connections between the Paris Agreement and the 2030 Agenda: the case for policy coherence
- Pathways for policy coherence in implementation of NDC and SDGs in Viet Nam and the role of civil society
- Exploring connections between the Paris Agreement and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development
This event highlighted how policy incoherence between the Paris Agreement and the 2030 Agenda at the national level exacerbates inequalities.
- Event
- Climate
- Governance
- 9 July 2020
SEI is set to present tools for easily making connections between climate action and other SDGs, enabling coherent policy-making towards both goals.
- Event
- Governance
- Climate
- 1 - 3 April 2019
- 09:00 - 12:00
- Copenhagen, Denmark
Analyze and compare how climate actions correspond to the Sustainable Development Goals.
- Tool
- Governance
- 7 November 2017