Pathways to Sustainable Energy – Accelerating Energy Transition in the UNECE Region

Energy underpins economic development and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and has a critical role to play in climate change mitigation. The recognition of the role that energy plays in modern society is highly significant, however, there remains an important disconnection between agreed energy and climate targets and the approaches in place today to achieve them. Only international cooperation and innovation can deliver the accelerated and more ambitious strategies. Policies will be needed to all the persistent gaps to achieve the 2030 Agenda. If the gaps are not addressed urgently, progressively more drastic and expensive measures will be required to avoid extreme and potentially unrecoverable social impacts as countries try to cope with climate change. This report uniquely focuses on sustainable energy in the UNECE region up to 2050 as regional economic cooperation is an important factor in achieving sustainable energy. Arriving at a state of attaining sustainable energy is a complex social, political, economic and technological challenge. The UNECE countries have not agreed on how collectively they will achieve energy for sustainable development. Given the role of the UNECE to promote economic cooperation it is important to explore the implications of different sustainable energy pathways and for countries to work together on developing and deploying policies and measures

Navigating Out of the Crisis: A Trade-led Recovery-A Practical Guide for Policymakers in Asia and the Pacific

The current economic and financial crisis is an unprecedented challenge for policymakers of the Asia-Pacific region. While the region's policymakers have gained considerable experience in responding to national or regional financial crises, they have less expertise in addressing a crisis that originated in the financial sector and then reverberated throughout the real economy. Governments in the region may benefit from considering other countries' experiences in how to react to sharp reductions in trade, employment and production. In addition, as this crisis has spread globally, the solution will have to be based on a global and coordinated response to limit long-term harm, in particular to the most vulnerable economies. This guide outlines short-, medium-, and long-term trade-related policy tools at the international, regional and national level which Asia-Pacific countries may want to consider both mitigate the impact of the economic crisis and to invest in more resilient economies for the future. This book has 7 chapters (1) National Coordination for a Trade-led Recovery, (2) Maintaining the Supremacy of the Multilateral Trading System, (3) Addressing Trade Financing and Trade Development Constraints, (4) Diversifying Products and Markets for Exports, (5) Enhancing South-South Trade and Cooperation, (6) Promoting Asia-Pacific Businesses for Long-Term Competitiveness, and (7) Looking beyond the Crisis: Positioning the Asia-Pacific Region for the Futureeconomic, financial crisis, Asia-Pacific, WTO, international trade, competitiveness, South-South Trade, export, Diversifying products, Multilateral Trading System, Trade-led recovery

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Africa : how civil registration and vital statistics systems supported an emergency response

CRVS systems are essential services, providing critical mortality data and legal identity that underpin safety nets and public services. Developing measures to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on the registration of vital events is critical. The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), with the support of the Centre for Excellence for Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) systems, is using its convening role to provide technical assistance to African countries. The programme will reinforce digital tools that make it possible to notify and register vital events as they occur.Global Affairs Canada (GAC

Learning Within

This chapter “lifts the lid” to reveal the workings inside the Expert Group as it developed indicators for the UNECE Strategy for Education for Sustainable Development (ESD); as far as possible, this chapter seeks to tell the story of the Expert Group in their own words. Its purpose is to share some of the learning that this process engendered with those who may develop mandates for, or participate in, similar processes in future, in particular, the proposed UNECE Expert Group on ESD Competences. Beyond this primary audience, the analysis of the experts’ remarks may have relevance for students of international policy while the set of suggestions may prove useful to a wider audience of participants and managers of similar processes. Following these introductory remarks, the chapter is divided into four sections. Section one provides the background to the process, with particular reference to the mandate, the selection of experts and working arrangements. The second section focuses on the development of the outputs from the first draft of the indicators through the pilot testing process to the development of additional tools to facilitate the understanding and use of indicators. Section three looks at the Expert Group as a “learning arena” and shows how the positive group dynamics contributed to the success of the work and led to the development of ideas and actions beyond the indicator framework itself. These three sections lead logically to section four that suggests guidelines for similar processes. The chapter refers to a number of key documents relating to the process but more significantly, it draws upon correspondence with 10 Expert Group (EG) members, (all group members were invited to respond). Follow-up interviews were conducted with three EG members

Impact of Trade Facilitation on Export Competitiveness: a Regional Perspective

This studies is the outcome of the project of the Regional Expert Group Meeting on Trade and Transport Facilitation for Export Competitiveness.Trade, Export, Competitiveness, Facilitation, Regional, Asia, Pacific

Globalization of Production and the Competitiveness of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises in Asia and the Pacific: Trends and Prospects

This paper focuses on a key dynamic that is changing the business environment: the globalization of production, which has major implications for the growth prospects of SMEs in Asia and the Pacific. The current global economic environment is characterized by trade liberalization, rapidly changing technology, and growing and ever-mutating demand for higher-quality and differentiated intermediate and final products and services that must meet increasingly stringent international standards. Traditional SMEs find it difficult to stay competitive in such an environment, even in their domestic markets. Conversely, by facilitating linkages with foreign buyers and large multinational enterprises, the forces of globalization loosen the constraints of domestic economies and markets, and provide local SMEs with potential access to globally distributed assets, including information, technology, skills, capital and markets.SMEs, Asia, Pacific, information, technology, globalization

Asia-Pacific Trade and Investment Report 2011: Post-crisis trade and investment opportunities

The Asia-Pacific region has made a vigorous comeback from the global economic crisis and is currently leading world economic growth. However, not all countries have benefited equally from this rebound. Furthermore, as the second decade of the twenty-first century proceeds, the region faces various challenges, such as high food and fuel prices, continued malaise in most of the developed economies, and a higher incidence of natural disasters that affect trade and investment. At the same time, there are also plenty of opportunities. With its focus on the theme "Post-crisis trade and investment opportunities", this year's Asia-Pacific Trade and Investment Report identifies the challenges and opportunities for trade and investment in the region. The report concludes that, with the right policies and strengthened regional cooperation, the region would be able to continue its strong trade-and investment-led growth.Trade, Investment, opportunities, Asia, Pacific, economic growth, crisis, post-crisis,

3rd African Drought Adaptation Forum report, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 17-19 September 2008

The Third African Drought Adaptation Forum was held in September 2008 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The Forum was organized so that participants could exchange practical experiences, findings and ideas on how to adapt to the increasing threat of drought and climate change in the drylands of Africa. The report contains a summary of sessions and outlines key themes that emerged from the discussions

Environmental Impact Assessment and Strategic Environmental Assessment in the UK after leaving the European Union

The United Kingdom has voted to leave the European Union and, until the terms of the ‘Brexit’ are negotiated, this has led to considerable uncertainty over the future practice of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) in the UK. Here we show that multiple obligations exist outside the scope of the EU which mean that EIA and SEA will continue to be required in the long-term, but that their future compliance with the Directives remains unclear. We consider three scenarios for Brexit and present the implications of each; these are: signing up to the European Economic Area (EEA) Agreement; membership of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), but not EEA, or negotiate a separate agreement. The implications of no longer being subjected to the obligations of the Directives under some scenarios are discussed and include opening the door for increasing diversity of application across the regions of the UK, and the probability of raised screening thresholds so as to reduce the burden of assessment on developers

Natural capital accounting perspectives: a pragmatic way forward

Introduction: Recent debates surrounding the application of natural capital accounting (NCA) have produced several approaches to further develop this system, as well as highlighted a number of conceptual and methodological issues that need to be resolved before mainstreaming NCA into policy and decision making. We argue that prolonged debate over the value concepts (i.e., exchange versus other values) underpinning different modifications to NCA has slowed progress in experimentation and uptake by policymakers.Outcomes: Consequently we propose three broad approaches which can be progressed in parallel to reinvigorate experimentation with the NCA principles and practice, while at the same time generating policy relevant tools and evidence bases for decision support. The three approaches are; extended SNA accounting anchored to the use of exchange values; a complementary accounts network (CAN) that utilizes plural values as supplementary accounts to the SNA system; and wealth accounting that focuses on measures of welfare and wellbeing. The three approaches are complementary and data developed in any one can inform the other two.Conclusions: We contend that CAN offers the most flexibility and opportunities to progress short term support for decision making on environmental issues which are now becoming urgent