EASAC at UNECE Forum 2019 on the SDGs

EASAC was represented at the UN Economic Commission for Europe’s (UNECE) Third Annual Regional Forum on Sustainable Development last month by Robin Fears, EASAC Biosciences Programme Director and Tracey Elliott, IAP Project Director. Here, UNECE convened over 50 of its members to discuss regional and national progress on the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).  The Forum’s deliberations will feed into the UN plenary meeting in July 2019 when all UN Member States will review progress on the goals.

The report of the Forum was shared this week with all participants and will be made public shortly. Robin’s intervention on the SDG-13 Roundtable (Coping with climate change – strengthening resilience and adaptation) featured in several paragraphs.  He discussed the "Food and Nutrition Security and Agriculture (FNSA)" project through the lens of climate change and reiterated the importance of an integrated approach to implementing the SDGs.  In the final plenary session, Tracey reminded Member States that most of them have national academies of science on which they can draw. 

The report included a paragraph as follows:

"Sustainability science should be interdisciplinary and look at the impacts beyond national borders. Using existing structures, such as the national academies of science, as a source of knowledge and conveners can be used to strengthen the science-policy interface."

Conversations are ongoing to bring the FNSA global synthesis and EASAC’s work to the attention of the UN and its Regional Commissions.