*[Enwl-Inf] Мировые эко- события в октябре / ICYMI for October 2025
ecology
Дата: Сб, 1 нояб. 2025 г. в 19:05
Тема: ICYMI for October 2025
Кому: Bulat Yessekin <bulat.y...@gmail.com>
 Trick or Treat: Better Together Happy Saturday, folks! Welcome to the October edition of our In Case You Missed It monthly review. I love the fall in the Eastern US. Leaves are turning
beautiful shades of red, orange, and yellow. Bales of hay, apples, and
chrysanthemum—affectionately referred to as ‘mums’—are everywhere.
Halloween festivities like trick-or-treating or pumpkin carving bring
families together. It’s better together. UN at 80 and the Future of Multilateralism At the beginning of the month, we spotlighted the UNGA High-Level Week, which concluded at the end of September with calls for more robust multilateralism. Throughout the General Debate, speakers emphasized the need for accountability, inclusion, and a UN that is at the heart of a strong multilateral system—as called for in the Pact for the Future, adopted last year. A recent report from the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) reflecting on 80 years of sustainable development echoed this sentiment. It concluded “[t]he UN must continue to adapt and reform if we are to realize a sustainable, equitable, and resilient future.” The report cited the UN Secretary-General’s UN80 Initiative to accelerate reform of the organization. Recent civil society analysis revealed opportunities to ensure the Pact—and the UN itself—“move beyond symbolism and deliver practical, inclusive, and accountable implementation frameworks.” As a reminder, the UN80 Initiative aims to:
The Secretary-General recently briefed Member States on progress under the third workstream, outlining proposals related to peace and security, humanitarian operations, and sustainable development and human rights, as well as to shifts in key enablers for system-wide impact. The co-chairs of the informal Ad Hoc Working Group on the Mandate Implementation Review under Workstream 2 circulated the schedule of the Working Group’s future meetings and shared modalities for engagement. At a recent meeting, speakers highlighted UN-Water as an example of the type of collaboration called for under the UN80 Initiative. Introducing the proposed programme budget for 2026 to the UNGA’s Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary), the Secretary-General said the UN80 Initiative provides a unique context, “driven by a strong sense of urgency and… ambition to make the Secretariat more effective, agile, resilient and cost-efficient.” The USD 3.715 billion budget proposal includes efforts to optimize resources, streamline administrative services, consolidate functions, reduce overlap, and explore lower-cost delivery models. The UNGA President invited countries and stakeholders to register new initiatives, partnerships, and solutions with the Secretariat of the Second World Summit for Social Development, taking place in November. The Summit represents an opportunity to reinvigorate multilateralism, rebuild trust, and accelerate social development for all. The third edition of the Future of International Cooperation Report by the Stimson Center and partners explored opportunities for reforming political-judicial institutions, filling socioeconomic justice gaps, and advancing environmental justice. Tackling the Triple Planetary Crisis Preparations for several major meetings that will seek to address the triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution are also underway. These preparations took place in a number of meetings, briefings, reports, and projects, a portion of which are reviewed below. The breadth of activities underway is reason for hope; the challenge will be to bring these contributions “better together” to drive multilateral collaboration further. Ministers from Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) developed joint regional positions in preparation for multilateral negotiations later this year, including the UN Climate Change Conference (UNFCCC COP 30) in Belém and the seventh session of the UN Environment Assembly (UNEA-7). They identified the need for more integrated approaches and synergies in addressing climate change, biodiversity loss, land degradation, desertification, drought, and pollution in all its forms. Convening in the margins of the High-Level Week, the ENERGYNOW SDG7 Action Forum 2025 highlighted progress towards SDG 7 (affordable and clean energy) to drive ambition in the lead up to the third review of SDG 7 by the UN High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) in 2026 and the SDG Summit in 2027. Among the Goals to undergo in-depth review by HLPF 2026 is also SDG 6 (clean water and sanitation). UN-Water invited stakeholder input for the UN SDG 6 Synthesis Report 2026, which will serve as an input from the UN system and its partners to SDG 6 review. The Forum will also review SDG 9 (industry, innovation and infrastructure), SDG 11 (sustainable cities and communities), and SDG 17 (partnerships for the Goals). The Climate Summit 2025, held during the High-Level Week, sought to accelerate momentum toward COP 30 by serving as a platform for country leaders to announce new climate plans. Nearly 100 countries announced their nationally determined contributions (NDCs) or shared plans to do so. Yet, the UNFCCC synthesis report includes only 64 NDCs recorded in the NDC registry between 1 January 2024 and 30 September 2025. As of sending you this newsletter, an additional nine NDCs were formally submitted in October to the NDC registry, leaving quite the gap heading into COP 30. All recorded NDCs go beyond mitigation to cover adaptation, finance, technology transfer, capacity building, and loss and damage, as well as cross-cutting elements like just transition, stakeholder engagement, and gender responsiveness. This is in line with the recommendations of the Third Global Report on Climate and SDGs Synergies, which calls for transition pathways that are people-centered, inclusive, and just. Around half of the 64 NDCs include voluntary initiatives, such as those aimed at reducing methane (CH4) emissions and other short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs). Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas (GHG) with 80 times the global warming potential (GWP) of carbon dioxide (CO2) over a 20-year period. The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) recently outlined data-driven solutions for scaling action on methane. In their NDCs, countries also indicate how their targets, commitments, and actions will contribute to transitioning away from fossil fuels in energy systems, among other global efforts. At this point, it is hard to say whether this was inspired by the landmark Advisory Opinion (AO) by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which addressed fossil fuels in the context of climate change at length. For example, as our guest authors highlighted this month, ending fossil fuel subsidies is not just a matter of good practice, but a legal imperative. States continuing to license new projects or subsidize production now also bear the burden of proving their actions comply with climate obligations. Other guest articles in our ICJ AO series addressed the role of the Advisory Opinion in climate politics, emphasizing that negotiations and policies will now have to operate within the legal frame set by the Court—and meaningful activism around the process, which broke down silos between formal proceedings and mobilizations outside the courtroom. The 2025 International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) World Congress issued a call to action to protect and restore biodiversity and to strengthen multilateralism for nature. Stakeholder summits that took place alongside the Congress explored regional solutions as well as the contributions of Indigenous Peoples, business, youth, and philanthropy. Among other findings, recent biodiversity-related reports highlight that:
Ahead of the 11th session of the Governing Body (GB 11) of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA) next month, we revisited the outcome of the latest round of negotiations in July. GB 11 is expected to finalize years of talks aiming to enhance the functioning of the Treaty’s Multilateral System (MLS) of access and benefit-sharing (ABS)—the largest global exchange mechanism for plant genetic resources for food and agriculture (PGRFA). The idea is to help leverage and share plant genetic resources to address complex challenges such as food insecurity, biodiversity loss, and climate change, although principled differences remain on practically all major issues, including digital sequence information/genetic sequence data (DSI/GSD) on PGRFA—and the payment structure and rates under the revised Standard Material Transfer Agreement (SMTA) used for PGRFA exchanges and benefit-sharing. Convening back-to-back, the Chemical Review Committee (CRC) of the Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Informed Consent Procedure for Certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International Trade, and the Persistent Organic Pollutants Review Committee of the Stockholm Convention (POPRC), respectively, advanced work on pesticides—and focused on work to support implementation of prior decisions. The Global Framework for Chemicals (GFC) Fund launched a second call for applications. The Fund will prioritize proposals that strengthen institutional capacities, target high-impact sectors, and have a positive impact for people and the environment. The 2025 Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development (CCICED) discussed China’s domestic work to achieve “an ecological civilization.” The discussions held during the meeting will support the Council’s work as it finalizes its policy recommendations on environment and development for consideration by China’s State Council. Leveraging Means of Implementation There is a broad understanding that, much like the UN itself, the global financial architecture is in need of major reform. Mandated by the Pact for the Future, the first Biennial Summit for a Sustainable, Inclusive and Resilient Global Economy explored actions to support such reform, including ways to strengthen collaboration between multilateral institutions for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda. During the 2025 Annual Meetings of the World Bank Group (WBG) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), developing countries called for focus on fiscal sustainability, provision of additional concessional financing, strengthening debt management, and enhancing debt transparency. A UN report underscored the importance of sustainable finance that takes social and environmental, as well as financial, outcomes into account. The UN launched the Global Dialogue on AI Governance and the UN Independent International Scientific Panel on AI. The Global Dialogue is envisioned as an inclusive space within the UN for governments and stakeholders to deliberate on today’s most pressing AI challenges. The Panel is the first global scientific body on AI that brings together leading experts to assess how AI is transforming our lives. The 16th session of the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD 16) presented an opportunity to weigh policy options and craft multilateral responses that foster resilient supply chains, fairer finance, productive investment, and an inclusive digital economy. A report discussed during the Conference proposed actions to support the reform of the international financial architecture and of the multilateral trading system, towards a networked multilateralism. Looking Beyond 2030 Given that many of the SDG targets are not on track to be achieved by the 2030 deadline, sustainable development post-2030 is beginning to be on the mind for some. But—insufficient though it may be—progress on the SDGs is worth noting. Maternal mortality dropped nearly 40% between 2000 and 2023. The global trend in water-use efficiency increased 23% between 2015 and 2022. These are welcome developments we should celebrate. At the same time, it is important to identify and refine entry points for transformation and levers for change in the lead up to 2027, when the last SDG Summit will formally kick off discussions on the future of sustainable development after 2030. As these discussions ramp up, a recent DESA Global Policy Dialogue sought to demonstrate how global cooperation can accelerate progress, strengthen resilience, and ensure no one is left behind. Also, the fifth World Congress of Biosphere Reserves endorsed an action plan, aiming to align with the SDGs and inspire and influence sustainable futures and post-2030 agreements. At the SDG Knowledge Hub, we have wrapped up a mini-series of guest articles with the Beyond Lab at UN Geneva, aiming to look beyond crisis narratives and fear, beyond resignation, and beyond short-term thinking – towards positive visions of the future and long-term sustainability. Articles spotlighted an initiative to ensure both current and future generations are actively included in policymaking and, drawing on a Māori worldview, traced the shift from sustaining to restoring, renewing, reimagining, and healing. Discussions on metrics that complement and go beyond gross
domestic product (GDP) are also gaining prominence in post-2030
conversations. The UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) published
guidelines on how to define well-being dimensions, select and compile
statistical indicators, identify relevant data sources, and communicate
results effectively to the public. The International Institute for
Sustainable Development (IISD), with the International Development
Research Centre (IDRC), Rethinking Economics International, UN Geneva, and
the Beyond Lab, launched a learning tool offering practical guidance on
using non-GDP indicators to gauge progress. Our guest articles explored
how to make alternative metrics work, and the emerging new consensus on sustainable and inclusive
well-being. We hope this snapshot of October’s SDG news inspires the spirit of togetherness we so cherish—this month and beyond. |
From: Bulat Yessekin <bulat.y...@gmail.com>
Date: сб, 1 нояб.
2025 г. в 18:31
Subject: Мировые эко- события в
октябре
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