Over the past few years, the international community has made a quantum leap in advancing new approaches to accelerate progress and pave the way for a more ambitious, inclusive, and universal development framework beyond 2015. While industrialization was not factored into the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) framework, inclusive and sustainable industrialization now features strongly in the post-2015 development discourse and explicitly mentioned in the now leading Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
GEIPP activities and outputs are also relevant to and achieve more modest contributions to several other SDGs:
SDG 7 “Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all”; confirms the importance of energy as a driver of development and aims amongst others at doubling the rate of energy efficiency improvement and significantly increasing share of renewable energy, both by 2030.
SDG 8 “Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all”; targets sustained per capita economic growth percent per annum in the least developed countries, whilst progressively improving global resource efficiency in consumption and production and endeavor to decouple economic growth from environmental degradation.
SDG 11 “Make cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable”; Cities are hubs for ideas, commerce, culture, science, productivity, social development, and much more. However, many challenges exist to maintaining cities in a way that continues to create jobs and prosperity while not straining land and resources. Common urban challenges include congestion, lack of funds to provide basic services, a shortage of adequate housing, and declining infrastructure. The challenges cities face can be overcome in ways that allow them to continue to thrive and grow while improving resource use and reducing pollution and poverty.
SDG 13 “Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts by regulating emissions and promoting developments in renewable energy”; targets resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-related hazards and natural disasters; integration of climate change measures into national policies and strategies; improvement of education, awareness-raising, and human and institutional capacity; promotion of mechanisms for raising capacity for effective climate change-related planning and management.
