THE EARTH SYSTEM GOVERNANCE GLOBAL RESEARCH ALLIANCE & SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS

PROJECT INFORMATION DOCUMENT

EARTH SYSTEM GOVERNANCE PROJECT

Earth System Governance — a global research alliance, is the largest social science research net-work in the area of governance and global environmental change. The Earth System Governance research alliance takes up the challenge of exploring political solutions and novel, more effective governance mechanisms to cope with the current transitions in the biogeochemical systems of the planet. The normative context of this research is sustainable development; earth system gover-nance is not only a question of institutional effectiveness, but also of political legitimacy and social justice.

For more information see earthsystemgovernance.org

EARTH SYSTEM GOVERNANCE RESEARCH ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS

At the 2012 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (“Rio+20”), the UN member states decided on developing “Sustainable Development Goals” (SDG). The goal setting and imple-mentation processes, and the development of the goals and their indicators pose a challenge to policy-making and to research.

The Earth System Governance Project, jointly with partner organizations is taking up this chal-lenge. The research on SDGs is coordinated by the Earth System Governance Tokyo Research Cen-ter, which is co-organized by Tokyo Institute of Technology and United Nations University Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability (UNU-IAS), with funding from the S-11 research project entitled Project On Sustainability Transformation beyond 2015 (POST-2015) of the Ministry of Environment, Japan.

The aim of this 3-year project is to provide inputs into the policy process on the Post 2015 Develop-ment Agenda, with particular focus on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), based on rigorous scientific analysis on the governance of, and governance for, the Post 2015 Development Agenda, which includes longer-term philosophical and normative underpinnings to SDGs.

For more information see sdg.earthsystemgovernance.org/

THE EARTH SYSTEM GOVERNANCE GLOBAL RESEARCH ALLIANCE & SUSTAINABLE

DEVELOPMENT GOALS

SDG.EARTHSYSTEMGOVERNANCE.ORG

The Earth System Governance Project’s dedicated knowledge portal on the SDGs for the post-2015 development agenda and beyond is SDG.earthsystemgovernance.org. The focus of this webpage is the role of science and governance ‘of ’ and ‘for’ the SDGs.

The website serves as a repository of publications and opinion pieces as well as a source informa-tion on relevant events. The website and social media activities aim to bring a strong online pres-ence with unique, high-quality content as a vital element in emphasizing the importance of sound science-based governance and policy making in the SDG process.

SDG.earthsystemgovernance.org

The Earth System Governance research alliance, in collaboration with the POST-2015 Project and other partners are advancing cutting-edge social science research on SDGs and more generally on goal-setting as a governance approach in international relations and sustainable development. At the core of these efforts is the production of an edited volume to be published as the first in-depth social science analyses of the SDGs. This book will not be organized around specific proposed SDGs and will not try to systematically assess the proposed goals and targets, but rather, will look at various governance issues around the SDGs and aims to shed some light on the potential gov-ernance-related roles of the SDGs from a social science pespective. This will stimulate new ideas about global governance for sustainability in the twenty-first century, inspired and illustrated by the SDGs.

Norichika Kanie (editor.)Keio University and United Nations University Institute of Advanced Studies of Sustainability (UNU-IAS), Japan

Dora AlmassyCentral European University, Hungary

Steinar AndresenFridtjof Nansen Institute, Norway

Steven BernsteinUniversity of Toronto, Canada

Frank BiermannVU University Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Lund Univer-sity, Sweden

Aarti GuptaWageningen University, The Netherlands

Joyeeta GuptaUNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education, and University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Peter M HaasUniversity of Massachusetts at Amherst, United States of America

Masahiko IguchiTokyo Institute of Technology, and United Nations Uni-versity Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability (UNU-IAS), Japan

Rakhyun E KimAustralian National University, Australia

Marcel KokPBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, The Netherlands

BOOK ON GOVERNANCE ‘OF’ AND ‘FOR’ THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS

Marc A LevyCenter for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN), United States of America

Kanako MoritaKeio University, Japan

Måns. NilssonStockholm Environment Institute, Sweden

Laszlo PinterCentral European University, Budapest, Hungary

Michelle Scobie The University of the West Indies, Trinidad and Tobago

Noriko ShimizuInstitute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES), Japan

Casey StevensProvidence College, United States of America

Arild UnderdalUniversity of Oslo, Norway

Tancrède VoituriezInstitute for Sustainable Development and International Relations (IDDRI), France

Takahiro YamadaTokyo Metropolitan University, Japan

Oran R YoungUniversity of California at Santa Barbara, United States of America

NAVIGATING SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN THE 21ST CENTURY: GOVERNANCE “OF” AND “FOR” THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS

- THE AUTHORS -

Authors: Oran R. Young, Arild Underdal, Norichika Kanie, Steinar Andresen, Steven Bernstein, Frank Biermann, Joyeeta Gupta, Peter M. Haas, Masahiko Iguchi, Marcel Kok, Marc Levy, Måns Nilsson, László Pintér and Casey Stevens

It is essential that the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) reconfirm the commitments of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) but also address issues of Earth system governance and the challenge of re-directing unsustainable practices of individuals, groups, and countries worldwide. The formulation of the SDGs offers rich opportunities to bridge gaps among sectoral silos by framing goals that are cross-cutting and integrative in nature. A well-designed performance review system, such as a “Global Sustainable Development Report” and comparable re-porting mechanisms at the national level, and roles given to actors be-yond national states will be essential, given the complexity of the agenda and the need for accountable implementation. For the review of SDGs, one new dimension needed is to include monitoring the key aspects of Earth system transformation.

POLICY RELEVANCE

While essentially a scientific effort, the Earth System Governance global research alliance also aims to assist policy responses to pressing problems of earth system transformation Therefore, together with United Nations University, Project on Sustainability Transformation Beyond 2015 (POST2015), the Earth System Governance Project strives to deliver key-point policy briefs on the development and implementation of Sustainable Development Goals.

POLICY BRIEF #1

EARTH SYSTEM CHALLENGES AND A MULTI-LAYERED APPROACH FOR THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS

POLICY BRIEF #3

INTEGRATING GOVERNANCE INTO THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS

Authors: Frank Biermann, Casey Stevens, Steven Bernstein, Aarti Gup-ta, Ngeta Kabiri, Norichika Kanie, Marc Levy, Måns Nilsson, László Pin-tér, Michelle Scobie, and Oran R. Young.

Governance must be a crucial part of the SDGs. However, much of the discussions have revolved around a stand-alone governance goal or in-tegrating governance into other goals on specific issues. Regardless of the approach chosen, a threefold recognition of governance is needed where good, effective and equitable governance receive appropriate de-liberation in processes of both development and implementation. While these three different aspects have a number of connections between them, the three aspects will require separate political efforts. While a stand-alone goal would offer the best opportunity for a comprehensive incorporation of the three aspects a risk remains that good governance is privileged over effective and equitable governance. Conversely, inte-grated issue-specific governance goals offers the possibility to build on existing policy experience while likely to be less comprehensive.

POLICY BRIEF #2

LINKING EDUCATION AND WATER IN THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS

Authors: Yuto Kitamura, Eri Yamazaki, Norichika Kanie, D. Brent Ed-wards Jr., Binaya Raj Shivakoti, Bijon Kumer Mitra, Naoya Abe, Andante Hadi Pandyaswargo and Casey Stevens.

In the development of the post-2015 development agenda, the water-education nexus offers opportunities for dealing with a variety of differ-ent sustainable development challenges including: inequity in education, disaster recovery, and local mobilization. In order to respond to water-related sustainability challenges, people worldwide need to acquire “water literacy”. The term is used here to refer to appropriate knowledge about various aspects of water use and management in order to ensure safer wa-ter consumption and to contribute to Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR). In order to create opportunities for people to gain the knowledge and skills they need so that they can respond effectively to water-related sustain-ability challenges, it is essential that government representatives and other stakeholders acquire an accurate understanding of water-related issues and that systems be established for implementing concrete measures.

POLICY BRIEF #4

COHERENT GOVERNANCE, THE UN AND THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS

Authors: Steven Bernstein, Joyeeta Gupta, Steinar Andresen, Peter M. Haas, Norichika Kanie, Marcel Kok, Marc A. Levy, and Casey Stevens

Governance must be a crucial part of the SDGs. However, much of the discussions have revolved around a stand-alone governance goal or in-tegrating governance into other goals on specific issues. Regardless of the approach chosen, a threefold recognition of governance is needed where good, effective and equitable governance receive appropriate de-liberation in processes of both development and implementation. While these three different aspects have a number of connections between them, the three aspects will require separate political efforts. While a stand-alone goal would offer the best opportunity for a comprehensive incorporation of the three aspects a risk remains that good governance is privileged over effective and equitable governance. Conversely, inte-grated issue-specific governance goals offers the possibility to build on existing policy experience while likely to be less comprehensive.

POLICY BRIEF #5

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS AND INCLUSIVE DEVELOPMENT

Authors: Joyeeta Gupta, Isa Baud, Ralien Bekkers, Steven Bernstein, Ingrid Boas, Vincent Cornelissen, Masahiko Iguchi, Norichika Kanie, Rakhyun E. Kim, Mairon Bastos Lima, Pedi Obani, Petra Schoof, Casey Stevens, and Dylan van Zoomeren

It is necessary to evaluate the proposed SDGs and targets developed by the Open Working Group (OWG) against criteria for inclusive develop-ment as social and ecological goals tend to be marginalized in favor of economic growth. Essentially distributional, these issues risk being exac-erbated by the need to limit environmental utilization space (ecospace) on Earth and the consequent challenge of how this space will be equita-bly and inclusively shared among countries and people. Inclusive devel-opment principles, tools, and evaluation criteria fall into three clusters: 1) inclusive development per se, providing guidance to establish targets to build capacity for the most marginalized populations; 2) inclusive de-velopment in the context of the Anthropocene, adequately addressing ecosystemic limits and the allocation of responsibilities, rights, and risks among countries and peoples; and, 3) inclusive development from a re-lational perspective, balanced focus of effects and root causes.

POLICY BRIEF #6

ENDING THE DOUBLE BURDEN OF MALNUTRITION: ADDRESSING THE FOOD AND HEALTH NExUS IN THE SDGS

Authors: Masahiko Iguchi, Tomoki Ehara, Eri Yamazaki, Tomohiro Tasaki, Naoya Abe, Seiji Hashimoto and Taro Yamamoto

While the prevalence of undernourishment will decline by 2030 through various efforts by various stakeholders, eradicating undernourishment will not be achieved solely through economic growth. Improvement in economic conditions for individuals and communities may lead to high-er risks of obesity unless the issue is appropriately addressed by the Sus-tainable Development Goals (SDGs), correlating targets and indicators, and delivery of educational programmes to increase health literacy glob-ally. To approach ending the double burden of malnutrition and the chal-lenge of dealing with undernourishment and obesity, more focus should be placed on eliminating food disparity. Recommended is to set an ambi-tious nutritional distribution disparity target: to reduce the Interquartile Range (IQR) of the distribution of calorific intake by 50%.

All the six policy briefs that have been released are available at SDG.earthsystemgovernance.org

Workshop: Navigating Sustainable Development in the 21st CenturyYokohama, Japan • 28 July, 2013

International Workshop on Governance ‘of’ and ‘for’ Sustainable Development GoalsNew York, USA • 31 January – 1 February, 2014

Jakarta Global Sustainable Development Conference: Addressing development nexus issues in urbanization era Jakarta, Indonesia • 11 March - 13 March, 2014

S-11 workshop on Sustainable Development Goals Toronto, Canada • 24 March, 2014 ‘Governance’, ‘Education’ and the Architecture of the Sustainable Development GoalsNew York, USA • 22 May, 2014

2014 Norwich Conference on Earth System GovernanceNorwich, UK • 1 July – 3 July 2014

Symposium on Science and the Sustainable Development GoalsTokyo, Japan • 15 November 2014

Second International Workshop on Urbanisation and the SDGsSurabaya, Indonesia • 16 December – 17 December, 2014

Symposium: “Sustainable Development Goals and the Post-2015 Development Agenda” Tokyo, Japan • 16 January, 2015

Workshop: “Options and Opportunities for the United Nations Responding to the SDGs “ Lund, Sweden • 8-9 March, 2015

A list of upcoming events and new publications can be found at SDG.earthsystemgovernance.org

A SELECTION OF EARTH SYSTEM GOVERNANCE & POST-2015 EVENTS

The Earth System Governance research alliance is an ongoing and open process. We invite re-searchers, policy makers and others to engage with our project. Our global network includes many of the most prominent scientists in the field, along with numerous PhD students and early-career researchers The Earth System Governance research alliance is open to policy makers as well as social and natural scientists engaged in research on governance of socio-ecologically coupled systems at various levels.

An explicit purpose of the work on Sustainable Development Goals is that our research reaches beyond the scientific community. In addition to policy briefs and events, we therefore have active communications and are active in different social media.

To find out more about us and possible ways to stay informed and engage, please use one of the channels below.

WEBSITES

SDG.earthsystemgovernance.org - the Earth System Governance knowledge platform for sustainable de-velopment goals.

earthsystemgovernance.org - the main website for the Earth System Governance global research alliance.

TWITTER

@ESG_SDG - for updates on sustainable development goals and governance, as well as the role of science in the Sustainable Development Goals and the Post-2015 Development Agenda.

@ESG_Project - the Earth System Governance global research alliance’s general account.

FACEBOOK

facebook.com/IEGRio2012 - for updates on sustainable development goals and governance, as well as the role of science in the Sustainable Development Goals and the Post-2015 Development Agenda.

facebook.com/earthsystemgovernance - the Earth System Governance global research alliance’s´s main Facebook page.

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