Strengthening Synergies: Paris Agreement & Sustainable Development Agenda

About the Climate & SDG Synergies Knowledge Platform

The adoption of the 2030 Agenda and the Paris Agreement in 2015 established a strong foundation for coherent implementation of climate action and sustainable development objectives across all levels and sectors. The multiple inter-linkages between the 2030 Agenda and the Paris Agreement indicate that integrated and synergistic implementation of both would lead to many benefits. Such an approach would considerably enhance effectiveness and the quality of outcomes, besides contributing towards more efficient use of resources, greater coherence across sectors and actors, and the formation of novel partnerships.

It is in this context that the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA) and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Secretariat (UNFCCC) teamed up, in collaboration with other partners, to organize a Global Conference to strengthen synergies between the 2030 Agenda and the Paris Agreement. The Conference took place between 1-3 April in 2019 in the UN City in Copenhagen, bringing together practitioners, experts and policy makers from both developing and developed countries, as well as international resource persons from academia and think tanks, the private sector, NGOs and representatives of relevant UN organizations.

The focus of the Global Conference was to promote joined-up implementation at the global, regional and country levels. Participants identified specific examples to illustrate the potential of synergistic and interlinked approaches towards realizing the objectives of the 2030 Agenda and the Paris Agreement (including through analyses of National Development Plans, NDCs, NAPs, National Risk Reduction Strategies among others). They also analyzed gaps and challenges (including trade-offs), and in the conference summary document made a set of concrete recommendations for strengthening synergies, increasing ambition, advancing implementation action, maximizing co-benefits and stimulating multi-stakeholder partnerships, including directing means of implementation towards more joined-up action; as well as scaling up and enhancing the mobilization of resources that could benefit sustainable development at large including climate action, as well as ensuring effective use of resources and avoiding duplication.

UN DESA and UNFCCC established this global knowledge platform on the Climate-SDGs synergies building on all the inputs received from the conference to continually disseminate knowledge and good practice.

We sincerely hope that the platform will contribute to the better understanding and more effective promotion of synergies between climate action and sustainable development.