Climate Change and Sustainable Development Goals: Inter-linkages and Opportunities in South Asia
Feb 23, 2015, Colombo

2015 is the year in which both UNFCCC and Post-2015 Sustainable Development processes will witness landmark global negotiations and agreements. In order to understand commonalities of the UNFCCC and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) processes and make them mutually supportive, the Asia-Pacific Adaptation Network (APAN) organised a sub-regional conference titled “Climate Change and Sustainable Development Goals: Inter-linkages & Opportunities in South Asia” on February 23, 2015 in Colombo through its regional and national partners, Climate Action Network South Asia (CANSA) & Janathakshan (Sri Lanka), respectively.

The 27 participants in the conference were from a diverse background including regional policy-makers, government officials, civil society, academia and media. The participants acknowledged that without addressing climate change comprehensively, any developmental planning will be weak and accordingly, called upon the heads of governments of South Asian developing countries to for ensure that the Sustainable Development Goals converge with Climate Change goals.

The presenters highlighted the need to increase public awareness on SDGs and climate change leading to ownership of SDG’s as national goals ensuring their long-term planning and implementation. Pooling together their knowledge and resources as well as using a multi-stakeholder and multi-institutional approach to come up with a collaborative vision for South Asian countries was observed as especially pivotal in light of the post-2015 SDGs negotiations.