Towards a joint implementation of the 2030 Agenda / SDGs, the Paris Agreement and the Sendai Framework

The UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Paris Agreement on climate change and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, three international and ‘transformative’ agendas adopted in 2015, have some overlap and interdependencies. How can their implementation at domestic level be integrated, so as to tap synergies and prevent trade-offs? In this discussion paper, we approach the question of ‘integrated implementation’ of transformative policy agendas. We first discuss some conceptual questions – how policy agendas interact, how to understand and measure integrated implementation, what we mean by transformative change and how the implementation of transformative agendas can be integrated. These conceptual reflections are contrasted with the empirical results of a document screening of how countries to date deal with overlap, inconsistencies and synergies between different international agendas when implementing these domestically. We discuss the achievements, gaps and deficits with regard to the empirical findings. Observing that integrated implementation to date often fails to achieve deeper levels of integration, we suggest four drivers that may help to overcome the diagnosed gaps and deficits: political leadership, civic participation, science and sustainable finance. In Chapter 5, we conclude that a more integrated implementation of the three 2015 agendas is both possible and expedient. It requires a more determined tackling of trade-offs and development of joint strategies.

The publication was produced as part of the departmental research plan of the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection (Project No. (FKZ) 3719 18 105 0, Report No. (UBA-FB) FB000590/1,ENG) on behalf of the German Environment Agency.