Asian and European leaders reaffirmed their commitment to achieving sustainable development goals, and discussed the measurement of SDGs in a recent Asia-Europe Environment Forum under the Asia-Europe Foundation, or ASEF. “ENVforum” was held in the ASEF headquarters in Singapore on Nov. 21-22.

SDGs are the new framework for development that was proposed in the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, dubbed as Rio+20, which was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on June 20-22 this year, as the current overarching development framework of the millennium development goals will expire in 2015. The MDGs consist of eight international development goals, including the eradication of poverty, improvement of health, and universal education, which were officially established following the U.N. Millennium Summit in 2000. 

Representatives from international environmental think tanks and environmental governance experts from organizations in Asia and Europe took part in the forum titled “Sustainable Development Assessment: Towards Measureable Goals” to exchange ideas and perspectives on SDGs and their measurement.

“The main aim of the seminar was to initiate the post-Rio discussions on SDGs and their indicators under the ENVforum program. It will be a three-year program between 2013-2015, which will empower countries’ leadership towards a bottom-up approach consultation process concluding with the proposal of a set of SDGs,” ASEF Director for Intellectual Exchange Thierry Schwarz said.

Key speakers on the first day stressed the importance of the creation of SDGs on the county, regional and international levels.

“SDGs are the prioritization of the international community’s action to achieve sustainable development in the post-Rio era. To make substantive contributions we need forums to bring experts and institutions to add value and our knowledge on sustainable development,” said Surendra Shrestha, director of the U.N.’s Focal Point for Sustainable Development Goals.

Participants in the forum agreed that SDGs should be complementary to the MDGs and so they must be fully integrated into a global overarching post-2015 development framework. It provided information on the status of the SDG-related initiatives and provided an overview of existing indicators that could be used to measure sustainable development.

Another key speaker, Nicholas Hanley, head of international relations and director-general of the European Commission, presented the audience with the strategy of sustainable development.

The seminar also elaborated on various indicators that are currently in use in Asia and Europe, and can be taken into account as possible measures for the implementation of sustainable development.

On the second day, the ASEM SMEs Eco-Innovation Center, or ASEIC, a co-organizer of the seminar, unveiled an index to measure eco-innovation. It invested in developing a measurement for eco-innovation to help SMEs check processes and measure in their eco-innovation activities.

ASEIC has contributed to promoting eco-innovation to Asian and European SMEs since it was established in 2011 following an endorsement at the 8th Summit of the Asia-Europe Meeting in Brussels, Belgium, in 2010, with the expectation that it would help their SMEs embrace an eco-innovation strategy for their businesses.

“The goal of the ASEIC is to achieve Asia-Europe cooperation through green growth by enhancing and creating eco-innovation of SMEs in both regions, knowing SMEs should play vital roles as dynamic developers and adopters of eco-innovation in the world economy,’’ said Kim Han-sik, director of the Small & Medium Business Administration’s technology policy division.

Serving as an international platform, ASEIC has provided eco-innovation consulting services to 65 independent SMEs in Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia.

“ASEIC believes that eco-innovation represents an environmental and sustainable dimension of innovation that improves energy security and resource efficiency, and eventually takes one step forward towards sustainable development,’’ Kim said.

Kim expressed hope for the ASEIC to join ENVforum as a partner to make progressive contributions to the forum’s success.

ENVforum was initiated in 2003 by the ASEF and since has actively contributed to the Asia-Europe dialogue on environment-related topics. The forum’s main activities consist of roundtables, side events and workshops that gather experts from Asia and Europe to work on various governmental issues.
By Seo Jee-yeon (jyseo@hearldcorp.com)