Measuring Progress with UCL and CAS

UNEP and Chinese Academy of Science (CAS) are partnering to support the use of big Earth data, including Earth observation data and other non-traditional data, for measuring environment-related SDGs with a high geospatial analysis component. This collaboration is centered around SDG indicators 2.4.1 on sustainable agriculture, 6.3.2 on water quality, 6.6.1 on fresh-water related ecosystems, 11.3.1 on land consumption, 14.1.1 on marine pollution, 14.2.1 on marine area management, 15.1.1 on forest area and 15.3.1 on land degradation. As part of the collaboration between UNEP and CAS, we will provide targeted technical assistance to select countries to improve both the measurement of these SDG indicators and to improve the use of these SDG indicators in policy processes.

During the implementation of this work, we will collaborate with other UN agencies and partners and we look forward to working with relevant national stakeholders. In the process of this work, we would aim to hold national inception workshops to determine the data needs and priorities, provide technical support and follow-up assistance and advice (including through one-on-one information sharing) and host a producer-user workshop to bring together those involved in producing data products with policy makers. Additionally, we will host information sharing workshops to bring together national experts from the project countries. A draft cooperation plan between CAS and UNEP is here.

Contact: UNEP: Jillian Campbell and CAS: Liu Jie.

This project aims to test the Environmental Sustainability Gap (ESGAP) framework in two developing countries and to use these pilots to better integrate strong sustainability principles in global environmental sustainability assessments, such as those performed by UNEP in the Measuring Progress global reports. Currently, a mapping of ESGAP indicators to the SDGs has been completed as part of the expert group on the SGAP which was held by UCL and the EEA with AFD funding.

The Environmental Sustainability Gap (ESGAP) provides a framework with which to measure countries’ environmental sustainability performance, based on standards meant to represent the situation at which natural capital can maintain its functions over time. It is composed of 20 indicators, all supported by scientific standards of environmental sustainability (see here). To date the ESGAP has been successfully calculated for the 28 Member States of the European Union (EU) in preliminary work. This work illustrates the feasibility of implementing the ESGAP for countries for which a wide range of high-quality environmental datasets are available. However, the feasibility of calculating the ESGAP for developing countries, which typically lack such long-term and formalised environmental monitoring initiatives as the EU, is not well-understood. This project aims to test this approach in developing countries and is expected to deliver following ultimate results:

· A basic-best accessible-pilot testing of the in Vietnam and Kenya;

· A better knowledge the state of the environment and on the feasibility of environmental sustainability assessments in developing countries;

· The integration of strong sustainability principles in global assessments of environmental sustainability, and a strong theoretical framework for the analysis behind the 3rd Measuring Progress.

This project is led by the University College London in cooperation with UNEP through an MOU. The project concept for this work can be found here. For more information on the strong sustainability approach contact Paul Ekins.