SDSN and Colombia’s Ministry of Environment Sign a Memorandum Contributing to Knowledge on Climate Change and Water in Colombia

Bogota, August 6, 2022 - The Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) and Colombia’s Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development signed today a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to strengthen international cooperation for the implementation of the Macro-basin Strategic Plans (PEM), in line with Colombia's 2021 Climate Action Law 2169.

The MoU will contribute to Colombia’s 2030 goal of "promoting prioritized actions in the Macro-basin Strategic Plans that contribute to the implementation of climate change adaptation and mitigation measures in each Macro-basin”, and to the design of sustainable food and land-use systems in Colombia over the next three years.

SDSN Association Inc. was created in 2014 to host the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network. It works with the support of the UN Secretary General to support the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). SDSN has developed different initiatives to support progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals in Colombia, including the Food, Agriculture, Biodiversity, Land Use, and bioEnergy (FABLE)project.

Since 2018, FABLE has grown to include 20 countries, including Colombia, producing two global reports in 2019 and 2020 on trajectories for sustainable food and land use systems. In 2021, through the Directorate of Integrated Water Resource Management, the Ministry of Environment began researching water management, climate change, and sustainable land use.

Fabian Caicedo, technical director of the Directorate of Integrated Water Resource Management of the Ministry of Environment, highlighted the importance of this memorandum, stating that "this important agreement will allow Colombia to leverage one of the goals of the Climate Action Law related to water management in macro-basins, to implement climate change adaptation and mitigation measures", stated Caicedo.

Aline Mosnier, FABLE scientific director at SDSN underlined the importance of cooperation between countries to achieve the efficient and sustainable use of land and water resources: "With FABLE, we have witnessed the benefits of collaboration for the adaptation of modeling and analysis tools to the national context, and to the specific sustainability goals of each country. This agreement will allow us to deepen the exchange of knowledge for the development of specific policies and goals in Colombia that contribute to actions for climate change mitigation, biodiversity conservation, and water resources management.".

This new alliance should result in enhanced capacity and the implementation of modeling tools and methodologies for the articulation and harmonization of water, food, biodiversity, climate, and land use policy interventions in Colombia.

> Access the press release in Spanish on the Colombia Ministry of Environment's website.

Contacts

Maria Diaz | maria.diaz@unsdsn.org
Maëlle Voil | media@unsdsn.org | +33 (0) 6 99 41 70 11

About SDSN

The UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) mobilizes scientific and technical expertise from academia, civil society, and the private sector to support practical problem solving for sustainable development at local, national, and global scales. The SDSN has been operating since 2012 under the auspices of the UN Secretary‐General. The SDSN is building national and regional networks of knowledge institutions, solution‐focused thematic networks, and the SDG Academy, an online university for sustainable development.