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SDSN Reflects on an Impactful 2021!

By SDSN Secretariat

SDSN had a busy 2021 where a number of our networks, programs, and teams supported the progress towards achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Climate Agreement.

Climate & Energy

Over the last year, the C&E team has worked around the world to support long-term pathways planning in collaboration with our networks and partners. In Europe , the EGD Senior Working Group on the Energy Transition published their first report, The Future Europe Wants: A Green and Digital, Job-Based and Inclusive Recovery from COVID-19 Pandemic. In South America , we co-organized a regional virtual dialogue of Finance Ministers, economists, and energy experts entitled " Towards Decarbonization of the South American Economies ” and also published Decarbonization Pathways for Paraguay's Energy Sector. In Southeast Asia , the ASEAN Green Future project in collaboration with research groups from Australia, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, and Thailand published a series of reports to demonstrate how sustainable, decarbonized economies offer enhanced economic development and more resilient futures for the region.
Globally, we continued our Roadmap 2050 partnership with Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM), publishing a second report entitled " Roadmap to 2050: The Land-Water-Energy Nexus of Biofuels ". Additionally, just ahead of the UNGA, SDSN launched The Council of Engineers for the Energy Transition (CEET) - an independent advisory council to the United Nations Secretary General. The CEET has been established with the aim of contributing to the UN Secretary General’s coalition to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, and providing engineering pathways to achieve comprehensive decarbonization by mid-century. All this work was featured in our virtual Zero Emissions Solutions Conference alongside the first week of COP26.

Food and Land Teams

FABLE
The Food, Agriculture, Biodiversity, Land-use, and (bio)Energy (FABLE) Consortium published a Policy Brief on the ' Environmental and agricultural impacts of dietary shifts at global and national scales ', examining the implications of shifts towards healthier diets on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, deforestation, agricultural production, and trade, should these shifts take place. The brief was referenced in the report by the UN Food Systems Summit (UNFSS) Scientific Group “ Science and Innovations for Food Systems Transformation and Summit Actions ”.

As part of the UNFSS Science Days, the FABLE Consortium hosted the side-event ' Learnings from country-level pathways to the global food policy debate ' where researchers from the Indian, Mexican, and South African FABLE country teams presented their pathways and discussed how scientists can support policymakers in adopting long-term food system transformation goals.

At COP26, the FABLE Argentina team participated in the side event ' Is it possible to achieve carbon neutrality for the AFOLU sector in Argentina? ', hosted by Euroclima+ and presented their modelling results, as part of their collaboration with Argentina's government to develop its Long-Term Strategy on Energy and Climate Change 2020-2050.

In 2021 FABLE has been proud to start the second FOLU Coalition project phase with the support from NICFI, and to join new projects: the Food Systems, Land Use and Restoration (FOLUR) Global Knowledge to Action Platform ; IMAGINE ; and the Science-Based Targets Initiative Land Hub.

FELD Action Tracker
Concluding its first full year of operation, the SDSN-led Food, Environment, Land and Development (FELD) Action Tracker undertook systematic analyses of national policies in key partner countries, including a dedicated analysis of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) presented by G20 and other countries ahead of COP26. The analysis highlights promising efforts but also gaps requiring more focused work in countries to operationalize meaningful change, as well as the added value of systematic assessments from a food and land perspective. SDSN signed a partnership agreement with the Climate Action Tracker (CAT) to collaborate in the coming years on areas of common interest, including around national net-zero strategies, pathways and policies.

Fixing the Business of Food
The project team led by the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment issued its 2021 project report that provides an update on the food and agribusiness sector’s alignment with the SDGs, as well as offering guidelines to help companies accomplish the change of direction needed to address this challenge. The report introduced a 4-pillar Framework and set of 21 corresponding standards to lead the change towards more sustainable food systems. A panel discussion in the context of the United Nations Food Systems Summit in September involved business and government leaders.

Nature Map
A new study published in Nature Ecology & Evolution by the Consortium examined the potential effects of managing strategically-placed 30% of land for conservation, including to safeguard 70% of all considered terrestrial plant and vertebrate animal species, while simultaneously conserving more than 62% of the world’s above and below ground vulnerable carbon, and 68% of all clean water. Related to this work, SDSN also issued a policy brief on the case for integrating the biodiversity and climate objectives in land-use policy,

Networks

The worldwide growth of SDSN membership and the six new SDSN networks added over 2021 are testimony to the vital importance and relevance of our university networks despite the pandemic context. The 2021 Networks in Action report, launched in November, features all the major accomplishments of these national, regional and thematic networks.

The Networks program also issued two new SDG Action publications to support the UN’s Decade of Action : the SDGs Edition in July for the High-level Political Forum and the Climate Action Edition for COP26. Written by world-leading experts, the SDG Action articles are a resource for sustainability practitioners in all sectors and provide timely analysis of the most pressing challenges, while identifying tangible ways to accelerate progress. In addition, our flagship report on Accelerating Education in Universities was translated into five languages and a new set of 75 innovative and inspiring case studies were selected to showcase how higher education institutions around the world are implementing and mainstreaming education for the SDGs.

Modeled off of our global meeting during the 2020 HLPF, the Networks program launched the regional University Presidents Meetings in December. The Asia-Pacific regional meeting brought together 135 participants, including the Presidents of 98 Universities from 31 different countries. The series will continue in the first months of 2022 for Central Asia, Europe and Middle East (January 18th), Africa (March 10th), and the Americas (April 21st).

Science Panel for the Amazon (SPA)

At COP26 this year, the Science Panel for the Amazon released their landmark 2021 Amazon Assessment Report , warning decision makers and the general public that the Amazon is on the verge of reaching a tipping point and providing recommendations for sustainable development pathways to avoid more catastrophic events. Along with the report, they also provided a policy brief. The SPA, which consists of over 200 experts and has been covered in The Guardian , BBC Storyworks , and O Globo , seeks to continue their scientific assessments and to be the Amazon's scientific voice.

SDG Academy

The SDG Academy opened its second office in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in July 2021. Part of SDSN Asia and hosted by Sunway University’s Jeffrey Sachs Center on Sustainable Development, the SDG Academy’s Kuala Lumpur team has a focus on Asia to create and curate content for both regional and global audiences.
This year, the SDG Academy launched three new courses: Nature-based Solutions for Disaster and Climate Resilience (in partnership with UNEP); Getting a Good Deal: Negotiating Extractive Industry Contracts (in partnership with CCSI, NRGI, CONNNEX, and GIZ); and Understanding Poverty and Inequality (in partnership with Brookings Institution). The course on Nature-based Solutions became our most popular course this year- reaching over 50,000 enrollments in a few months, and featuring in Class Central's compilation of the top 25 online courses globally, and second most popular course on edX. Overall, the SDG Academy expanded its reach to 166,000+ new learners, bringing our community to close to 700,000 formal learners. In addition, the SDG Academy library was a valuable resource for the broader SDSN community, providing video-based resources to faculty, students, and practitioners.
The second year of the SDG Academy Community of Practice saw 60 institutions from 28 countries participate in a growing and vibrant conversation, exchanging teaching and research practices on sustainable development. Since the launch of the cohort, partners have hosted 15 “Community Conversations” to discuss challenges and opportunities in teaching and learning sustainable development. Graduate students and early career professionals were also invited to participate in the Community through the recently-launched Student Colloquium series. The Master’s in Development Practice (MDP) Consortium covered 30 universities across 21 countries, with over 6,000 graduates to date. This year, the Student and Alumni Advisory Council (SAAC) was particularly active in creating and engaging its student body towards research, action, and advocacy.


Finally, the SDG Academy brought out its second Annual Report that describes in detail the activities, programs, and community of learners that the SDG Academy has built over this past year.

SDG Index

In 2021, the SDG Index team launched the 6th edition of the Sustainable Development Report , tracking progress on the SDGs for all 193 UN Member States. The report underlined the need to address the lack of fiscal space in low and middle-income countries and key priorities to restore and accelerate SDG progress globally.

In addition, the team expanded its work on SDG data and policies at the regional and subnational level, with flagship reports and activities in Europe , Brazil , Paraguay , the United States , Uruguay , and on leaving no one behind. The team continued its work on SDG policy tracking , and on using the SDGs to guide investments decisions.

The team also expanded its work on measuring environmental and socio-economic international spillovers embodied into trade and their policy implications. The 2021 edition of the Global Commons Stewardship Index measures the environmental impacts of 100 countries and entities, both domestically and internationally. It was published in a flagship OECD report and described in a Working Paper. A Policy Brief on the EU’s impacts embodied into the food supply chains was also released. The team continues to work closely with Eurostat on measuring spillovers.

A new pilot Multidimensional Vulnerability Index assesses the relationship between structural vulnerability and SDG outcomes for Small Island Developing States (SIDS). The work on SDG and SIDS was featured in op-eds and policy briefs. Further work is planned in 2022 on financing the SDGs in SIDS.

The work of the SDG Index and Data team was featured and discussed in mainstream media , specialized journals , referenced by Governments and Parliaments , presented at high-level events , and published in the scientific literature.

SDGs Today

SDSN’s SDGs Today strives to provide a snapshot of the state of sustainable development around the world in real-time, enabling users to produce, access, and engage with timely data on sustainable development, and provide individuals with geospatial information systems (GIS) training and education resources to drive action towards the SDGs. Our 2021 highlights include:

  • A total of 40+ datasets and enhanced the visualizations
  • Established new partnerships with Duke Global Health Innovation Center, UNESCO, GEOGLAM Crop Monitor, GRID3, Institute of Global Health Innovation, Imperial College London, and many more
  • In partnership with Esri’s ArcGIS StoryMaps, announced the winners of the 2020 ArcGIS StoryMaps Competition for the SDGs
  • Launched My School Today! , with support from HOT and Esri, a call to action aims to support students and local communities to geo-reference their schools as part of an effort to promote timely information on school locations in Africa
  • Co-developed a GIS-focused curriculum for the Eco-Ambassador’s Summer Program. One Eco-Ambassador won the ArcGIS StoryMaps People's Choice Award in the 2021 ArcGIS StoryMaps Competition

SDSN Youth

SDSN Youth, SDSN’s youth initiative, saw a year of growth as well as active engagement and partnership building with the UN Office of the Secretary-General's Envoy on Youth and other organizations in the youth x SDG space.

Thematic Research Network on Data and Statistics (TReNDS)

SDSN TReNDS has become a central player in producing cutting-edge research on how to harness new data and methods, including geospatial data, big data, and citizen science, to better guide decision-making and progress on the SDGs. This year, TReNDS produced two key reports, including guidance for countries on leveraging partnerships to harness big data for national SDG monitoring and an accountability report offering recommendations for strengthening the G7 Partnership for Women's Digital Financial Inclusion in Africa. The network continues to build and scale the Data For Now initiative , a joint project in coordination with the World Bank, the UN Statistics Division, and others to improve the timeliness of countries’ data, and launched several expert member workstreams related to key challenges within the data ecosystem for members to discuss, debate, and work towards developing solutions.