The report summarizes country achievements in the Asia and Pacific region in advancing towards the 2030 SDG deadlines. These success stories involve FAO offices working with governments and partners in some 21 countries in Asia and a complitation of success stories from the Pacific. It was initially published for presentation at the 35th Session of the FAO Regional Conference for Asia and the Pacific (APRC-35) in Thimphu, Bhutan (17-20 February 2020), but these achievements will be of interest to member countries and other development partners for several years to come.

The specific objective of these Voluntary Guidelines is to promote the sustainable management of public production natural forests in tropical countries through forest concessions, thereby fulfilling their potential contribution to the achievement of Agenda 2030. Forest concession regimes are treated here as forest policy instruments, and should be aligned with the sustainable forest management objectives agreed by countries in the UNFF. The current Guidelines intend to serve as guidance for making forest concessions an effective economic instrument of forest policy in the context of the 2030 Agenda, transforming them into an instrument capable of delivering sustainable forest management in all its dimensions, and generating socio-economic benefits to relevant stakeholders.

This book presents the first-ever comprehensive analysis of ASEAN space development programs. Written by prominent actors in the region, it goes beyond a mere exposé of the history, current status and future plans of ASEAN space technology development and utilization programs, by analyzing the conditions in which a space program can be initiated in the region. It does so in two ways: on the one hand, it questions the relevance of and motivations behind the inception of space development programs in developing countries, and on the other hand, it focuses on the very specific context of ASEAN (a highly disaster-prone area shaped by unique political alliances with a distinctive geopolitical ecosystem and enormous economic potential, etc.). Last but not least, after having analyzed established and emerging space programs in the region, it provides concrete recommendations for any regional or extra-regional developing nation eager to gain a foothold in space. As such, this book offers a valuable resource for researchers and engineers in the field of space technology, as well as for space agencies and government policymakers.

The Asia and the Pacific region has become a global economic powerhouse. The region's rapid and sustained economic growth, increasing population, expanding industrialisation and rapid urbanization are driving rapid growth in energy demand, which. Ensuring that supplies of energy are adequate to meet the growth in demand in ways that are socially, economically and environmentally responsible creates a new set of challenges for policymakers.The transition to 2030 energy pathway, which is aimed at addressing those challenges, has four coherent and interlinked objectives - increased energy supply to meet the growing demand, improved energy security, meeting the SDG7 targets and achieving NDCs. Addressing the complex and challenging task requires policymakers to develop a clear, sustainable and achievable pathway that would enable the countries, as well as the region as a whole, to achieve the 2030 goals and targets This report undertakes an in-depth analysis to first determine the level of achievement is possible under the current policy regime by developing a baseline. It then identifies the gap between the baseline and the 2030 targets to inform policymakers the additional efforts and resources that would be needed to adequately achieve SDG7 targets as well as the NDCs mitigation targets for the energy sector. Finally, different transition pathways have been developed and their socio-economic and environmental facets have been examined to assist policymakers to make an informed decision. The report also identifies the enabling policy, technology and market environment that would accelerate the achievement of the 2030 targets.

Information modeling and knowledge bases have become an important area of academic and industry research in the 21st century, addressing complexities of modeling that reach beyond the traditional borders of information systems and academic computer science research. This book presents 32 reviewed, selected and updated papers delivered at the 29th International Conference on Information Modeling and Knowledge Bases (EJC2019), held in Lappeenranta, Finland, from 3 to 7 June 2019. In addition, two papers based on the keynote presentations and one paper edited from the discussion of the panel session are included in the book. The conference provided a forum to exchange scientific results and experience, and attracted academics and practitioners working with information and knowledge. The papers cover a wide range of topics, ranging from knowledge discovery through conceptual and linguistic modeling, knowledge and information modeling and discovery, cross-cultural communication and social computing, environmental modeling and engineering, and multimedia data modeling and systems to complex scientific problem-solving. The conference presentation sessions: Learning and Linguistics; Systems and Processes; Data and Knowledge Representation; Models and Interface; Formalizations and Reasoning; Models and Modeling; Machine Learning; Models and Programming; Environment and Predictions; and Emotion Modeling and Social Networks reflect the main themes of the conference. The book also includes 2 extended publications of keynote addresses: ‘Philosophical Foundations of Conceptual Modeling’ and ́Sustainable Solid Waste Management using Life Cycle Modeling for Environmental Impact Assessment’, as well as additional material covering the discussion and findings of the panel session. Providing an overview of current research in the field, the book will be of interest to all those working with information systems, information modeling and knowledge bases.

Since its adoption in 2015, the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development has shaped not only international development cooperation but also the design of national trajectories for social and economic development. In tandem with other global agendas adopted that year (such as the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and UN Habitat’s New Urban Agenda) it remains the global and regional blueprint for sustainable development despite the COVID-19 pandemic. The term "localizing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)" has been used to capture the importance of subnational governments for achieving national SDG agendas. However, there is little deeper analysis of the required nexus between fiscal, political, and legal arrangements for SNGs; their involvement in national policy arenas (which discuss and decide on national SDG strategies); and the need for locally disaggregated data systems on the one hand, and effective SDG localization strategies on the other hand. It is this aspect which the present publication explores in greater detail by using country examples and conceptual analyses. The text will be of interest to policymakers, scholars, students and practitioners in public policy and public administration, decentralization, and sustainable development, with a focus on the Asia and Pacific region. The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-No Derivative License (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 IGO).

This book treats different themes which are intrinsically linked and of extreme significance for the entire global community such as the necessity to cut emissions and transit toward a more sustainable and green economy. The content extends to the urgency to shape a new multilateralism and reinforce cooperation to achieve global goods, where the environment comes first, to the green finance which will play a fundamental role for the green transition paying particular attention to the United Nations' 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.A particular emphasis is given to the so-called 'Dual Circulation Strategy' (DCS) which is presently becoming the priority not only for China but also for the rest of the global community. Due to the uncertainties caused by the pandemic and other external factors, China has substituted GDP growth with the so-called six guarantees (liù bǎo 六保) which represent the six fundamental aspects of the economy and society that according to the central government must receive priority attention, and protection in economic policy to ensure economic recovery. China also introduced the concept of an 'ecological civilization' (shēngtài wénmíng 生态文明) through green, low-carbon economic development. One of the targets is to achieve carbon neutrality before 2060, though the rest of the global community and in particular the European Union with its Green Deal, and the US with its renewed climate policies, are pushing to reach this objective in 2050.In order to grant all these developments, 'green finance' plays a fundamental role for the success of this green transition. Therefore, a substantial part of this book explores the many aspects surrounding this theme. Due to renewables playing a very important role in the green transition, the final part of this book explores investment opportunities related to the development of these alternative sources of energy.

SDG7 visualizes a world in which energy is universally accessible, efficient and renewable in order to create sustainable, inclusive and resilient communities. This book explores the implementation challenges of SDG7, offers potential solutions, and maps out a way in which global energy systems might be transformed.