| 8.26 |
Approaches that exploit synergies between
environmental policies and key national socio-economic objectives like growth
and equity could help mitigate and reduce vulnerability to climate change,
as well as promote sustainable development. Sustainable development
is closely linked with the environmental, social, and economic components
defining the status of each community. The interconnections among those
elements of sustainable development are reflected in Figure
8-3, illustrating that important issues such as climate change, sustainability,
poverty, and equity can be related to all three components. Just as climate
policies can yield ancillary benefits that improve well-being, non-climate
socio-economic policies may bring climate benefits. Utilizing such ancillary
benefits would aid in making development more sustainable. Complex interactions
among environmental, social, and economic challenges exist, and therefore
none of these three types of problems can be resolved in isolation.
|
WGIII TAR Sections 1.3.4,
2.2.3, & 10.3.2,
& DES GP |
| |
Figure 8-3: The vertices of the triangle represent
the three major dimensions or domains of sustainable development: economic,
social, and environmental. The economic domain is geared mainly towards
improving human welfare, primarily through increases in the consumption
of goods and services. The environmental domain focuses on protection of
the integrity and resilience of ecological systems. The social domain emphasizes
the strengthening of human relationships and achievement of individual and
group aspirations. Examples of linkages between the three domains are shown
along the sides of the triangle. Important issues such as climate change,
poverty, equity, and sustainability lie within the triangle and interact
with all three domains. |
DES GP |
| 8.27 |
Countries with limited economic resources,
low levels of technology, poor information systems, inadequate infrastructure,
unstable and weak institutions, and inequitable empowerment and access
to resources are not only highly
vulnerable to climate change but also to other environmental problems,
and at the same time have limited capacity to adapt to these changing
circumstances and/or mitigate them. The capacity of these countries
to adapt and mitigate can be
enhanced when climate policies are integrated with non-climate objectives
of national policy development and turned into broad transition strategies
to achieve the long-term social and technological changes required
by
both sustainable development and climate change mitigation.
|
WGII TAR Chapter 18 &
WGIII TAR Sections 1.5.1,
2.4.4, 5.3,
10.3.2, & 10.3.4 |
| 8.28 |
A great deal of interaction exists among
the environmental issues that multilateral environmental agreements address,
and synergies can be exploited in their implementation. Global environmental
problems are addressed in a range of individual conventions and agreements -- the
Vienna Convention and its Montreal Protocol, the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change, the United Nations Convention on Biological
Diversity, the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, and
the United Nations Forum on Forests -- as well as a range of regional
agreements, such as the Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution.
Table 8-3 provides a list of
selected examples of such conventions and instruments. They may contain,
inter alia, similar requirements concerning common shared or coordinated
governmental and civil institutions to enact the general objectives -- for
example, formulation of strategies and action plans as a framework for country-level
implementation; collection of data and processing information and new and
strengthened capacities for both human resources and institutional structures;
and reporting obligations. Also they provide a framework within which synergies
in scientific assessment can be utilized (see Box
8-1).
|
WGIII TAR Section 10.3.2 |
|
|
