The pursuit of climate action and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) presents a unique opportunity to foster synergies and drive transformative change towards a sustainable and resilient future. However, significant knowledge and data (K&D) gaps exist that hinder the effective integration of climate action with the SDGs. This executive summary provides an overview of the main findings, challenges, and recommendations presented in this report.
The report highlights a noticeable scarcity of comprehensive research, quality data, and overarching indicators that evaluate trade-offs between various policy goals or assess the synergies between climate action and the SDGs across specific sectors and levels, namely across adaptation, resilience measures, biodiversity protection, nature-based solutions, and loss and damage. However, it has become increasingly clear that the low uptake in synergistic efforts is not a result of the absence or availability of quality data or tools, but rather due to the fragmented nature and general inaccessibility of much of the evidence that confound policymakers and practitioners. Moreover, the lack of standardization and limited accessibility across existing tools, and meta-analyses of insights to the broad community of potential users hinder the effective mapping and anticipation of synergistic effects. Current approaches often overlook the distributional impacts of climate action, leading to inequitable outcomes and challenges in creating inclusive strategies. Additionally, the lower emphasis on multidisciplinary and systems approaches across scientific and policy sectors highlights the need for capacity building and strengthening the science-policy interface, particularly in developing countries.
To address these challenges, the report recommends the establishment of a global platform that serves as a repository of knowledge, resources, case studies, and best practices on synergies between climate action and the SDGs. This platform should embrace traditional and indigenous knowledge and involve stakeholders in knowledge co-creation and localization using the wide variety of digital technologies that can be employed for gathering and synthesizing data. It should also seek to provide a framework for better analysis and understanding of synergies and tradeoffs to ensure that this is adding value in facilitating synergistic approaches.
Furthermore, there is a need to frame K&D in a manner that considers vulnerability, justice, and inclusion to promote sustainable well-being for all. Utilizing citizen science, natural language processing (NLP)/ text mining/analysis, and composite indices can help gather and represent data on social, economic, and environmental dimensions and address distributional impacts effectively. Moreover, co-creating AI systems with human input ensures they are less biased, more accountable, and better suited to addressing complex global challenges like climate change, and ultimately contribute to a more sustainable and equitable world.