Stepping up: The continuing impact of EU consumption on nature

Key findings from the WWF report address the need of a urgent change in our consumption's behaviors. The report shows how EU is the second biggest importer of deforestation after China. In particular, the largest EU economies – Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK, the Netherlands, France, Belgium and Poland – between 2005 - 2017 were responsible for 80% of the EU’s embedded deforestation through their use and consumption of forest-risk commodities. Moreover, the report establishes a clear connection between EU trade policies - especially in importing certain commodities with high embedded tropical deforestation such as soy and beef - and the degrade of non-forest ecosystems, such as grasslands or wetlands. The report claims that the evidence of the dramatic expansion of agriculture in the tropical areas is not only an exclusive responsibility of producer countries, but it is also linked with the global markets pressure, the existing trading policies and consumers' choices of western countries.

We word index 2020. Women and Children in times of Covid-19

The report gives new evidence on the exclusion risk of children and women in 172 countries taking into account how the pandemic has effected their life conditions, with particular concern to young and teenage women and minors in marginal conditions, by exposing them to new threats to their safety and well being.  In this edition, the WeWorldIndex measure the social inclusion conditions introducing 3 new indicators concerning the effect of Covid-19. 

Why does Europe need to limit climate change and adapt to its impacts?

Europe’s many regions are expected to face worsening impacts of climate change over the next decades. A compilation of several existing maps published by the European Environment Agency (EEA) today illustrates how drought, heavy rain and flooding, forest fires and sea-level rise could affect some selected regions in Europe, including Central Europe, the Iberian peninsula, Scandinavia, Brittany and Venice.

Time to Care, OXFAM 2020

Economic inequality is out of control. In 2019, the world’s billionaires, only 2,153 people, had more wealth than 4.6 billion people. This great divide is based on a flawed and sexist economic system that values the wealth of the privileged few, mostly men, more than the billions of hours of the most essential work – the unpaid and underpaid care work done primarily by women and girls around the world.

Food security and nutrition in the world

A new released FAO progress report shows how the  world is off-track to meet most of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) targets linked to hunger, food security and nutrition.

Visualizing global climate action

By United Nations Climate Change

The report tells the stories of 15 winners of the 2018 Global Climate Action Award, shining examples of diverse climate solutions from around the world.

Global change has worsened global economic inequality

Standford University

The gap between the economic output of the world’s richest and poorest countries is 25 percent larger today than it would have been without global warming, according to new research from Stanford University.

Blanded finance in the poorest countries: the need for a better approach

ODI report

The need to mobilize private finance is at the heart of international discussions on how to finance the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and move the needle from ‘billions’ of dollars in development aid to ‘trillions’ of dollars in investment (World Bank, 2015). With an estimated SDG financing gap of $2.5 trillion a year in developing countries alone (UNCTAD, 2014), the international development community is placing an increasing emphasis on blended finance

The Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI)

The annual Climate Change Performance Index Report for 2019, released last December, illustrates how slow and unsufficient is so far the effort towards the climate goals  at worldwide level. In this year's index, Sweden leads the ranking, followed by Morocco and Lithuania. However, the top positions are blank since none of the nations has made it to one of the top three places in the rankings. The ranking results are defined by a country’s aggregated performance regarding 14 indicators within the four categories “GHG Emissions”, “Renewable Energy” and “Energy Use”, as well as on “Climate Policy”, in a globally unique policy section of the index.

Sustainable Development: for Whom? A critical vision for coherence of Italian and European policies

Introduction and Executive Summary - GCAP

Développement durable au Luxembourg

The 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations have been in place since 2016. Over the next 15 years, countries will mobilize energies to end all forms of poverty, combat inequalities and tackle climate change. Luxembourg has adopted 110 targets to take into account the 2030 Agenda. The mission of STATEC has been to centralize the data useful for monitoring the Sustainable Development Goals, to ensure the correct application of the calculation methods, to compile and publish the indicators.

The circular economy package: new EU targets for recycling

A new important step towards a circular economy: on 18 April, the European Parliament adopted the circular economy package introducing new waste-management targets regarding reuse, recycling and landfilling.  New legally binding targets and deadlines for waste recycling and the reduction of landfilling are proposed and will be soon into force upon the Council’s approval.

The Inclusive Development Index 2018

The Inclusive Development Index 2018 – introduced last year by the World Economic Forum System Initiative on Shaping the Future of Economic Progress  -  assesses the economic performances of 103 countries basing on a new economic policy framework and performance metric where living standards is measured as multidimensional phenomenon.  GDP, which is a necessary but not sufficient condition for rising median living standards, is complemented by a bottom-line metric, which brings in important 11 dimensions of social economic progress. The three key pillars of the Inclusive Index are growth and development – social inclusion and inter-generational equity - sustainable management of natural and financial resources. In order to achieve an inclusive growth, 15 areas of structural economic policy and institutional strength that have the potential to contribute simultaneously to higher growth and wider social participation in the process and benefits of such growth.

New report highlights business opportunity using credible sustainability standards to achieve SDGs

The commitment of the private sector is an indispensable driver of progress on the 2030 sustainable development agenda, besides the public and community effort. Especially the large multinational companies can play a significant role in addressing social and environmental issues in their own supply chains and the wider sector they are part of.  At the same time reshaping their own business model and products supply can return in positive side-effects by preserving key inputs such as natural resources and services from the degrade and opening new markets and business opportunities. The report provides an overview of the existing sustainable standards in order to make them more accessible and credible for businesses, governments and consumers. This is key to provide a more handy and transparent tool for understanding and achieving the SDGs and help the businesses to engage in a radical shift towards a sustainability.

Reporting on the SDGs

A new platform to develop a comprehensive reporting framework for business on SDGs. UN Global Compact—the largest corporate social responsibility initiative and a main entry point for business to advance UN goals—and GRI—which offers the most widely used corporate sustainability reporting standards—are partnering to work closely with a group of leading companies and key stakeholders. One of the main goals is to enable and promote communication on the SDGs, with a special emphasis on making it more accessible to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and ensure the relevance of SDG reporting for the investment community.

Implementation of the Circular Economy Action Plan

In the new prospected circular economy prevention practices, re-use and recycle come first. This is one of the main message of the new EU action plan for the circular economy adopted by the Commission on 2 December 2015. Circular economy can have significant positive effects – along with the environmental benefits – on economic growth, employment opportunities and technology innovation. However, in order to tap into this potential and avoid potential economic losses due to stranded assets, investment in new waste treatment capacity needs to be framed in a long-term circular economy perspective and to be consistent with the EU waste hierarchy, which ranks waste management options according to their sustainability and gives top priority to preventing and recycling of waste.

Policy Innovations for Transformative Change: UNRISD Flagship Report 2016

A framework for understanding how to set out a transformative change towards the 20130 agenda for Sustainable Development addressing the root causes of inequitable and unsustainable outcomes. This is the main lesson of theUnited Nations Research Unit for Sustainable Development’ report  that analyses the transformative potential of reforms and innovations in six key areas with relevance across multiple SDGs.

Sustainable Development Goals – Overview

Eurostat publication ‘Sustainable Development Goals in the European Union’, released on November 2016, offers a statistical overview on the 17 SDGs with a comprehensive perspective for each single goal.

High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development

United Nations platform for follow-up and review of the 20130 agenda for sustainable development and sustainable development goals.

World Development Indicators 2016

The new edition of the WDR includes indicators to help measure the 169 targets of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) - these build on the 8 goals and 18 targets of the Millennium Development Goals we focused on in previous editions, but are far wider  Featuring the Sustainable Development Goals

in scope and far more ambitious. A complementary Sustainable Development Goals data dashboard provides an interactive presentation of the indicators we have in the WDI database that are related to each goal. 

Building a Sustainable and Desirable Economy-in-Society-in-Nature  

by Robert Costanza (Author), Gar Alperovitz (Author), Herman Daly (Author), Joshua Farley (Author), & 5 more

The world has changed dramatically. We no longer live in a world relatively empty of humans and their artifacts. We now live in the “Anthropocene,” era in a full world where humans are dramatically altering our ecological life-support system. Our traditional economic concepts and models were developed in an empty world. (more)

The Story of LOU                                       

The SDGs through the

eyes of Lou

by Caritas-Luxembourg