The 21st Conference of Parties (COP 21) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was held in Paris, France, 30 November to 11 December 2015. COP 21 and the resulting Paris Agreement have been seen by many as a turning point in international climate negotiations. 

Green finance is a strategy for financial sector and broader sustainable development that is relevant around the world. But the context differs considerably for different countries. Developing countries, notably those with underdeveloped financial systems, face particular challenges in financing national development priorities.

Broadly, concern and action to align financing to sustainable development is concentrated in three areas:

• Preventing the financing of illicit practices or profiting from weak enforcement.
• Unlocking opportunities for green investment.
• Exploring solutions to dilemmas and trade-offs.

The paper reports out on the build out of developing country work following the global report, "The Financial System We Need“ launched at the IMF Annual Meetings in Lima in October 2015. In particular, the paper sets out some of the needs and concerns particular to developing countries, as well as innovations that have emerged to address some of these specific aspects. The paper highlights the importance developing country actors place on embedding green into a broader sustainable finance lens, the significance of international developments in greening the financial system given their dependence on foreign direct investment, and the evidence of and potential for leapfrogging in aligning their financial systems to sustainable development, for example through the deployment of fintech.

The SSI Review: Standards and the Blue Economy takes a deep dive into the market and performance trends of the 9 most prevalent seafood certification schemes operating in the wild catch and aquaculture sectors. The Review provides a reference point for buyers, producers, policy makers and consumers in deciding how best to apply voluntary standards in their own decision-making processes.

This report was prepared for the Asia EIA Conference 2016 organised on 10 May by the Ministry of the Environment, Japan (MOEJ). The conference was held under the theme of enhancing EIA as a sustainable development planning tool in Asia in collaboration with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and in cooperation with the US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA).

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For the past 5 decades, ASEAN and ADB have both supported poverty reduction, sustainable development, and regional cooperation and integration in Southeast Asia. This publication provides an overview of cooperation between ADB and ASEAN, and how it has contributed to a more connected, competitive, and integrated region.

A Dynamic Strategy: responding to change and uncertainty

The Basin Development Strategy for 2016-2020 (henceforth BDS 2016-2020) replaces the 2011-2015 Strategy. This updating reflects the dynamic challenges encountered in the Lower Mekong Basin (LMB).  The Mekong, one of the world’s greatest rivers, is an exceptionally complex system with high intra-annual and inter-annual flow variability caused by the Southwest Monsoon, bringing both great risks and opportunities.  It is also a rapidly changing river because of its contribution to the rapid economic development of the basin countries, but also as a consequence of this development on the river itself, including the impacts of increasing population, urbanisation and industrialisation. Adding to these on-going changes are uncertain futures, particularly as a consequence of climate change.

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The Forest Landscape Restoration (FLR) approach, which is still in its nascent stages of development, is rapidly gaining attention as a more appropriate way to restore both degraded forests as well as the surrounding degraded landscape. The great value of this approach is that it integrates forest restoration actions with the desirable objectives of the landscape, and it is undertaken with the full participation of the people who will have a role in the management of the restored areas over the longer term. So, FLR brings together social, environmental and economic considerations in restoring the forests and lands, converse to just restoring an isolated patch of forest without taking into consideration the people in the area. With people having no stake in the forest, the long-term success of the restoration work is not assured.

The Global Standard for the Identification of Key Biodiversity Areas (IUCN 2016) sets out globally agreed criteria for the identification of KBAs worldwide. The KBA Standard establishes a consultative, science-based process for KBA identification, founded on the consistent application of global criteria with quantitative thresholds that have been developed through an extensive consultation exercise spanning several years.

Sites qualify as global KBAs if they meet one or more of 11 criteria, clustered into five categories: threatened biodiversity; geographically restricted biodiversity; ecological integrity; biological processes; and, irreplaceability. The KBA criteria can be applied to species and ecosystems in terrestrial, inland water and marine environments. Although not all KBA criteria may be relevant to all elements of biodiversity, the thresholds associated with each of the criteria may be applied across all taxonomic groups (other than micro-organisms) and ecosystems.

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The IGES Capacity Building for the JCM, in cooperation with the National Council for Sustainable Development, decided to formulate emission factors of electricity systems for baseline in CDM projects as well as support data for the identification of reference scenario in the JCM projects for electricity systems in Cambodia, and to this end the IGES Capacity Building for the JCM held expert consultation meetings with electricity relevant authorities and companies in Cambodia. This report presents a summary of the results of the above activities.

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Natural capital refers to the stocks of the Earth's natural assets and resources, such as soil, water, air and biodiversity.

This Guide for Environmental Practitioners from UNEP is a guidance document which's presents eight steps to completing Natural Capital Assessments to inform decision making that supports sustainable economic growth.