ABSTRACT

Integrated Assessment Based Analysis of Sustainable Development Goal Interactions and Implementation Policies.

Robert Barron, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS

Achieving the goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development will require comprehensive policy measures that span socioeconomic, environmental, and geographic boundaries. Although each of the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)s targets a specific area of improvement, the numerous interactions between the SDGs call for a holistic approach to SDG-oriented policy making. Integrated Assessment Models (IAM)s are designed to examine the large scale interactions between human and natural systems and have been widely used in climate policy research. This talk presents examples of how IAMs could play an important role in GEO’s proposed collaborative platform for knowledge generation and policy analysis. We begin by illustrating how IAMs can be used to analyze interactions between SDGs by discussing the interactions between SDG 2 (zero hunger), SDG 9 (industry, innovation, and infrastructure), SDG 7 (affordable and clean energy), and SDG 13 (climate action). Next, we illustrate how IAMs can be used to conduct tradeoff analyses of policy measures, quantify policy impacts, and highlight knowledge gaps. We conclude with a discussion of how IAM analysis can be integrated into GEO’s proposed collaborative platform, the steps needed to accomplish this integration, and proposed research that will support that goal.