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| NEWS |
Launch of Tool for Estimating Climate Impact from the Waste Sector in China
On 27 January, the IGES Centre Collaborating with UNEP on Environmental Technologies (CCET) launched version III of its IGES-GHG calculator entitled "Estimation Tool for Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions from Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) Management in a Life Cycle Perspective". The tool was developed in partnership with the Rock Environment and Energy Institute (REEI), to quantify lifecycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from waste management systems in China. The user-friendly tool will assist local governments, NGOs and other relevant stakeholders in China, in their efforts related to the country’s 14th Five-Year Plan (FYP) (2021-2025) and its new climate pledge to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060.
 More details available here |
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Sustainability Week Asia (Repost)
Held from 14 to 17 February, Sustainability Week Asia is a symposium organised by Economist Impact. On 14 February at 11:00 JST, Yasuo Takahashi, IGES Executive Director, will speak at the session "Asia’s path to an equitable and sustainable post-pandemic recovery", along with Airlangga Hartarto, Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs, Indonesia and Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana, UNESCAP Executive Secretary. They will discuss impacts of the pandemic on the Asia-Pacific, their visions of post-pandemic recovery, the role of businesses in shaping a sustainable recovery, and other timely topics.
More details available here |
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New Reports Added to the VLR Lab
IGES manages the VLR Lab, an online platform offering comprehensive information about local government actions on the SDGs. The Voluntary Local Review (VLR) is an international initiative in which local governments conduct their own evaluation of action on the SDGs and publish the results as a report comparable with other local governments. In January, the VLR Lab received four reports from Taichung City (Taiwan), Cordoba Province (Spain), Liverpool (UK), and Niteroi (Brazil), as well as the second edition of New Taipei City’s VLR.
More details available here |
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| UPCOMING EVENTS |
Knowledge-Exchange Webinar Series 3: "Assessing and Reporting Climate and Sustainable Development Impacts of Mitigation Actions and Policies under the Paris Agreement"
Policies and projects promoting sustainable development include the use of safeguards to avoid negative impacts, can increase stakeholder support and public acceptance, increase market value and raise ambition on climate action. The growing awareness of integrated solutions is related to development of new SDG assessment tools to help identify how projects and policies can maximise benefits and avoid or mitigate negative impacts. On 3 February, a webinar co-organised by IGES, the Asian Development Bank and UNEP-DTU Partnership will provide policymakers and stakeholders with an introduction to existing and new SDG assessment tools at the project level in Asia.
More details available here |
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Webinar: Accelerating ESG Regional Finance - Lessons from EU Banks
"ESG Regional Finance" is one of the pillars of Japan’s sustainable finance policy, and high expectations for its implementation are placed on regional financial institutions, namely regional banks, Shinkin banks and credit associations. However, connecting global discourse to the granular realities of this financing is a common challenge. At a webinar on 22 February, GLS Bank, a small and community-based German cooperative bank, will share its notable efforts, such as conducting impact assessments for all loans from January 2020 onward.
More details available here |
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| PAST EVENTS |
International Workshop: Building Resilience to the Risk of Compound and Cascading Disasters in the Context of Climate Change - Launch of the New e-learning Course on AP-PLAT
During this era that is defined by the climate crisis, we see a deepening risk of natural disasters in every corner of the world. The Ministry of the Environment, Japan (MOEJ), along with IGES, developed an e-learning course "Building resilience to compound and cascading disaster risks". Held on 21 January, this international workshop served as the official launch of the course, sparking a lively exchange of ideas among a broad range of stakeholders. Discussions included how to fill gaps in capacity, and looked at the need to strengthen disaster management at the local level in order to reduce and prevent compound and cascading disasters. Presentation materials and a video are now available.
More details available here |
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Knowledge-Exchange Webinar Series 2: "Tools and Methods for Implementing Projects and Policies with Climate and Sustainable Development Co-benefits - The Case of Air Pollution"
On 14 January, the Asian Development Bank (ADB), IGES, and the UNEP-DTU Partnership hosted a webinar, "Tools and Methods for Implementing Projects and Policies with Climate and Sustainable Development Co-benefits: The Case of Air Pollution", that featured a presentation of co-benefits tools and discussed their application. The webinar highlighted that there is already extensive experience working with co-benefits tools for air pollution that could contribute to the assessment of sustainable development more generally. It also underlined the need for open access to data if governments and other stakeholders are to capitalise on co-benefits tools.
More details available here |
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| RECRUITMENT / INTERNSHIP |
| The Research and Publications Unit of the Strategic Management Office (SMO-RP) Internship |
| More details available here |
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