ASEAN countries’ environmental policies for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Abstract

This study’s objective is to examine how ASEAN countries reported their environment-related policies for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in their Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs), and a dataset of their environmental policies was developed. This is a necessary first step in analyzing the reasons for insufficient progress on the environmental dimension of the SDGs, since policies are key means of implementation. Previous studies of SDG progress and VNRs examined many aspects such as achievement levels, indicators, data, governance, and VNR preparation procedures, but surprisingly, there has been little discussion of countries’ actual policy efforts. Progress on the SDGs’ environmental dimensions is widely considered insufficient, including in Asia. This study showed that insufficient progress on the environmental dimension of the SDGs is not due to a lack of environmental policies or a lower prioritization of policies for environmental SDG targets. ASEAN countries included almost 600 concrete environment-related policies in their VNRs, widely distributed among most SDGs, accounting for about 40 percent of their total reported SDG-related policies. The number of environmental policies was not closely related to GDP, GDP per capita, or VNR date. Many policies appeared substantial, including national action plans, strategies, laws, and regulations, not just small projects or programs. However, some major existing environmental policies, for example on air pollution, were usually not included in the VNRs. Further research is needed to explore other possible factors such as insufficient policy implementation or effectiveness, which this study could not examine. This study’s environmental policy dataset provides the necessary baseline for future research on policy implementation and effectiveness, especially to help future studies identify ASEAN countries’ environmental policies in specific areas such as climate, energy, or water. This will also facilitate comparative analysis.

Contributions of the voluntary local review process to policy integration: evidence from frontrunner cities

“…To overcome the challenges of SDG localisation and achieve policy integration, local and regional governments (LRGs) are increasingly resorting to Voluntary Local Reviews (VLRs) 21 . VLRs mirror in the local context the voluntary review and follow-up process of national governments, which are encouraged by the 2030 Agenda to produce Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs) at regular intervals to report their progress in achieving the SDGs 22,23 . Despite being a relatively new tool towards sustainable development, VLRs proved popular and by the end of 2021 almost 100 LRGs have presented one or more local reviews, the majority of them being municipal governments 4,[24][25][26] .…”

Enhancing Sustainability Development for Waste Management through National–Local Policy Dynamics

“…The regulations should be translated to the national ministries/institutions and local governments [3]. The contribution of national government policy [4,5] and local government policy [6,7] is needed to protect the world from degradation through sustainable production and consumption so that it can support the needs of present and future generations [8].…”

“…The WM policy coherence among government levels helps to contribute to sustainable development. Previous research has discussed the policy lever to SDGs [3,7] from the national level [4,5] and local government level [6,34,35] for Agenda 2030 of sustainable development. Moreover, Ma et al (2022) [14] have studied how circular economy policies have grown for decades among national ministries.…”

Monitoring G20 Countries’ SDG Implementation Policies and Budgets Reported in Their Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs)

“…This study builds on a previous one which compiled the SDG implementation policies of the G20 countries as reported in their VNRs up to 2018 [16] and two similar studies on ASEAN countries [17,24]. The previous study of the G20 [16] was limited to compiling the policies and budgets, analyzing their distribution among the SDGs, and documenting each country's strategy for organizing their VNRs.…”