Established in 2003, the Asia-Europe Environment Forum (ENVforum) is a partnership of: Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF), Government of Sweden through the Regional Asia Environment Conference Support Programme administered by Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI), Hanns Seidel Foundation (HSF), ASEM SMEs Eco-Innovation Center (ASEIC) and the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES).
In 2023, the ENVforum focuses on the theme
“SMEs Going Circular”
The ENVforum aims to foster inter-regional cooperation between Asia and Europe on sustainable development and its environmental dimensions. To support such collaboration, the ENVforum aims to provide a multi-stakeholder platform for knowledge-sharing, capacity building, to offer up-to-date information for policymakers and partner organisations on environmental themes, and to contribute to the formulation of sound political decisions that are mindful of their environmental impacts.
Since 2013, the ENVforum has been actively engaged in the global discussion surrounding the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which were adopted by the UN Member States at the UN Sustainable Development Summit in September 2015.
The ENVforum was given its mandate by the ASEM Summit in Vientiane, Lao PDR in November 2012. Going beyond its traditional format, the ENVforum launched a program to contribute to the bottom-up process that supports the implementation and monitoring of SDGs by providing Asian and European countries with key insights into sustainable development planning.
The program is based on three pillars:
- It undertakes research on SDGs and their associated indicators;
- It organises knowledge-hub meetings of experts working on SDGs and indicators as well as on the Green Economy; and
- It disseminates the outcomes of consultations to policymakers.
Multi-stakeholder cooperation between international organisations, governments, businesses and the civil society will be required to address a variety of implementation challenges to translate the SDGs into reality. The ENVforum provides a platform for such multi-stakeholder cooperation to take place and supports global discussions with insights gained from its research on SDGs.
BACKGROUND
ENVForum 2023 Agenda
