Laws for Sustainability – Empowering Parliaments to Push the SDG Implementation

Seven years after the adoption of the 2030 Agenda, the implementation of the SDGs in Germany and around the world continues to face major obstacles. Although most states have by now embedded the SDGs in national contexts, e.g. by introducing national implementation plans or sustainability strategies, the core problem in implementing the 2030 Agenda remains its non-binding nature. Non-compliance with the SDGs is without consequence. With only seven years remaining, we now need legally binding commitments for the full SDG implementation at all levels.

Up to now, one actor remains underrepresented in its role in implementing the SDGs: parliaments. In their democratically important function as legislative, monitoring and representative bodies, national parliaments have an essential function in integrating the SDGs into corresponding laws or legal frameworks. Putting these two findings together, the German NGO Forum on Environment and Development, together with the input from over 60 experts, has released the publication „Laws for Sustainability“. This publication features proposals for laws for the 20th legislative period of the German parliament. Their adoption would substantially boost progress towards the respective SDG. Although the proposals focus on German law and the German parliament, we believe that the overall understanding that we need legally binding, regulatory processes to be able to achieve the SDGs, is relevant for all countries throughout the world.

In this side event to the United Nations High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) we first want to present overall findings regarding SDG implementation and afterwards discuss with experts from around the world a) different ways to make the SDGs more binding and b) how we can better engage parliaments in SDG implementation.

PROGRAM

Times stated in the prgramme are New York times. The event starts at 14:00 German time.

REGISTRATION

For in-person participation at the venue in New York, please register until Thursday, 13th July, 12:00 pm via this form.

For virtual participation, please use the following link to access the Zoom livestream of the event: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85812229855?pwd=ZlBTc2xyOElVT3QyeTU3cURiR0ovUT09. Please note that for technical reasons we only can provide a very basic livestream of the side event and unfortunately cannnot provide any technical support to virtual participants. We apologize in advance for any technical difficulties that may arise.