The study, “Asia and the Pacific SDG progress report – Championing sustainability despite adversities 2023” is put together by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP). Here, the SGD stands for Sustainable Development Goals, which is a collection of objectives designed by the UN to serve as “A shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future”.

This year marks the midpoint of the 2030 agenda for Sustainable Development. There were 17 goals in 2015 and 169 participating countries. This report takes the opportunity to review all achievements, initiatives and gaps faced towards achieving the goals. It thoroughly looks into every country and their progress in the 17 different areas of sustainable development.

According to the report, Goal 7 and Goal 9 on affordable and clean energy gas and innovation and infrastructure have made the strongest progress in the region. However, Goal 13 on Climate Change must be given priority as it continues to regress, trending negatively, especially in least developed countries (LDCs), landlocked developing countries (LLDCs) and small island developing states (SIDS).

While stating that the report has some gaps on certain goals, even from developed nations, the report highlights the methods and tools to improve SDG monitoring to fill the data gaps.