The North-South Economic Corridor (NSEC), one of the priority economic corridors under the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) Economic Cooperation Program, was designated as a GMS flagship initiative in 2002. Efforts have been taken since then to develop NSEC but these were pursued mainly on a project-by-project basis. Consultations in NSEC countries were started in the last quarter of 2007 to initiate a holistic approach to the development of NSEC. The strategy and action plan for NSEC is the product of these and subsequent consultations with government officials, representatives of the private sector, and other stakeholders in these countries. Besides providing a vision and framework for developing NSEC, this strategy and action plan is aimed at improving coordination, ensuring effective implementation, and helping the mobilization of resources and the broadening of support for NSEC development. The strategy and action plan for NSEC was endorsed at the 15th GMS Ministerial Conference held in Cha-am, Petchburi Province, Thailand on 17-19 June 2009.

Progressing towards sustainable development raises important challenges to conducting performance evaluations in governments because there are neither generally accepted methods nor specific standards to be met at present. Sustainability Performance Evaluation System in Government, makes a conceptual contribution to public sustainability performance evaluation and develops a set of framework indicators with the help of the strategic and comprehensive approach “Sustainability Balanced Scorecard”. As a conceptual basis for the further research and application, this volume will be of great interest to researchers and practitioners at many levels of environmental / sustainability, public management and strategic control studies. Evaluators will find methodological approaches and applied tools for their work. Decision-makers and managers will find it valuable to manage the social, economic and environmental issues in a balanced and integrated manner. Governments will also find it helpful in assisting them in establishing an evaluation system towards sustainable development.

Global Environmental Sustainability: Case Studies and Analysis of the United Nations' Journey toward Sustainable Development presents an integrated, interdisciplinary analysis of sustainable development, addressing global environmental problems in the contemporary world. It critically examines current actions being taken on global and local scales, particularly in relation to the UN's efforts to promote sustainable development. This approach is supported by empirical analysis, drawing upon a host of interweaving insights spanning economics, politics, ecology, environmental philosophy, and ethics, among others. As a result, it offers a comprehensive and well-balanced assessment of the overall perspective of sustainable development supported by in-depth content analysis, theoretical evaluation, empirical and actual case studies premised on solid data, and actual field work. Also, the book marks a milestone in placing the Covid-19 pandemic into a perspective for understanding the universality of human collective environmental behavior and action.By utilizing in-depth analysis, both quantitative and qualitative, and challenging the status quo of what is expected in the global approach to sustainable development, Global Environmental Sustainability provides the theory and methodology of empirical sustainable development which is especially germane to our advanced society today, which is deeply entrenched in a crisis of environmental morality. More particularly, it serves as a salient source of moral reconstitution of society grounded in empirical reality to liberate man's excessive spirit of individualism and self-aggrandizement to the detriment of the environment. Epistemologically, the book furnishes a remarkable tour de force with a new level of analytical insight to help researchers, practitioners, and policymakers in sustainability and environmental science, as well as the many other disciplines involved in sustainable development, to better understand sustainability from a new perspective and provides a methodological direction to pursue solutions going forward. - Provides a systematic exposition of sustainable development in all its complexity, with all the chapters complementing each other in an integral way - Presents extensive empirical evidence of various environmental problems across the world including China, the United States, Canada, Southeast Asia, South America and Africa, and the extent to which the United Nations has succeeded in driving toward global environmental sustainability - Provides a cogent examination of the treatment of our global commons by some of the world's most powerful leaders - Includes data from field studies and in-depth interviews with indigenous people in Borneo's rainforests of the Malaysian state of Sarawak most affected by environmental change

The 2030 Agenda is a universal, collective responsibility that covers all levels: global, national and territorial. To address global policy challenges in a complex and interconnected world, policy coherence will be key. A more coherent multilateral system will be essential to reconcile ...

World human population is expected to reach upwards of 9 billion by 2050 and then level off over the next half-century. How can the transition to a stabilizing population also be a transition to sustainability? How can science and technology help to ensure that human needs are met while the planet's environment is nurtured and restored? Our Common Journey examines these momentous questions to draw strategic connections between scientific research, technological development, and societies' efforts to achieve environmentally sustainable improvements in human well being. The book argues that societies should approach sustainable development not as a destination but as an ongoing, adaptive learning process. Speaking to the next two generations, it proposes a strategy for using scientific and technical knowledge to better inform future action in the areas of fertility reduction, urban systems, agricultural production, energy and materials use, ecosystem restoration and biodiversity conservation, and suggests an approach for building a new research agenda for sustainability science. Our Common Journey documents large-scale historical currents of social and environmental change and reviews methods for "what if" analysis of possible future development pathways and their implications for sustainability. The book also identifies the greatest threats to sustainabilityâ€"in areas such as human settlements, agriculture, industry, and energyâ€"and explores the most promising opportunities for circumventing or mitigating these threats. It goes on to discuss what indicators of change, from children's birth-weights to atmosphere chemistry, will be most useful in monitoring a transition to sustainability.