On May 29th, the ISET’s Salome Gelashvili spoke at the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development – Tbilisi Implementation Conference hosted by the Parliament of Georgia and held at the Radisson Blu Iveria Hotel from May 28th to 29th. She participated in a panel discussion on data for sustainable development.

If you are a governmental stakeholder, civil society organization, research institute, or a concerned citizen pondering the state of the environment, the biennial Environmental Performance Index (EPI) tells an inconvenient truth regarding the trajectory of each country and its performance. The rankings provide unpolished results concerning countries and their commitments, or lack thereof, to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and other complementary international agreements.

About half of the world’s population are living in cities. Rapid urbanization puts pressure on urban infrastructure and labor markets, also contributes to environmental degradation, and speeds up the instability of construction projects and dwellings. Climate change is yet another cause that will harm the stability of cities. A solid and global plan on how to tackle urban planning is therefore much needed, which is why the New Urban Agenda was endorsed by the UN in 2016.

Perhaps as an early Christmas gift to the international community rooting for a cross-sectoral solution on combatting climate change, HSBC has announced its commitment to establish the world’s first bond. As explained by HSBC themselves, the bond is closely linked to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). Following seven selected SDG targets, HSBC will fund 1 billion USD through the bond and thus financially support projects set out to increase the sustainable well-being of communities and the environment.

Between June 9-10, Mr. Labadze attended the 4th Asia Think Tank Summit in Seoul, an event jointly organized by the Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security (IFANS) at the Korea National Diplomatic Academy (KNDA), the Korea Development Institute (KDI), the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy (KIEP), the Civil Society Program (TTCSP) of the University of Pennsylvania, and the Asia Development Bank Institute (ADBI).