Policies, Goals and Objectives: Review of Policy Responses and Options

• The emergence of multiple global environmental goals clearly signals a need to reverse the trend of deteriorating environmental conditions across the region. Despite some deficiencies, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) have been successful in showing the effectiveness of a goal-based approach to problem solving.
• New or revised agreements on issues such as disasters, climate change, sustainable development and biodiversity, and the concept of green growth offer clear goals and targets to deal with multiple environmental challenges in a focused manner in the post-2015 period.
• However, implementation of these agreements poses significant challenges for countries that so far have a poor track record on implementing the policies and programmes that complement existing global or regional agreements.