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This study’s objective is to examine how ASEAN countries reported their environment-related policies for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in their Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs), and a dataset of their environmental policies was developed. This is a necessary first step in analyzing the reasons for insufficient progress on the...

A Voluntary Local Review (VLR) is an instrument to review and follow-up progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), thus accelerating their localisation. Since 2018, a growing number of local governments worldwide are turning to the VLR process to articulate their sustainable development policies, highlighting the growing...

UN Secretary-General Guterres said “Phasing out coal from the electricity sector is the single most important step to get in line with the 1.5 degree goal.” At the COP 26, the world was divided into the coal phase-out countries and the phase-down countries. On the other hand, Japan adopts “fade-out” policy and maintains “highly efficient” coal...

The 2021 High-level Political Forum (HLPF) consolidated the prime role of VLRs (Voluntary Local Reviews) in localizing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. A record number of local governments – 17 cites –presented a 2021 VLR by July 2021 according to UN-Habitat. By comparison, 26 VLRs were published in 2020. VLRs have also gained broader...

Fernando Ortiz-Moya, urbanist working at the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES), explores the role of VLRs (Voluntary Local Review) in building better cities and what Tokyo is doing to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.

フェルナンド・オルティス-モヤIGES研究員が、より良い都市づくりにおけるVLR（Voluntary Local Review：自治体による自発的なSDGsレビュー）の役割を解説し、SDGs（持続可能な開発目標）の達成に向けた東京の取り組みを紹介します。

Amidst the COVID-19 global pandemic, which spread across the whole world in 2020, local and regional governments have continued their work to localise the ambitious goals set by the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Since 2018, local and regional governments began the review and follow- up process...

The spread of online taxi services is transforming mobility patterns in many of the world’s rapidly motorizing cities. Yet few studies have systematically assessed which factors are behind this transformation. This article fill this critical knowledge gap for the three fast-growing cities of Indonesia, namely, Semarang, Bogor and Bandung. The...

Story highlights: The Voluntary Local Review (VLR) process is providing a useful tool for subnational levels of government to take on the SDGs. The Institute for Global Environmental Strategies has published two reports to support the growing number of local and regional governments conducting VLRs.

A ‘Voluntary Local Review’ (VLR) is a process whereby local and regional governments voluntarily carry out a review of progress being made in their implementation of the SDGs. This review includes policies, programmes, data, institutional set-ups and stakeholder engagement mechanisms to implement the 2030 Agenda at the local level. VLRs are then...