Strengthening governance to advance synergies

The previous chapters underscored that addressing climate, biodiversity and pollution crises together can generate synergies and accelerate progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Implementing synergistic solutions, however, require a range of strategies and mechanisms that can break down silos and facilitate interactions across stakeholders working at different temporal, spatial and sectoral scales. These include institutions that support vertical and horizontal coordination as well as related mandates, incentives, accountability and compliance mechanisms. In short, a well-designed set of governance institutions and mechanisms can contribute to transformations or “fundamental reorganisation[s] of large-scale socioeconomic systems” (Hölscher, Wittmayer and Loorbach, 2018). Chapters 5 and 6 examined finance, as well as data and tools, as key means of implementation for supporting these transformations. This chapter focuses on a third essential means of implementation that can support synergies: governance.