International Forum for Sustainable Asia and the Pacific (ISAP2021) Summary Report

The International Forum for Sustainable Asia and the Pacific (ISAP) is held annually in Japan bringing together leading experts, international organisations, governments, businesses, and NGOs to discuss various aspects of sustainable development in Asia and the Pacific. This year’s forum was organised by the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES), in cooperation with its international network, to promote information sharing and strengthen collaboration among a wide range of stakeholders.

The theme of ISAP2021 was “The Decisive Decade: Towards Integrated Solutions to Climate, Biodiversity and Other Planetary Challenges”. Held soon after two major international conferences, the 26th Conference of the Parties to UNFCCC (UNFCCC COP26) on climate change and the 15th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (part one) on biodiversity, discussions focused on ways that world leaders could address the current global challenges and how the world should proceed over this upcoming decade. The event offered different options for participation, ensuring that a wide range of stakeholders could take part, such as holding the plenary sessions as a hybrid of on-site and online participation, holding the thematic sessions online, and providing recorded videos of the entire event online.