Page 437 - Invited Paper Session (IPS) - Volume 1

IPS175 Jillian C. et al.

The role of combining national official statistics
with global monitoring to close the data gaps in
the environmental SDGs
1
3
2
3
3
Jillian Campbell , Jay Neuner , Dilek Fraisl , Linda See , Steffen Fritz , Jessica
Espey , Angela Kim
1
2
1 UN Environment Programme
2 Sustainable Development Solutions Network TReNDS
3 International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA)

Abstract
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have elevated the profile of the
environmental dimension of development and how we monitor this
dimension. However, they also present a challenge to statistical systems in
terms of how methodologies and data collection is developed, implemented
and reported. For the environmental dimension of the SDGs, there is too little
data to formally assess the status of 68% of the environment-related indicators
(UN Environment, 2019a).
Many environment-related indicators were not historically part of the purview
of national statistical systems and did not have a methodology or data
collection system in place prior to the adoption of the SDG indicator
framework. In the original classification of the SDG indicators in 2016, 50% of
the environment-related SDG indicators did not have a methodology (i.e. Tier
III) (UN, n.d.). As of May 2019, this has dropped to 28%; however,
socioeconomic indicators in the SDGs are far more developed with only 7% of
non-environmental indicators not having a methodology (UN, n.d.).
Methodologies and mechanisms to collect country-level data are being
developed by international agencies. However, many countries currently do
not have national systems in place for monitoring these environmental
indicators and thus there is a risk that much of the environmental dimension
of development cannot be captured by using reporting mechanisms which
only include national official statistics. For many of these indicators, UN
Environment is exploring new data sources, such as data from citizen science
and global modelling to fill data gaps. Expanding globally-estimated or
modelled data to cover environment-related SDG indicators could build the
foundation for a digital ecosystem for the planet, which would provide a basis
for developing integrated analysis and insights.

Keywords
Sustainable Development Goals, indicators, environment, tier 3, modelling

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