The adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015 marked a significant shift in global environmental governance since the SDGs placed the environment as one of the three pillars along with social and economic dimensions and implemented the integration of the three pillars and its 17 goals. From this background, the integration of several international environmental issues through the SDGs has become one of the crucial topics for the progress of global environmental governance.
Previous literature has revealed mixed opinions on this research agenda. While one study argues that the SDGs function as a benchmark that enhances cross-sectional integration, another states that the SDGs are merely a reflection of the fragmentation of global governance. However, the previous studies do not fully examine the operation of the SDGs in the discussion process of global environmental problems. Examining how the SDGs are used in consultative frameworks of international environmental issues and how such operation of SDGs contributes to the enhancement of cross-sectional integration of international environmental issues would augment the research on the SDGs and international environmental governance.
Based on this context, this article conducts a case study that examines how the SDGs are used in a global discussion of a certain international environmental issue and what effect the SDGs can exert on cooperation among international consultative frameworks related to the issue. Specifically, this research focuses on marine plastic litter, which is an international environmental issue that experienced global progress after the adoption of the SDGs. The article analyses the discussions of the issue held in the United Nations Environmental Assembly, which placed this issue as a problem related to SDG14 and the Basel Convention Framework, which determined its conventional agenda related to SDG12.
While there was global recognition that environmentally sound waste management on land is crucial against marine plastic litter problems before the adoption of the SDGs, discussions on the issue remained in the field of the marine environment. However, after the adoption of the SDGs, UN organizations published reports that examined the relationship between marine plastic litter and the SDGs, especially concerning SDG14. In addition, with the inputs from the secretariats, both frameworks repeatedly mentioned that marine plastic litter is an issue related to both SDG12 and 14 in their discussion documents, which enhanced recognition of the significance of cooperation among both frameworks. Consequently, the Basel Convention Framework, which was originally a framework for environmentally sound waste management, altered its regulation as a measure against marine plastic litter. This case illustrates that repeated specification of related SDGs in the documents of a consultative framework of international environmental issues would visualize sectional relationships of the problem and enhance recognition of the significance of cooperation among associated frameworks. As such efforts were conducted by the UN secretariats, the case implies that effective use of the SDGs in multilateral coordination processes can comprise a potential tool for international organizations to exert influence.
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