The activity of Ufficio V aims at promoting and strengthening environmental sustainability throughout Italian Development Cooperation projects. The Agenda 2030 and, in particular, the Paris Agreement align the Development Cooperation with intersectoral and transnational themes linked to the environment and climate change. The new international perspective enshrined in the 2030 Agenda moves twofold. The first one is linked to the necessity and urgency of changing the development model, and in this sense, the 17 Sustainable Development Goals ensure continuity with the previous Millennium Development Goals; the second one concerns the universality of these goals (and related targets) whereby each country plays, at the same time, the dual role of subject/object in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda. This latter perspective reverses the understanding of donor-beneficiary relationship within the Development Cooperation, , disengaging the two actors from a rigid top-down hierarchy, both in terms of funding and know-how. The Sustainable Development Goals are valid and can be applied to all areas of the planet: in fact, it is possible to find economically underdeveloped and depressed areas within industrialised countries, as well as technologically advanced islands in low- and very low-income countries. In this sense, there is a paradigm shift. This is even truer when it comes to the environment and climate.
When it comes to meeting climate change mitigation and adaptation goals, it can be argued that every country in the world should promote sustainable policies, ensuring the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities given the respective capabilities.
The 2030 Agenda and the Paris Agreement reinforce each other and clearly set the direction for an environmentally sustainable development, i.e. one that leaves no one behind.
For the first time, the links between climate and development are formalised, recognising that climate change and development must be addressed together in order to avoid harmful consequences and high costs, especially for those countries who need the most .
Given that economic, social and environmental aspects are strongly interrelated, they must be simultaneously addressed, and if one aspect cannot be satisfied the others may also result unfulfilled .
Within this model, environmental sustainability refers more precisely to the ability to preserve, over time, the three functions of the environment: the function as a provider of ecological and economic benefits, as a receiver of waste and as a direct source of utility.
Within a territorial system, environmental sustainability also means the capacity to enhance the environment as a “distinctive element” of the territory, while guaranteeing the conservation and renewal of natural resources and the protection of the landscape heritage. The link between environment and territory in the Italian Cooperation’s Partner Countries highlights how the territory can also be rethought and regenerated as a whole: the current challenge at global level is to make the territories and their communities more resilient while the cities more sustainable.
The three pillars of sustainability (environment, society and economy) and their close interrelationship represent the basis on which the work of Ufficio V is built on. The integration of environmental issues within the Development Cooperation follows a gradual, interdisciplinary and multilayered approach, consisting of various methodological tools. The aim is to incorporate the environmental dimension into the project cycle (an element of Development Cooperation) and the related monitoring activities.
Ufficio V works mainly in the fields of CLIMATE, BIODIVERSITY, DESERTIFICATION, SEAS and OCEANS, WATER RESOURCES and TERRITORY.
