Second Committee Holds Substantive Discussion on SDGs [viewed]
16 October 2012: The UN General Assembly's (UNGA) Second Committee convened a special event on “Conceptualizing a Set of Sustainable Development Goals” (SDGs) at UN Headquarters in New York, US, on 16 October 2012. The event served as an initial opportunity for participants to discuss the SDGs, in light of the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD, or Rio+20) outcome decision to develop a proposal for SDGs to be considered during the UNGA's 68th session.
11 October 2012: Addressing the State of the Planet 2012 Conference, UN Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson reviewed the failures and gaps in international cooperation for environmental protection and human well-being, especially on climate change, hunger and biodiversity, but said it is not too late to apply solutions. The Conference took place in New York, US, on 11 October 2012, hosted by Columbia University.
12 October 2012: The Rio Conventions Pavilion at the 11th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP 11) to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Hyderabad, India convened for Livelihoods Day on 12 October 2012.
11 October 2012: The World Risk Report 2012, published by the Alliance Development Works (Bündnis Entwicklung Hilft) in collaboration with the UN University Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS) and The Nature Conservancy, focuses on the theme of environmental degradation and disasters, assessing disaster risk based on information from 173 countries.
9 October 2012: The Humbo Ethiopia Assisted Natural Regeneration Project has been awarded Africa's first temporary Certified Emission Reductions (CERs) for reforestation through the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). 
4 October 2012: The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) has launched a new programme to channel climate and environmental finance to smallholder farmers in an effort to leverage a greater impact on climate change resilience through IFAD's new annual investments of approximately $1 billion.
8 October 2012: The 11th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP 11) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) opened on 8 October 2012, in Hyderabad, India, directly following the sixth Meeting of the Parties to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety. The two-week meeting will address a series of cross-cutting and ecosystem-related issues, as well as financial, administrative and implementation-related topics.
August 2012: The UN Secretary-General's report on progress made in implementation of the Habitat II conference outcomes recommends preparations towards a third UN conference on housing and sustainable urban development (Habitat III) in 2016, calling for this to be a high-level conference or world summit focusing on the theme of sustainable cities.
2 October 2012: The UN Development Programme (UNDP) has launched a publication on biodiversity loss in Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), highlighting the state of biodiversity in the region particularly in the context of climate change, and presenting some outcomes of its biodiversity work funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF).
