High Level Political Forum 2020

2020 HLPF – registration and programme

The theme of the 2020 HLPF was “Accelerated action and transformative pathways: realizing the decade of action and delivery for sustainable development” and was held from Tuesday, 7 July, to Thursday, 16 July 2020, including the three-day ministerial meeting of the forum from Tuesday, 14 July, to Thursday, 16 July 2020. The 2020 HLPF was held virtually due to COVID-19 outbreak.

The 2020 HLPF programme is available here.

Messages from the scientific community on the 2020 HLPF theme

Read our position paper

The Scientific and Technological Community Major Group (STC MG) has submitted a position paper related to the 2020 HLPF theme “Accelerated action and transformative pathways: realizing the decade of action and delivery for sustainable development” gathering inputs from a wide breadth of partner organizations and programmes such as the Transformations to Sustainability (T2S) programme, Future Earth, LIRA 2030 Africa, the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) and others.

The document was made available on the UN website and a summary of the paper was included in the Major Groups’ and stakeholders’ official contribution to the meeting.

Watch the recording of our side event

Play video

Learn more

Transformative side events from the scientific community

Tuesday 7 July at 8:00-9:00 EST (14:00-15:00 CET)

• The International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) side event on “Innovations for Sustainability: Pathways to an Efficient and Sufficient Post-pandemic Future”

Wednesday 8 July at 08:00 to 09:00 EDT (14:00 to 15:00 CET)

• International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) side event on ‘Setting Science-Based Targets for Biodiversity in the Context of the Sustainable Development Goals‘

Thursday 9 July at 08:00 to 09:00 EDT (14:00 to 15:00 CET)

• World Federation of Engineering Organizations (WFEO) side event on ‘How the Lever of Science and Technology Can Be Used In Peri-urban and Urban Environments To Advance Sustainable Development: the Case Of Implementing Geospatial Engineering‘.
• Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) side event on ‘Paris minus the SDGs: a formula for inequality? Insights on effective policy coherence in Kenya‘.
• International Union of Forest Research Organizations, (IUFRO) (ISC Member) side event on ‘Forests and transformative pathways to sustainability‘. 
• German Environment Agency (UBA), UNDP, UNEP, Future Earth and the International Science Council (ISC) virtual dialogue on ‘Digital Solutions to Reach the 2030-Agenda‘.

Friday 10 July at 08:00 to 09:00 EDT (14:00 to 15:00 CET)

• The UN Technology Facilitation Mechanism (TFM) side event on ‘COVID-19 vaccines: scientific advances, access models and vaccination acceptance‘.
• GIZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit) side event on ‘Inclusive and integrated monitoring, follow-up and review to accelerate SDG implementation‘.

Friday 10 July at 12:00 to 13:00 EDT (18:00 to 19:00 CET)

• ISC side event titled “Designing and implementing integrated, context-sensitive and attainable pathways towards achieving transformation”. More information on the HLPF side event, including how to register, is available here.

Wednesday 15 July at 09:30 to 10:30 AM EDT

• Rebuilding better with STI during COVID-19: Leveraging the Technology Facilitation Mechanism. Register

The full programme of side events to the 2020 HLPF is available here.