The importance of development that provides for equitable economic growth and the sustainable use of natural resources has become increasingly apparent during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. COVID-19 has emphasized the need for a renewed focus on achieving the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as the global blueprint to ending poverty, protecting our planet, and ensuring prosperity. This publication provides an overview of SDG bonds as a mechanism to help mobilize the huge amount of financing required to meet the SDGs in developing Asia. It also proposes a new type of SDG bond that could contribute to accelerating sustainable development in the region.

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has seen governments across developing Asia move significant amounts of capital into relief efforts that have saved countless lives and livelihoods. But emerging economic recovery packages must not upset the sensitive balance between economic growth and the region’s natural capital. Many global thinkers are advocating the critical role of green infrastructure in supporting economic growth and livelihoods, while safeguarding the Paris Agreement targets. This publication examines green and innovative finance mechanisms that can be incorporated into government recovery strategies to incentivize green infrastructure investment. These mechanisms can play a key role in catalyzing much-needed funds from private capital for a green and sustainable regional recovery.

The setbacks caused by COVID-19 (coronavirus) need not be permanent, and it is possible to regain the momentum and move ahead towards the SDGs. It is even possible to convert the COVID-19 crisis into an opportunity for recovering better, by directing much of the resources earmarked for recovery toward investment in promoting the SDGs. While the impact of COVID-19 for many prosperity-related SDGs was negative, its impact for many planet-related SDGs has been positive: greenhouse gas emissions declined; air and water quality improved; and nature's regeneration was witnessed in many areas. These opposite impacts revealed that current ways of achieving prosperity conflict with the health of the planet.

The COVID-19 pandemic hit countries’ development agendas hard. The ensuing recession has pushed millions into extreme poverty and has shrunk government resources available for spending on achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This Staff Discussion Note assesses the current state of play on funding SDGs in five key development areas: education, health, roads, electricity, and water and sanitation, using a newly developed dynamic macroeconomic framework.

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic is a major global crisis requiring national, regional, and global intervention. The scale of the crisis and the associated size of the response mean that decisions governments make now will influence systems, create assets, and define development directions well into the future. The Asian Development Bank has developed this technical note to help its developing member countries accelerate climate and disaster resilience and low-carbon development through the design of COVID-19 recovery interventions. It proposes an assessment framework that decision-makers can use to select and prioritize a package of recovery interventions that will collectively achieve recovery, climate, and resilience objectives.

This book highlights the impact of COVID-19 on environmental sustainability and SDG’s, using various case studies. The year 2020 was a historical year mainly due to the pandemic caused by COVID-19 and it influenced or affected the global economy, business models and the industrial sectors, thus impacting sustainability in various ways. Given that sustainability has many faces and facets, it is worthwhile to deal with the relation (or impact) of COVID-19 on various elements of sustainability. This book presents how COVID-19 has influenced Environmental Sustainability along with the SDG’s.