Achieving Sustainable Development Goals in East and North-East Asia

East and North-East Asia (ENEA), as one of the most dynamic, innovative and fast-developing areas of the world, has made remarkable progress over the past two decades − with annual GDP growth higher than that in the Asia-Pacific region and the rest of world. The ENEA subregion is well advanced in achieving the Millennium Development Goals. Yet many challenges remain. The ENEA subregion still has a large number of people living in poverty and a large disparity in income among countries, with Japan at one end of the spectrum and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea at the other. There has been no fundamental trend in reversing environmental and resource losses, or in reducing the growth of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The subregion's resource-intensive economic growth has led to large increases in the demand for materials and energy.

This publication highlights challenges and priorities of the East and North-East Asian subregion in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.