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1.2.1. Highlighting trends and providing policyrelevantanalysisPossible roles for the HLPF in this category are directlylinked to the HLPF mandates on monitoring theimplementation of the sustainable development agenda.Experts pointed out that a key to the role of the HLPF is thecapability to assess the significance of progress globally, i.e.the synthesis and interpretation across all goals and targetstowards the overall outcome of global sustainability andhuman development. For many of the roles identifiedbelow, the Global Sustainable Development Report couldplay a key role in making information available to the HLPF.Capture past and future sustainable development trends,lessons learnt and scientific findings, indicating potentialareas for policy action. This function was included in themandate of the UN Commission on SustainableDevelopment from its inception, and the high priority thatexperts grant it is a reflection of its continued relevance. Itwas also emphasized in the inputs from UN Member Stateson options for the scope and methodology of the GSDR.The GSDR is expected to feature scientific findingsindicating potential areas for policy action in order toenable evidence-based decision-making within the highlevelpolitical forum. Many also suggested reporting ontrends and experiences at the national and local levels,based on countries’ own national sustainable developmentreports.Highlight interlinkages among sectors and tools toaddress them in an intergenerationally equitable way.Policy research in various clusters of issues has highlightedthe need for integrated policies that considerinterdependencies among sectors. In their inputs to the UNSecretary-General’s report on options for the scope andmethodology of the GSDR, Member States emphasized thatthe GSDR should indicate how interlinkages can beaddressed and what the leverage points and gaps are forimplementation. They suggested that the analytical focusshould be on the interaction among economic, social andenvironmental dimensions, on key drivers of change, andon clusters of closely interlinked issues. This might include,in particular, a cross-sectoral analysis of progress made,obstacles encountered and potential integrated policyoptions. Many would like the report to present goodpractices of integrated policies. The GSDR 2014documented interlinkages among sustainable developmentissues, both across the range of sustainable developmentthemes and for the climate, land, energy, water anddevelopment nexus. 34 Chapter 3 reviews the status ofscientific knowledge on the interlinkages in the oceans,seas, marine resources and human well-being nexus.Similar approaches could be taken by future editions of the32GSDR, focusing on new clusters that are relevant to theagenda of the forum.Expert quotes (3)“Highlighting interlinkages among sectors and tools to addressthem needs to be done in a nuanced manner. I suggest adding‘disciplines’ to ‘sectors’ and ‘tools’. Risk analysis in financialmodelling is quite different from CGE modelling (and theory), yetwe merrily mix the two. We have no alternative, but little effortseems to be made to really understand the consistency of theinformation that we use to motivate decisions.”Provide improved access to the findings of existingassessments and highlight synergies and trade-offs. Thereview of sustainable development progress undertaken inthe GSDR 2014 provided evidence that in recent decades,impressive gains in some areas have come at the expenseof worsening trends in others. A synthesis report such asthe GSDR is expected to add value and provide improvedaccess to the findings of a large number of existingassessments and to highlight synergies and trade-offsbetween actions taken in various settings. 35 In addition, asalready suggested by the GSDR 2014, the GlobalSustainable Development Report might help decisionmakingby bringing together sectoral outlooks in a coherentway and highlighting issues where interactions should betaken into account (see Chapter 2).Identify new and emerging issues through sound scientificevidence, assessments and forward-looking projections.The importance of this role was highlighted by UN MemberStates in their inputs on the scope and methodology of theGSDR. The identification of emerging issues is one of thefunctions of the HLPF and was one of the functions of itspredecessor, the Commission on Sustainable Development.Over the years, discussions at the Commissions played animportant role in transferring some of the emerging issuesidentified in the review process to the political process, inareas such as forests, oceans, energy, hazardous chemicalsand persistent organic pollutants. 36 Finding adequate waysto identify emerging issues over the whole spectrum ofsustainable development areas (including social andeconomic areas) and bring them to the attention of thepolitical process is therefore important. Chapter 7 of theGSDR 2014 and Chapter 7 of this report are devoted toemerging issues and include practical suggestions in thisregard.Provide a repository for recent assessments coveringsustainable development goal areas. As documented bythe GSDR 2014, there are hundreds of assessmentscovering the thematic areas relevant to sustainabledevelopment. Based on the work done for this report (see