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The Sixth Assessment Report of Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has highlighted the urgency of accelerated climate actions harnessing synergies and minimizing trade-offs with various SDG. This calls for a clear understanding of linkages between climate goals and other SDGs at national level for formulating synergistic policies and strategies and developing different sectoral programs and coherent cross-sectoral policies. This is even more important for least developed countries such as Nepal where these linkages are less understood and development challenges are multifaceted. In this context, this paper aims to evaluate potential synergies and trade-offs among selected SDGs and their associated targets in Nepal in a linear pairwise comparison. Synergies and trade-offs related to climate action (SDG 13), access to energy (SDG 7), sustainable consumption and production (SDG 12), and life on land (SDG 15) have been evaluated using historical data for the period from 1990 to 2018 employing a mixed methods approach. Network analysis to map the conceptual linkages between the SDGs and their targets was combined with the advance sustainability analysis (ASA) to quantitatively evaluate the synergy and trade-offs between SDGs. The results illustrate the presences of a continual trade-off between emission reductions targets of SDG 13 with per capita energy consumption and share of renewable energy of SDG 7, land use for agricultural production target of SDG 12, and forest area target of SDG 15. This indicates that climate action is strongly interlinked with GHG emissions from economic activities and energy consumption. The results of the study represent a valuable input for the policy makers, supporting coherent and sustainable development planning as Nepal plans to graduate to a middle-income country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Palm oil's utilization as a renewable energy (RE) source has led the government to intervene by introducing emission reduction projects. Carbon trading projects are part of the strategic direction adopted within the climate mitigation plan and sustainability drive in the palm oil industry. The perquisites and opportunities encountered within emissions trading are expected to aid palm oil producers economically, environmentally, and socially. This study addresses and analyses how the carbon trading projects' targets in Malaysia can be achieved, the problematic, and pressing issues around their implementation and whether these projects are sustainable and create a positive impact. This paper is based on literature reviews and semi-structured interviews with expert palm oil producers in Malaysia. The findings have revealed that carbon trading implementation in Malaysia has delivered new insights towards the international climate policy approach on the feasibility and impact of long-term sustainability goals. However, the impact of the implementation needs support from the government for further development. In conclusion, the major contribution of this study is that the carbon trading implementation in Malaysia complies with the objectives and principles of sustainable development and creates a significant influx in investment for Malaysia's economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]