Science Diplomacy and APEC STI (Science, Technology and Innovation) Cooperation

September 25 (2015). 193 governments took the historic step of adopting the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the UN Sustainable Development Summit. As countries came together with the goal of taking the world on a more sustainable pathway, it also became evermore clear the critical role of science, technology and innovation (STI) as a means of tackling some of the most pressing global issues in unconventional, cross-cutting ways. Among many of those global issues, historically as well as within the SDGs framework, climate change proves to be one of the direst issues needed to be tackled, especially through STI.Given the rapidly expanding impacts of climate change and hazardous weather activities, especially in the APEC region, economies are now in need of climate technologies that will allow more accurate and effective climate assessment and forecasting. In addition, given the exploitation of natural resources, the degradation of the environment and its resulting climate impacts, economies are in dire need of clean technology solutions and investments in sectors such as renewable energy, clean water and climate smart agriculture. Against such backdrop, it is imperative that APEC economies come together and continue their efforts on addressing climate change. And it is within such context in which the APEC Research and Technology (ART) Program, which is longstanding Korean initiative for APEC policy dialogue, plays a critical role. As one of the most effective policy dialogue platforms of PPSTI, the ART program has sought to address ways for APEC to facilitate cooperation on climate technology and SDGs issues. With this background, this paper discusses the APEC PPSTI agendas and history within the perspective of Science Diplomacy among APEC region.