Over the past three decades, policy integration has become a key objective for guiding and harmonizing policies for sustainable development. Most recently, the 2015 Sustainable Development Goals have added new impetus to efforts of integrating competing objectives of environmental sustainability, social development, and economic growth, as well as of integrating issue-specific environmental policies on climate change and terrestrial and marine biodiversity. While multilateral environmental agreements are important international instruments for achieving sustainable development, there has been little focus so far on their contribution to policy integration. Covering the years from 2007 to 2016, this article presents an empirical analysis of sustainability policy integration (i.e., how multilateral environmental agreements integrate environmental, social, and economic issues in their decisions) and environmental policy integration (i.e., the outreach of multilateral environmental agreements to different environmental issue areas beyond their mandate). The analysis finds that multilateral environmental agreements have not moved toward further policy integration over the studied period. If policy and institutional coherence is a key global governance target in the post-2015 era, a concerted effort will be required to improve the extent of policy integration by multilateral environmental agreements.

中文翻译：

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通过多边环境协议促进可持续发展的政策整合

在过去的三年中，政策整合已成为指导和协调可持续发展政策的关键目标。最近，2015 年可持续发展目标为整合环境可持续性、社会发展和经济增长等相互竞争的目标以及整合针对气候变化和陆地和海洋生物多样性的特定问题环境政策的努力增添了新动力。虽然多边环境协定是实现可持续发展的重要国际文书，但迄今为止很少有人关注它们对政策整合的贡献。本文涵盖 2007 年至 2016 年，对可持续性政策整合（即多边环境协定如何整合环境、决策中的社会和经济问题）和环境政策整合（即，多边环境协定超出其职责范围外，涉及不同的环境问题领域）。分析发现，在研究期间，多边环境协定并没有朝着进一步的政策整合迈进。如果政策和制度的一致性是 2015 年后时代的关键全球治理目标，则需要协同努力，提高多边环境协定的政策整合程度。分析发现，在研究期间，多边环境协定并没有朝着进一步的政策整合迈进。如果政策和制度的一致性是 2015 年后时代的关键全球治理目标，则需要协同努力，以提高多边环境协定的政策整合程度。分析发现，在研究期间，多边环境协定并没有朝着进一步的政策整合迈进。如果政策和制度的一致性是 2015 年后时代的关键全球治理目标，则需要协同努力，提高多边环境协定的政策整合程度。