The United Nations launched its sustainable development agenda in 2015, reflecting the growing understanding by Member States that a development model that is sustainable for this and future generations offers the best path forward for reducing poverty and improving the lives of people everywhere. At the same time, climate change began making a profound impact on the consciousness of humanity. With the polar ice caps melting, global sea levels rising and cataclysmic weather events increasing in ferocity, no country in the world is safe from the effects of climate change.
Building a more sustainable global economy will help reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change. It is, therefore, critically important that the international community meet the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals - and also the targets for reducing emissions set in the Paris Climate Agreement of 2015.
Sustainable development and climate action are linked - and both are vital to the present and future well-being of humanity.
MDGs - Close to 40 per cent of the population of the developing world was living in extreme poverty only two decades ago. Since then, the world has halved extreme poverty, with the UN’s Millennium Development Goals(MDGs) greatly contributing to this progress.
2030 Agenda - Recognizing the success of the MDGs, and the need to complete the job of eradicating poverty, the UN adopted the ambitious 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which includes ending poverty; zero hunger; good health and well being; quality education; gender equality; clean water and sanitation; affordable and clean energy; decent work and economic growth; industry, innovation and infrastructure; reduced inequalities; sustainable cities and communities; responsible consumption and production; climate action; life below water; life on land; peace, justice and strong institutions; and partnerships for the goals.
Paris Agreement - While these goals were being formulated and approved, the United Nations supported the climate change negotiations, which led to the Paris Agreement on climate change in 2015. The central aim of the Paris Agreement is to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change by keeping the global temperature rise well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, or even below 1.5 degrees Celsius. Additionally, the Paris Agreement aims to strengthen the ability of countries to deal with the impacts of climate change. In order to reach these goals, financing, new technology and an enhanced capacity-building framework will be put in place. The Agreement also provides for enhanced transparency of action and support through a transparency framework.
The 2023 SDG Summit took place on 18-19 September 2023 in New York. It marked the beginning of a new phase of accelerated progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals with high-level political guidance on transformative and accelerated actions leading up to 2030.
Convened by the President of the General Assembly, the Summit marked the half-way point to the deadline set for achieving the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals. It responded to the impact of multiple and interlocking crises facing the world and is expected to reignite a sense of hope, optimism, and enthusiasm for the 2030 Agenda.
Speaking at the opening of the high-level forum, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said: “The SDGs aren’t just a list of goals. They carry the hopes, dreams, rights and expectations of people everywhere.”
The SDG Summit adopted a Political Declaration, which calls for “gearing up for a decade of action and delivery for sustainable development”.
Against the backdrop of the worsening climate crisis, the UN Secretary-General’s Climate Ambition Summit aimed to showcase “first mover and doer” leaders from government, business, finance, local authorities, and civil society who came with credible actions, policies and plans - and not just pledges - to accelerate the decarbonization of the global economy and deliver climate justice in line with his Acceleration Agenda.
“If these first-doers and first-movers can do it, everybody can do it,” the Secretary-General said in his closing remarks, calling it a “Summit of Hope.”
By demonstrating that tangible and ambitious action to credibly cut emissions and deliver climate justice was possible and practical, the Summit showcased a way forward: the alignment of sectoral, local, national and international plans and policies with credible and scienced-backed targets to accelerate decarbonization, advance climate justice and fairness, with unprecedented levels of coordination and cooperation, and a renewed focus on credibility and accountability.
The information presented on this page has been taken from The United Nations Climate Change website
source: https://www.un.org/en/our-work/support-sustainable-development-and-climate-action