World leaders agree declaration on sustainable development goals

The United Nations General Assembly has adopted a declaration to increase momentum towards implementing its sustainable development goals. This includes a move to end extreme poverty and increase access to education worldwide.

The 17 sustainable development goals, which include 169 specific targets, were first adopted in 2015 with a view to implementation by 2030.

However, the measures are way off track, with about 15 per cent considered to be on target.

UN secretary general António Guterres, speaking at a special summit on the sustainable development goals in New York, said they were not just a list of objectives.

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“They carry the hopes, dreams, rights and expectations of people everywhere”, he said.

He said the political declaration “can be a game-changer in accelerating sustainable development progress”.

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Mr Guterres said it was an indictment of everyone that millions of people were starving.

The declaration includes a commitment to financing for developing countries and clear support for his proposal for a sustainable development goal stimulus of at least $500 billion (€468 billion) annually, as well as an effective debt-relief mechanism.

It calls for changing the business model of multilateral development banks to offer private finance at more affordable rates for developing countries, and endorses reform of the international finance architecture which he has labelled “outdated, dysfunctional and unfair”.

The political declaration agreed at the UN summit on Monday was negotiated by diplomats from Ireland and Qatar.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Tánaiste Micheál Martin paid tribute to those involved in brokering the deal.

Mr Varadkar said the sustainable development goals effectively were about providing a basic standard in the world in relation to health, education, gender equality, the environment and human rights.

“I think that makes sense to people no matter who you are, no matter where you live in the world, what your position is in society, there is a basic standard and basic floor below which nobody should fall.”

He said the declaration, which was agreed on Monday, “really refocuses the world’s commitment on achieving some of those goals, particularly around the environment around health education around gender equality”.

Asked about whether it was too ambitious to see the implementation of some of the sustainable development goals by 2030, the Taoiseach said he believed the most achievable related to infant mortality and poverty eradication.

“ Even though we are well behind where we should be, a lot of progress has been made.

“Just to give one example, 800 million people around the world, just since 2010, have been connected to electricity, and just imagine how that transforms lives.

“The world is moving in the right direction in terms of mortality in terms of perinatal deaths, in terms of extreme poverty, but nowhere near where we committed to be between now and 2030.”