Source: United Nations Environment Programme
Representatives of International Organizations Issue Call for Joint Action at Sustainable Development Goals Summit
UNEP Executive Director opens the Call for Joint Action event
New York, 26 September 2015 - Eight international organizations, including the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), on Saturday committed to urgent and coordinated action to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and allow people and planet to thrive.
The President of Mongolia; ministers from Barbados, Germany and Finland; and the heads of international organizations such as UNEP, UN Habitat and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) joined other key figures at the Call for Joint Action event in New York to build momentum for the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), adopted on Friday.
“Realizing the SDGS will not be easy,” said Mogens Lykketoft, President of the General Assembly, at the opening of the meeting. “If we succeed, we will bring about change on par with the industrial revolution. We have the know-how. Now with the 2030 Agenda we have the vision. What we need, however, is the determination and leadership, and the energy and innovation of partnerships.”
The leaders of eight organizations acknowledged this, calling in a statement for “immediate and decisive action” on an unprecedented scale, as well as “the necessary political will and resources to implement this agenda in its entirety and to scale up innovative solutions”.
UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner said, “The breadth and ambition of the objectives we have set ourselves are unprecedented, as are the challenges we will need to confront to realise a sustainable future for all. Only by mobilizing all actors to contribute to this endeavour, with each and every one bringing to the table their respective strengths, capacities and resources, will we be successful.”
The leaders said they were committed to a partnership approach, with all concerned parties at all levels pulling together on strategies and implementation plans that will transform humanity’s collective future.
“We stand ready to step-up our collective efforts to support SDG implementation, and commit ourselves to engaging in multi-stakeholder partnership approaches-mobilizing collective action to advance integrated, comprehensive and scalable solutions for system-wide change, working across regions and on multiple levels from local to global,” they said in the statement.
Current growth models are increasingly threatening the planet’s carrying capacity, making climate change and ecological degradation one of the greatest common threats to the world. Decoupling economic activities from intensifying resource use and adverse environmental impacts is fundamental to human well-being, as called for in the SDG targeting Sustainable Consumption and Production practices.
Therefore, the session placed a particular focus on how to ensure development pathways that recognize the value of the planet’s ecosystems and address the multiple environmental crises that could otherwise undermine past and future development gains and efforts to overcome poverty.
H.E. Mr. Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj, President of Mongolia, said that new, better and more cooperative methods of funding sustainable development and boosting technology transfer would be needed, highlighting how such practices could advance the use of renewables in his coal-dependent country, and thus reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Participants at the event focused on three key areas, looking to find common ground and solutions that could be rapidly pursued.
- A life of dignity for all - Building economic frameworks and capacities for innovation, promoting sustainable trade, sustainable consumption and production patterns, and green and inclusive growth.
- Breaking the silos - Building effective, accountable and inclusive institutions and implementation partnerships at national and local levels for sustainable development.
- Mainstreaming biodiversity - Restoring and sustaining healthy ecosystems for people and planet.
H.E. Oyun Sanjaasuren, President of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA), said joint actions were essential for implementation of the SDGS. To boost global support for collective efforts, she launched MY UNEA, an online platform to increase citizen engagement in UNEA, the next meeting of which will take place in June 2016.
About the Call for Joint Action
The full statement, which can be read here, was signed by the following parties:
- Achim Steiner, Executive Directorof UNEP,
- Joan Clos, Executive Director of UN-Habitat,
- Martin Chugong, Secretary-General of Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU),
- Inger Andersen, Director General of IUCN,
- Braulio Ferreira de Souza Dias, Executive Secretary of Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD),
- Gino Van Begin Secretary-General of ICLEI,
- Andrew Steer, President of World Resources Institute (WRI),
- Yolanda Kakabadse, President of World Wildlife Fund (WWF) International
- http://gbpp.org/en/2015/09/8252