Senior UN officials have called for a “reaffirmation” of its Sustainable Development Goals during talks this week.
Global leaders are meeting for the UN High-Level Political Forum in Sustainable Development, which marks a half-way point to 2030 emissions targets.
According to the UN, emissions must be reduced by 45% by 2030 and reach net zero by 2050. This forms part of the body’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals, which also set targets for humanitarian and environmental improvements to global systems. The goals were first agreed by member states in 2015 and seek to “promote prosperity while protecting the planet”.
“We are off track. Statistics are depressing, but this is the only framework we have for development. And we should stick to it,” Lachezara Stoeva, the president of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) told Xinhua news agency in an interview.
She called for a “reaffirmation of commitment,” a “refocusing” on the SDGs, and a “redoubling of efforts”.
The conference is principally focussed on the 2023 Global Sustainable Development Report. According to the report, “the world is not on track to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals”. Stoeva told reporters that she hopes the halfway point can “mobilize attention”.
The forum began on 10 July in New York and extends until 20 July. Talks will focus on five key goals which seek to provide access to: clean water and sanitation, affordable and clean energy, industry, innovation and infrastructure, sustainable cities and communities, and the interlinks between goals.
The talks seek to “engage the private sector and other new partners” to increase access to electricity. According to the UN, the number of people without electricity shrank from 1.2 billion to 733 million between 2010 and 2020.
Alongside the UN’s forum, the Regional and Global Energy Interconnection Initiative led an event on the role of zero-carbon energy systems within the development goals. The talks centred on “the establishment of a global energy network”.
According to research published by the World Meteorological Organisation, an arm of the UN, in May the world is at high risk of temporarily breaching the 1.5⁰C of temperature change from pre-industrial levels agreed under the Paris Climate Agreement. This would see nations breach their net zero commitments.
Report authors hope that it “sounded the alarm” and encourage greater commitment to climate goals.
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