“It would beryllium casual to suffer hope. But we are not hopeless. Or helpless. We person a way to recovery. If we take to instrumentality it,” he said.
Mr. Guterres was speaking at the SDG Moment – a major event marking the commencement of the General Assembly High Level Week - joined by more than 30 Heads of State, a debate led by apical UN officials on COVID-19 and a show by K-pop sensation BTS, headlined also by the President of the Republic of Korea.
For the UN chief, this SDG Moment is each about “coming unneurotic to prevention our planet and each other.”
Five areas of action
Earlier this month, Mr. Guterres launched “Our Common Agenda”, a plan to strengthen and revitalize the whole multilateral strategy and rally the satellite astir communal objectives.
In the document, the Secretary-General points to 5 areas for urgent action.
First, the world needs to extremity the pandemic. Noting the effect “has been excessively dilatory and excessively unequal”, Mr. Guterres called connected the world to mobilize down a planetary vaccination program that doubles production, to scope 70 per cent of the world’s colonisation by the mediate of adjacent year.
Second, he highlighted the need for a sustainable and equitable betterment for all, truthful that the world stays on way to extremity poorness by 2030.
For him, that means bold investments successful systems that enactment quality development, but besides “putting radical supra profits, including done progressive taxation, and ending taxation evasion, wealth laundering, and illicit fiscal flows.”
He past pointed to equal rights for women and girls, saying none of the SDGs can beryllium achieved without sex equality.
“We request bold investments to marque definite each miss has a spot successful the schoolroom and the skills she needs to illustration her ain future”, he said successful the aftermath of the reopening of precocious schools successful Afghanistan astatine the weekend, without the Taliban allowing girls to instrumentality to study.
“We request to dismantle the powerfulness structures that let discrimination, unit and economical hardship to support 1 fractional of humanity down. And we request to marque definite that girls and women person a spot astatine each table,” helium said.
UN Photo/Cia Pak
Members of the BTS K-Pop radical enactment successful the SDG Moment successful the UN General Assembly hall.
Another precedence is to end the warfare against the planet, by committing to nett zero emissions by 2050. Mr. Guterres also asked Member States to shelve plans for any caller coal-fired powerfulness plants after 2021, and mobilize $100 cardinal a twelvemonth for clime action.
Lastly, helium stressed the importance of an equitable global recovery, asking radical everyplace to work with their governments to enactment radical archetypal successful their budgets and betterment plans.
“My friends, the pathway is there. The prime is ours. Let’s determination guardant with anticipation and conviction,” he concluded.
Recovery and caller challenges
Speaking astatine the event, the caller president of the General Assembly, Abdulla Shahid, said that “going forward, the gaps successful governmental volition and assets commitment, remain a communal responsibility line”, hampering progress towards reaching the SDGs.
“This indispensable change. Let the setback that the satellite has seen, strengthen our resoluteness and reenforce our determination to retrieve from the pandemic and to physique the SDGs. Together it is possible," he said.
Shot successful the limb from BTS
One of the members of K-pop band BTS, said that he had also “felt bewildered and troubled” by the setbacks of the past 18 months, but said now was “an perfect clip of our lives to instrumentality connected caller challenges.”
“What is important are the choices we marque erstwhile we are faced with alteration right? Some of you heard the quality that we were coming to the UN and a batch of you were wondering whether we were vaccinated. And yes, all 7 of us, of course, we received COVID-19 vaccination,” another BTS subordinate said.
Members of the BTS K-Pop radical enactment successful the SDG Moment successful the UN General Assembly hall., by UN Photo/Cia Pak
More to come
Heading up the 76th General Assembly’s High-Level Week, the SDG Moment is held successful beforehand of large meetings connected nutrient systems, climate, energy, jobs and societal protection.
The SDG event is designed to build the momentum needed to present connected the Decade of Action and Keep the Promise of the SDGs.
Besides world leaders, leaders from business, civilian society, section authorities, the SDG Advocates and the UN, highlighted the request to standard up solutions.
For the UN, to get the SDGs backmost connected way and forestall the worst impacts of clime change, a profound displacement successful economies and societies everywhere, is present needed.
In the past 18 months, COVID-19 has disrupted economies and livelihoods, deepened inequalities and risks sending more than 70 cardinal radical into utmost poverty.
In the aforesaid period, advancement connected reducing greenhouse state emissions has been excessively dilatory and biodiversity nonaccomplishment has continued astatine an bonzer pace. This is compounded by a profoundly uneven planetary effect to the pandemic with the world’s poorest countries and radical suffering the most.
Recognizing this urgency, the UN launched a caller campaign last week, “Keeping the Promise”. The integer run calls on radical astir the satellite to marque a committedness to take action for a amended aboriginal for all.
Users are being asked to take from 11 promises inspired by the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, the world’s to-do database to protect the planet and each its people.
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