Honorable Chair, Excellencies, Distinguished Participants, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I am very pleased to have this opportunity to speak to you this morning. But at the same time, I feel very sad that I am not able to attend the annual meeting in person.
This virtual meeting succinctly illustrates how sustainable development is being challenged continuously.
Today, the global community is facing numerous challenges that threaten international stability and human security.
Compounding the already difficult global situation, the unexpected outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has drastically changed our world, causing the loss of a tremendous number of human lives as well as leading a path of transition to the ‘new normal’ of our everyday life.
Following the discussion on the sustainable development goals during the Rio+20 Summit in 2012, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the 17 Goals and 169 targets as part of the 2030 Development Agenda for Sustainable Development in New York on 25 September 2015.
These 17 interlinked global goals are the blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all.
The SDGs address a range of global problems we face today, from poverty and inequality to climate change and peace and justice.
We are currently halfway along the collective journey towards sustainable development, with only 8 years to 2030.
Despite our efforts during the past years, unfortunately, it still seems far away from attaining all of the 17 goals within the next 8 years.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The SDGs provide a framework for addressing all the main problems that pose serious threats to humanity today, and they call for urgent action such as ensuring healthy lives and combating climate changes.
Health, as a fundamental human right, has a central place in the SDGs agenda.
The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated the importance of as well as the pressing need for improving the adaptability and resilience of our healthcare system.
COVID-19 has not only devastated human health and our society by claiming more than 5 million deaths globally, but amplified existing inequalities across the sectors including healthcare, labor, housing, food, education and other key areas.
This pandemic has underlined the critical need for consolidated global leadership and a strong multilateral response, both of which unfortunately we are lacking at this crucial juncture.
This is in a stark contrast to the global financial crisis of 2008, when the world leaders were united and worked together to overcome the crisis through creating G20, a premier international economic cooperation forum which even works today.
Sadly enough, in the case of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have witnessed a major failure in global leadership on jointly responding to the virus in a timely and effective manner.
I am sure that the spread of the disease and sufferings and damages inflicted by the pandemic would have been much reduced if multilateral cooperation and a sense of solidarity had been put in place.
While tackling the pandemic for two years, the global community has realized that one of the root causes of the pandemic is unsustainable development, which has consistently destroyed invaluable ecosystems and biodiversity.
By blindly chasing economic growth, we have ignored the importance and value of our environment, our health and overall well-being of our society.
From now on, we need to ensure that economic development is compatible with the SDGs.
Therefore, the economic stimulus packages in response to the COVID-19 should be aligned with a green recovery and the pathway to sustainable development growth.
As you all know, climate change is one of the most important issues facing humanity today as well as in the future.
The planet is warming up and the adverse impacts of climate change have already been felt around the globe.
The main driver of climate change is the accumulation of greenhouse gas emissions from human activities.
If the concentration of these gases does not stabilize, the earth’s climate will be even further disturbed.
We have to realize that climate stability of the planet is the most precious global public good, not only for those living today but for future generations.
In this respect, I commend that we have made major progress on reaching the consensus to achieve carbon neutrality by the middle of the 21st century.
However, most countries have not sufficiently prepared for establishing their near-termpolicy actions and national strategies but only implemented stringent policies to rapidly reduce carbon emissions.
The international community must now live up to this political commitment agreed and adopted by their leaders.
We need to promote cooperation and partnership and strengthen global responses to climate change across every endeavor and initiative such as large-scale adaptation, substantive mitigation, innovative course of financing and an unprecedented push for developing and disseminating climate-friendly technologies.
Developed countries should take the lead with increased commitments while incentives should be offered to developing countries for fulfilling their roles in tackling the climate change issues.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
We must understand that achieving all of the SDGs is essential and imperative as they are interconnected with one another.
For example, biodiversity conservation and ecosystem protection contribute to climate change mitigation, adaptation and resilience of the environment.
Therefore, it is very clear that investing in achieving the SDGs can effectively reduce national and community vulnerability to risks, enhance resilience and adaptation to climate-related impacts at all scales, return benefits to the vulnerable populations and thus improve quality of life for all members of society.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Before closing, I would like to emphasize the crucial role to be played by the private sector in fulfilling the SDGs.
We need private sector leaders with capabilities to enable transformational change and develop a systemic change as well as with the commitment to ‘leaving no one behind.’
The SDGs provide an excellent guidance for private organizations to design their own sustainable business models.
Whether a company wants or not, an increasing number of stakeholders are asking for companies to integrate SDGs into their business plans and make contribution to SDGs.
There has been a growing body of support for impact investing and ESG investing.
As investments dedicated to ESG and sustainability are escalating, companies should invest in sustainable business practices and operate and deliver their business aligned with SDGs, in order to meet the expectations from various investors and mobilize investments.
As I have highlighted earlier, the global challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change cannot be solved without international cooperation.
The SDGs cannot be achieved by the efforts of a single country or entity.
Only with close cooperation and collaboration across the countries, sectors and industries, the common challenges are effectively addressed and SDGs are attained in an accelerated way.
Strong sense of solidarity, enhanced partnership and recommitment to multilateralism are key to realizing our promises that we made 7 years ago in New York.
I believe that prosperous and successful partnership is possible when all actors are united and sharing the same understanding of purposes, priorities and objectives.
COVID-19 and climate change are transnational and common threats to mankind, which reveals and exacerbates profound inequalities.
Working together to achieve the SDGs will underpin our collective fight against climate change and COVID-19, as well as their implications and aftershocks on economy and society.
We must remember that in this global, interconnected and interdependent world, we are only as strong as the weakest link.
I would like to urge that the global community and all countries to invest in institutions, policy frameworks and structural systems to facilitate achievement of the SDGs.
It is critically important that we allocate more financial resources to protect our ecosystems and human security, while ensuring sustainable development and synergies to protect global public goods.
Thank you.
(The author's point of view does not represent the official position of IFF. This article is an original article. If you want to repost this article, please indicate the source of the article.)