Deputy Secretary-General, at International Conference on Sustainable Development, Urges All to ‘Mobilize Energy, Action’ around 2030 Agenda

(Delayed in transmission.)

Following are UN Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson’s remarks at the International Conference on Sustainable Development, in New York on 23 September:

Professor [Jeffrey] Sachs, President [Ellen] Johnson Sirleaf, Director-General [Irina] Bokova, Head of International Organization for Migration (IOM), Bill Swing, distinguished speakers and guests, dear participants, I am glad and proud to be here today among prominent international personalities, as well as colleagues and friends, scientists, business people, civil society representatives and students focusing on one of the most promising enterprises the world has embarked upon for many years — a new transformative development agenda.

I thank Professor Sachs and his colleagues for his invitation and for his insightful and path-breaking work on sustainable development.

Many of you have taken part in the elaboration of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development which will be adopted at the UN Summit this Friday, 25 September.  Many of you will also be at the forefront of realizing and living up to these goals.  In fact, all of us should be.

After initial hesitation from some quarters, there is now great excitement and anticipation around the 17 sustainable development goals, which are at the heart of the 2030 Agenda.

This agenda has already mobilized unprecedented energy and momentum across the world and across all sectors of society.  At this difficult time for the world and for national and international institutions a penetrating debate and dialogue at the United Nations, both among Member States and within the UN system.  Which direction should we set for ourselves and for development the next 15 years?

Agenda 2030 is universal, transformative and ambitious as President Johnson Sirleaf stated earlier.  It incorporates the social, economic and environmental dimensions of sustainable development in a holistic manner.  It aims to promote universal human well-being and to protect our planet.  Its overarching goal is eradicating poverty in all its forms.  It addresses hunger and nutrition and healthy lives for all, and aims to achieve gender equality and universal access to quality education.  It is to ensure access to clean water and decent sanitation, as well as future-oriented and renewable energy.

It includes issues and areas such as sustainable consumption, production and growth, employment, industrialization, infrastructure, urbanization and migration.  It links the social, economic and environmental dimensions of the goals on climate change, oceans and terrestrial ecosystems.

The new Agenda also links economic and social progress to peaceful and inclusive societies, as well as to human rights, the rule of law and strong institutions.

I recall the now classical formula of the 2005 World Summit at the UN:  “there is no peace without development, no development without peace and no peace or development without respect of human rights.”

The SDGs [sustainable development goals] cover issues that are diverse, stand-alone, but also at the same time closely connected, as part of an integrated whole.  None of the goals can be achieved in isolation from the others.

Each goal is associated with a number of targets that relate to other goals, creating a web of interlinkages.  This calls for an integrated and inclusive approach to policy making and implementation.

For example, SDG 6 on safe water and sanitation for all is connected to a number of other goals, related to child mortality, maternal health, education, gender equality and poverty eradication.

The 2030 Agenda is a global vision reflecting more than a million voices which were heard from citizens through a range of broad international consultations.  This is an agenda for all countries and all peoples.  No one can look at this agenda as a set of goals for others.  Everybody should feel and accept ownership.

Governments are now to adapt the targets to national conditions and to integrate them in their economic and social planning.  Some of the goals and targets might initially not seem relevant to all countries.  But, a closer examination reveals that a large number of issues have wide and deep domestic implications.

Let us, for instance, look at inequalities, which is the focus of SDG 10 and relates to both inequalities between, as well as within nations.  Inequality and exclusion fundamentally squander human potential.  Thus, inequality and exclusion are not just socially unjust, but also economically inefficient and incompatible with cohesive societies.

Another example is goal 12 on sustainable consumption and production.

We cannot achieve sustainable development without changing our consumption and production patterns.  Reduce, reuse and recycle have to become realities all over the world.

We must reflect the 2030 Agenda’s integrated nature in how we plan, act and think, both at home and abroad.

We have worked in silos for too long.  Our mindset has to change into acting and thinking horizontally. We should focus on the problems and ask who can bring about progress and change. We should build bridges to all of them and try to achieve an informal division of labor, respecting each other’s integrity and comparative advantages.

The United Nations development system is now gearing up to help in three ways at the country level, the most important level.

First, the UN will provide immediate support to Governments to implement the 2030 Agenda and to reflect it in national development plans and policies at their request.  Second, we will support countries to accelerate progress on their development priority areas.  Third, we will make expertise on sustainable development and governance available to Governments at all stages.

Today, here at Columbia University, I also want to express my strong hope that the younger generation will be instrumental in taking part in advocating for and in implementing and benefiting from this integrated, cross-cutting development agenda.

You can all drive change by better understanding and educating yourselves and others on how things we do in one area affect development in other areas.  Think about your own studies and research and consider how it touches on economic, social and environmental dimensions of development.

You all have a role to play.  We now need a broad mobilization for change, for a life of dignity for all in today’s troubled world.  Nobody can do everything, but everybody can do something.

It is clear that Governments cannot achieve this agenda alone.  You should know that non-State actors have been actively engaged in the post-2015 negotiations.

The broader discussions at the United Nations and very much outside the UN generated interest and a momentum which we can now build on to rally all actors around the SDGs.

We need the involvement of academia to promote informed decision making and evidence-based policymaking.  Here Jeff Sachs and his Sustainable Development Solutions Network has played, and will play, an innovative and important role.

We also need the engagement of civil society to help Governments serve their people better.  We need the support of parliamentarians who can provide initiatives, as well as checks and balances for Governments.  We need local authorities who directly serve communities, and of course, we need the full contribution of the private sector.  Companies can and indeed must provide and invest in much needed new sustainable products, processes and technologies, not least in the areas of communications, as well as health and combating climate change.

In partnership with Governments, the private sector has an important role to play, not only to develop sustainable production patterns, but also, importantly, create jobs, not least for young people.

In closing, let me say that the adoption of the sustainable development goals is not an end but a beginning of a historic enterprise.  This Agenda is about transformative change everywhere and by everyone.  It calls for action by Governments, parliaments, the business world, civil society, the academic community and by people everywhere.

Only by working together can we achieve the goals of sustainable development.  In today’s world there is no more important word than the word together.

I urge all of you to think of ways in which you can mobilize energy and action around this agenda in your daily lives, in your studies and in your careers.  This is a mission supremely worth embarking upon, in the pursuit of a life of dignity for all and of a healthy planet with which we live in peace and harmony.

We may have Plan B in our life, but we have no Planet B.  I thank you.