Briefing the UN General Assembly (UNGA) on the report, ‘Our Common Agenda,’ UN Secretary-General António Guterres said we must start “moving the recommendations in Our Common Agenda from ideas to action – from abstract to concrete.” He urged Member States to support “turbocharged” efforts to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and make the SDGs “real in the lives of people everywhere.”
Addressing the meeting, Guterres highlighted progress since the report’s release 18 months ago, including the “breakthrough on loss and damage,” the recognition of the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, the Transforming Education Summit, the Global Accelerator on Jobs and Social Protection, and the decision to establish a UN Youth Office. But, he said, we “need to go further and deeper.”
The Secretary-General warned that today’s forms of multilateral governance are not adequate to address the pace and scale of the challenges the world is facing in the areas of climate, conflict, inequality, food insecurity, and nuclear weapons. He called on Member States to address gaps in intergovernmental cooperation.
Underscoring that “halfway to 2030, we are far off track,” Guterres invited Member States to come to the SDG Summit in September with a “clear commitment” to rescue the SDGs. He called for an ambitious political declaration that would recognize challenges and prioritize and mobilize investment and action across the core transitions needed to achieve the SDGs.
The Secretary-General reiterated his call for the Group of 20 (G20) to agree, by the SDG Summit, on a global SDG stimulus of at least USD 500 billion a year to support developing countries.
Urging Member States to “look into the substance and detail” of the proposals contained in Our Common Agenda, Guterres indicated that the Secretariat will issue a series of 11 policy briefs offering “concrete ideas” to advance work.