Excellencies,
Distinguished Participants,
I am pleased to be with you at opening of the 3rd Global Conference on Strengthening Synergies between the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreement.
I thank His Excellency Tsuyoshi Yamaguchi, Minister of the Environment of Japan for hosting the Conference in collaboration with the United Nations University and the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies.
I would also like to thank Mr. Ibrahim Thiaw, Acting Executive Secretary, UNFCCC Secretariat, for co-convening this important event.
The 2030 Agenda and the Paris Agreement provide the best framework for tackling today’s most pressing challenges, including climate change, poverty eradication, and inequality.
Yet, even before the present crises we were not on track to realize the SDGs or the goals of the Paris Agreement. And now, much of the progress that we had made, including in reducing poverty, improving human health and well-being and empowering women and girls, have faced dramatic reversals in the face of the confluent impact of a persistent pandemic, a warming climate, increased conflict, and an interlinked food, fuel and fertilizer crisis, triggered by the conflict in Ukraine.
As many as 95 million people live in extreme poverty in 2022 compared to pre-pandemic projections. Working poverty has risen for the first time in two decades. One in ten people around the world are suffering from hunger.
147 million children missed more than half of their in-class instruction over the past two years
Despite accounting for just 39 per cent of total employment in 2019, women made up 45 per cent of job losses in 2020. And evidence suggests that the pandemic heightened their exposure to domestic violence.
Over 700 million people are living without electricity. And there are well over 2 billion people without clean cooking solutions.
On the climate front, current climate pledges made by nations are still well short of what is needed to meet the Paris Agreement and the Glasgow Climate Pact, with 1.1 degrees Celsius of warming above pre-industrial levels already reached.
Global energy-related CO2 emissions rose by 6 per cent in 2021.
Our warming climate is increasing the likeliness of extreme weather events. On the present trajectory, by 2030 medium- to large-scale weather events are expected to increase by 40 per cent over 2015 levels.
We must get the SDGs on track and keep the goal of 1.5 degrees alive. An integrated approach that seeks to strengthen synergies between these two global agendas is critical.
This Conference builds on the outcomes of the first Climate and SDGs Synergy Conference in 2019 in Copenhagen, and the virtual consultations in 2021 to take stock of practical measures to advance synergistic implementation.
Integrated planning, coherent policies, and economic investments designed to meet both the SDGs and climate challenges can generate significant co-benefits and speed up progress.
Bold climate actions could yield a direct economic gain of US$26 trillion through to 2030 compared with business-as-usual, an increase that can help advance the achievement of the SDGs.
Investment in renewable energy technologies creates jobs and can spur broad and sustainable social and economic development.
Likewise, reducing emissions of greenhouse gases through better transport, food and energy-use choices can result in improved health, particularly through reduced air pollution.
Distinguished Participants,
We must leverage all our means for advancing synergistic action.
The UN Ocean Conference held in Lisbon last month generated much needed political commitment and practical solutions towards the SDGs and climate action. We must build on this momentum.
Later this year, UNFCCC COP27 will present the opportunity to showcase more ambition on climate change to get us on the right track.
COP 15 to the Convention on Biological Diversity presents another important platform.
Next year, there are several critical milestones, including the SDG Summit in September, as well as the Global Stock-take under the Paris Agreement at UNFCCC COP28.
The outcomes of this Conference should help inform these important global milestones.
Countries should also seek to harness synergies of the updated Nationally Determined Contributions, and in Voluntary National and Local Reviews of the 2030 Agenda to advance the SDGs to raise climate ambition, to leave no one behind, and to accelerate progress on the 2030 Agenda.
At the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, we are committed to do our part:
First, we will strengthen our efforts to support all stakeholders in strengthening synergies between the 2030 Agenda and the Paris Agreement.
Second, we will expand the knowledge base, including by enhancing on-line knowledge platforms and developing a global synthesis on climate and SDGs synergies, building on the insights and lessons gained to-date.
Third, we will continue to work with UNFCCC Secretariat to convene an annual climate and SDGs synergies conference, ensuring this platform for shaping integrated solutions
Let us work together to ensure a truly joined-up approach to implementation of the 2030 Agenda and the Paris Agreement.
Thank you.