Excellencies,
Distinguished Delegates,
Colleagues,
Ladies and gentlemen,
The annual presentation of the Secretary-General’s progress report on the Sustainable Development Goals is an occasion to review our efforts to date and renew our commitment to achieving the 2030 agenda. This year, we must also resolve to rescue the 2030 agenda and goals that will put us back on track to a resilient and sustainable future.
This year’s report paints a realistic picture of the impact of the multiple and interlinked global crises – the COVID-19 pandemic, a climate crisis, the conflict in Ukraine and growing geopolitical tensions – that have gathered to test the viability of achieving the SDGs by 2030. However, times of crises also offer the opportunity to take decisive action and build innovative partnerships that drive transformative economic and social change.
Even before the pandemic, progress had been slow in fulfilling the SDGs. With the COVID-19 pandemic now in its third year, years, or even decades, of development progress have been halted or reversed:
- Nearly 15 million people died directly and indirectly due to COVID-19 as of the end of 2021.
- Global health systems were overwhelmed, and many essential health services were disrupted.
- An additional 75 million to 95 million people will live in extreme poverty in 2022 compared to pre-pandemic projections.
- “147 million children missed more than half of their in-class instruction over the past two years.”
- Women have also been disproportionately affected by the socioeconomic fallout of the pandemic, struggling with lost jobs, increased burdens of unpaid care work and domestic violence.
At the same time, the climate emergency raged on. Global energy-related CO2 emissions rose by 6 per cent in 2021. Based on current national commitments, global emissions are set to increase by almost 14 per cent over the current decade. Without immediate action, a climate catastrophe is looming.
We must get the SDGs on track and keep the goal of 1.5 degrees alive.
Distinguished Delegates,
The world is witnessing the highest number of violent conflicts since 1945. Approximately 2 billion people were living in conflict-affected countries by the end of 2020. Refugees and forced displacement are at the highest absolute number on record.
The onset of conflict in Ukraine, earlier this year, has caused food, fuel and fertilizer prices to skyrocket, further disrupted supply chains and global trade, caused distress in financial markets and brought implications for aid flows. Projected global economic growth for 2022 was cut by 0.9 percentage point against the projection of 4 per cent growth in the beginning of the year. Together with the refugee crisis, the impacts of the conflict may lead to a global food crisis, dealing a significant blow to SDG progress. Those with the highest exposure to the three-dimensional food, energy and financial crisis are being hit the hardest.
Excellencies,
An urgent rescue effort is needed to rapidly change course. We need a comprehensive response to these interlinked global crises and a renewed commitment to multilateralism and international cooperation as called for in Our Common Agenda. As Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has reminded us, “We know what to do. And, increasingly, we have the tools to do it. .
First, we must address the vaccine inequity and urgently redouble our efforts to tackle the pandemic and aim to vaccinate 70 per cent of people in all countries as soon as possible.
Second, we need to capitalize on the opportunity afforded by the recovery to adopt a low-carbon, resilient and inclusive development pathway.
Third, we need a full-scale transformation of the international financial and debt architecture. In the immediate term, concrete and coordinated action is needed to provide countries with adequate fiscal space and liquidity, including by re-channelling unused Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) to countries in need, providing effective debt relief and suspending or cancelling all IMF surcharges. In the longer term, we need to lower the cost of borrowing on the market, integrate disaster clauses into debt contracts to protect countries from future shocks, and align all forms of finance with the SDGs and Paris Agreement for Climate Action.
Fourth, creating a global economy that works for all will require a renewed social contract to rebuild trust between Governments and their people and a new global deal that strengthens international solidarity and the pooling of resources to deliver global public goods.
In all this, greater investment in data and strengthened data capabilities will be crucial. Only through data-informed decisions can we get ahead of crises and trigger earlier more effective responses that both attend to the present and build better for the future. Only with better disaggregated data can we ensure that these decisions and responses account for all sectors of society, leaving no one behind.
Ladies and gentlemen,
The challenges that we face today are real - but so are the solutions in the 2030 Agenda.
Together, let us make the decisions, form the partnerships, find the innovation, and take the actions needed to get the SDGs back on track.
I thank you.