NOON BRIEFING HIGHLIGHTS

Spokesperson for General Assembly President Csaba Kőrösi
United Nations Headquarters, New York

Monday, 24 April 2023

MOTHER NATURE

The President of the General Assembly, Csaba Kőrösi, today called for a system of harmony with nature that balances the economic, social and environmental needs for us and for future generations.

That means we need to reinvent transformative solutions that are rooted in science, conducive to development, and sustainable.

Some of these solutions include creating a Beyond GDP system of measurements – that for example takes into account from the moment a tree is cut until the final touches are put on a new house.

The President also called for shifting away from a single-sector approach, and learn to take responsibility for global common goods.

The President made the remarks to the interactive dialogue among Member States on Harmony with Nature.’

You have his full remarks online and in your inboxes: https://www.un.org/pga/77/2023/04/24/pga-remarks-on-harmony-with-nature/

 

FOOD PRODUCTION

Related…

This morning, President Kőrösi addressed the Good Food Finance Week Leaders Dialogue.

He noted that food production is a major driver of climate change and the destruction of nature.

He called for reforming how we produce, transport, process, store, trade, invest in, regulate and consume food.

The President said that we are financing a food production system that is accumulating debts in terms of depleting natural capital.

We and our successors will have to pay them back in the form of increasing cost of production or declining quality.

The answer is not to decrease food production – quiet the opposite given the rising numbers of people going hungry.

His call is for doing more in a smarter way.

You have his full remarks online and in your inboxes: https://www.un.org/pga/77/2023/04/24/pga-remarks-to-good-food-finance-week-leaders-dialogue/

 

GLOBAL DIGITAL COMPACT

Also today, President Kőrösi spoke to the Global Digital Compact deep dive on data protection.

This is a series organized by the co-facilitators of the Global Digital Compact – Ambassador Anna Karin Enestrom, the Permanent Representative of Sweden, and Ambassador Claver Gatet, the Permanent Representative of Rwanda.

If you listened or read through the President’s remarks, you might be surprised to see how heavily skewed they are on gender and the inequalities and challenges that women face online.

That’s because the President’s remarks include recommendations from his Advisory Board on Gender Equality.

As part of his recommendations, the President urged deliberating Member States to study and harness the Agreed Conclusions that came out of the Commission on the Status of Women, calling it a blueprint for action.

Saying that for the Global Digital Compact to be successful, it must empower half of humanity that is often excluded, or frequently subject to systematic abuse.

You have his full remarks online and in your inboxes: https://www.un.org/pga/77/2023/04/24/pga-remarks-on-global-digital-compact/

 

YOUNG LEADERS

Later his afternoon, President Kőrösi will meet with the 17 Young Leaders for the Sustainable Development Goals.

This is an initiative from the Office of the UN Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth.

 

TUESDAY’S SCHEDULE

Looking to tomorrow…

At 9AM in the Trusteeship Chamber, President Kőrösi will deliver opening remarks at the 2023 United Nations Economic and Social Council Youth Form under the theme, “Accelerating the COVID-19 recovery and full implementation of the 2030 Agenda with and for youth”.

At 10AM ET in the GA Hall, there will be a plenary meeting on a presentation on the International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism on Syria.

At 3PM ET, there will be a briefing by the Secretary-General on his Special Edition report on “Progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals”.

 

QUESTIONS

There were no questions for the Spokesperson.