Csaba Kőrösi, President of the 77th session of the General Assembly
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Science Day at HPLF 2023
15 July 2023
(As delivered)
I am here to rock the boat.
So, dear friends,
Dear colleagues,
Excellencies,
I’m so happy to see this event coming alive, and many, many thanks to all of you for making it to New York.
As we have heard, we are at the halfway point of the time frame designed for the implementation of the SDGs and we are badly off track.
We are still in game.
That is good news.
But the game needs to change urgently.
It’s not only the speed, not only the ambition – but the whole game.
Human activities exceeded six of the nine planetary boundaries.
Inequalities are on the rise.
Social and financial stabilities in many countries are weakened, seriously undermined, and we are facing the most complex set of crises since the World War II.
What is hindering the implementation of SDGs?
As you are scientists, used to thinking in terms of systems, let’s start from where we are now.
We inherited accumulated resources, and they are accelerated.
We inherited transformative goals.
That is good news.
But we inherited also mostly old-fashioned policies, mostly old-fashioned market regulations, mostly old-fashioned financial incentives, mostly old-fashioned institutions, national and international-wide, and on the other hand, rapidly changing technologies and science.
So, we expect transformation from this combination of components.
It is not surprising that transformation is happening much slower than what we wish to see.
So, what is needed to significantly accelerate the sustainability transformation?
Let me offer you seven points.
Seven suggestions.
One. Create national transformation strategies based on SDGs. Not all our countries have done so.
Two. Align regulations with announced goals. We know there are in many cases contradicted to each other.
Three. Learn how to calculate all important externalities of actions or inactions – in short terms, go beyond GDP.
Four. Learn how to better evaluate the impacts of our investments by reducing negative externalities across all three pillars of sustainability. In other words, go beyond GDP, translated into the language of finances.
Five. Identify and prioritize on game changing elements in the SDG implementation. It’s not enough to make the same a bit faster. We need to change the game and we need to focus on the real game changer elements.
Six. Build a transparent roadmap of implementation. We have seven and a half years ahead. That’s what remains.
Seven. Improve science-based validation mechanism of implementation because, for the time being, the picture what we are getting from member states is based on reports.
And reports are based on various aspects, not standardized, and not necessarily science-based language.
For this, we need robust scientific support that does not exist in the UN for the time being.
We must modernize our pipeline from science to policy, and back.
So, engaging science must be a two-way-traffic, in the UN and in the Member States.
Policymakers must make it clear where they see the greatest challenges, and scientists must provide evidence-based options for solving these challenges and clear indications of the expectable impacts of action or lack of action.
This approach should help us to address root causes rather than symptoms, to remove barriers that have impeded our progress, and to be proactive rather than reactive.
The political decisions are and will have to be taken by politicians.
Scientists cannot step into their shoes, cannot take their responsibilities.
It would not work anyway.
But they, scientists, can and must be part of the decision-shaping, with their best knowledge, data and analysis.
It applies to the implementation of all SDGs.
It applies to the whole sustainability transformation that we badly need.
At the UN and the GA in particular – GA, sorry it is UN speak: General Assembly – we have to broaden the general knowledge about the challenges we are attempting to tackle because, to quote Carl Sagan, “We are in very bad trouble if we don’t understand the planet we are trying to save.”
Science, at its core, is based on reliable data.
Data we desperately need to make the necessary changes.
Changes to how we manage our resources, how we monitor our progress, and how we validate the implementation of the SDGs.
Stephen Hawking once said “We cannot really argue with a mathematical theory.”
Translated to our UN speak – it means that, especially in our times of mutual mistrust, it is much easier to establish a shared knowledge base for our deliberations, from irrefutable scientific facts, than from diverging political opinions.
In a logical world, evidence beats ideology, but we know it is not an ideal world.
Still, I’m proud to say that throughout this session we have made strides in bridging the gap between research and policy.
My team has worked to ensure that politicians from around the globe recognize the relevance and benefit of science in decision-shaping.
We have conducted Science Briefings, and many thanks to you who participated, recognizing the need for a shared knowledge repository and supportive Member States, taking initiatives to drive our efforts forward.
The recent establishment of the Group of Friends of Science Production, co-chaired by Belgium, India and South Africa – many thanks for them – has given us momentum to enhance the role of science in decisions-shaping in the UN, particularly in the General Assembly.
Moreover, led by Serbia, a Group of countries has initiated a process to launch a decade of science for sustainability, allowing us to clearly define the scientific mechanisms required for our deliberations.
This is progress.
The effective, innovative, and transformative knowledge we need is out there. It exists.
We just need to listen, to, harness it, and use it when we shape decisions.
So, we have the necessary tools.
We still lack the shared, open and free system to use our tools.
But they are excellent platforms, organizations, and people working on that – many of them in this room, here, today.
Thank you for being here.
I hope today’s meeting will help us pool our resources towards the common aim to make science an unavoidable component of shaping decisions on sustainability transformation.
Thank you very much.
