Ladies and gentlemen,

I am pleased to join you today on behalf of the Secretary-General.

At the halfway mark of the 2030 Agenda’s implementation, a dangerous and growing divergence now threatens development prospects.

The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated inequalities among and within countries, in part due to vaccine and fiscal inequities that are not only leaving—but pushing—developing countries behind.

At the same time, more frequent and intense climate-related shocks pose a growing threat to the development prospects of vulnerable countries.

In 2022, the outlook for the world economy remains highly fragile amid rising inflation rates, the ongoing pandemic, and emerging geopolitical crises, in particular the evolving crisis in Ukraine and its implications over energy and food prices.

These challenges require us to stand together and work in solidarity as suggested by the Secretary-General in his Common Agenda Report to build a truly resilient, fair, and sustainable world.

Our Common Agenda encapsulates the Secretary-General’s vision of a strong multilateral system — one able to generate the systemic changes required to link economic prosperity with social and environmental well-being.

Drawing on the recommendations of the report the following areas call for urgent action:

First, supercharging just transitions in our food systems and energy. Building sustainable and resilient food systems everywhere is urgent, as we can see from the impacts of the Ukraine crisis causing skyrocketing wheat prices. These transitions will depend on partnerships as a scale never witnessed before.

Solutions for more sustainable food systems would have significant impacts on improving food security, better health and nutrition outcomes, reducing emissions and protecting our planet’s biodiversity.

We must seize the opportunities offered by renewable energy.

Fossil fuels are a dead end – for our planet, for humanity and for our economies and we must make peace with nature.

The latest IPCC report is an atlas of human suffering, to quote the Secretary General. We must urgently scale up and speed up investments in the protection of people and ecosystems on the frontlines of the climate crisis.

Second, renewing the social contract. This means securing effective and adequate public investment in people – in social protection systems; in transformed education systems; in universal health coverage and in decent work. It means tackling discrimination, intolerance and the power imbalances at the root of gender inequality. And it means strengthening public institutions and boosting public participation – for all segments of society and especially our young people.

Third, reforming the global financial system. That means tackling weaknesses in the international debt architecture to avoiding a global debt crisis; addressing financing gaps and boosting liquidity to respond, recover and stimulate growth; and aligning public and private financing flows to drive a support a just transition to a low-carbon world.

Only by taking action simultaneously across all of these areas of work can we bring about the balance between economy, society and environment that is at the very core of the 2030 Agenda.
Your ideas and leadership are essential.

I wish you a fruitful discussion and look forward to the innovative policy solutions this summit will propose. 

Thank you.