Excellencies,Distinguished Participants,Ladies and Gentlemen,
It gives me great pleasure to participate in this important event. My sincere gratitude to the Director-General of UNIDO and the Executive Director of UNHABITAT, for hosting this event in collaboration with the Governments of Kenya and Turkey, at the margins of the Secretary-General’s Climate Action Summit and the SDG Summit of the UN General Assembly.
Raising ambition and accelerating actions toward the SDGs and addressing climate change requires concerted, stepped-up efforts by all stakeholders. Among them – and directly relevant to our theme tonight – is promoting sustainable urban and peri-urban development.
Cities offer many opportunities. Smart cities are the center of innovation, through:a) effective urban public transport systems,b) rapid scale-up of renewable energy and energy efficiency,c) the efficient provision of healthcare and other basic services, andd) the promotion of businesses and jobs aligned to the SDGs.
The scope of this opportunity is immense. At current trends, cities will contain approximately 70 per cent of the world’s population and they will produce 85 per cent of global economic output by 2050.
Without significant change, the human and environmental impact of cities is staggeringly high. They are producing solid wastes at increasing rates – 2 billion tons in 2016 – with only 65 per cent of the urban population having access to solid waste management.
Cities are responsible for 70 per cent of the global greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels. They will need to become carbon neutral if the world is to achieve the targets set out in the Paris Agreement.
That is why the transition to sustainable energy for all urban needs is so critical.
Next year’s Vienna Energy Forum, co-hosted by UNIDO in partnership with DESA and others will provide an excellent platform for mobilizing further actions.Ladies and Gentlemen,
We at UN DESA focus on ensuring the synergistic implementation of more ambitious climate action and the sustainable development agenda as a whole.
We are developing a dynamic knowledge platform building on the outcomes of the first global conference on synergies between the 2030 Agenda and the Paris Agreement, which was held in Copenhagen last April.
We have been developing a strong partnership with local and regional governments. In fact, tomorrow, the 2nd High-Level Local and Regional Governments Forum will be held at the United Nations. It is Co-hosted by the Governments of Cameroon and Morocco, and organized by DESA, UN-Habitat, Local 2030 and the Global Taskforce of Local and Regional Governments. The Forum will showcase the good practices and acceleration commitments from mayors, governors and local leaders from all over the world. I also want to take this opportunity to invite you to our SDG Pavilion at COP25 in Chile to showcase best practices.
Next year, we look forward to meeting you at the global sustainable transport Conference and the global ocean Conference, where I shall be serving as Secretary-General for both Conferences, to promote synergistic implementation of the SDGs.
We will certainly explore some of these issues in greater detail in these, and other meetings, over the year.
Let me once more reiterate my sincere appreciation to UNIDO and UNHABITAT for organizing this wonderful event and I wish you all a fruitful dialogue.
Good night and thank you.
It gives me great pleasure to participate in this important event. My sincere gratitude to the Director-General of UNIDO and the Executive Director of UNHABITAT, for hosting this event in collaboration with the Governments of Kenya and Turkey, at the margins of the Secretary-General’s Climate Action Summit and the SDG Summit of the UN General Assembly.
Raising ambition and accelerating actions toward the SDGs and addressing climate change requires concerted, stepped-up efforts by all stakeholders. Among them – and directly relevant to our theme tonight – is promoting sustainable urban and peri-urban development.
Cities offer many opportunities. Smart cities are the center of innovation, through:a) effective urban public transport systems,b) rapid scale-up of renewable energy and energy efficiency,c) the efficient provision of healthcare and other basic services, andd) the promotion of businesses and jobs aligned to the SDGs.
The scope of this opportunity is immense. At current trends, cities will contain approximately 70 per cent of the world’s population and they will produce 85 per cent of global economic output by 2050.
Without significant change, the human and environmental impact of cities is staggeringly high. They are producing solid wastes at increasing rates – 2 billion tons in 2016 – with only 65 per cent of the urban population having access to solid waste management.
Cities are responsible for 70 per cent of the global greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels. They will need to become carbon neutral if the world is to achieve the targets set out in the Paris Agreement.
That is why the transition to sustainable energy for all urban needs is so critical.
Next year’s Vienna Energy Forum, co-hosted by UNIDO in partnership with DESA and others will provide an excellent platform for mobilizing further actions.Ladies and Gentlemen,
We at UN DESA focus on ensuring the synergistic implementation of more ambitious climate action and the sustainable development agenda as a whole.
We are developing a dynamic knowledge platform building on the outcomes of the first global conference on synergies between the 2030 Agenda and the Paris Agreement, which was held in Copenhagen last April.
We have been developing a strong partnership with local and regional governments. In fact, tomorrow, the 2nd High-Level Local and Regional Governments Forum will be held at the United Nations. It is Co-hosted by the Governments of Cameroon and Morocco, and organized by DESA, UN-Habitat, Local 2030 and the Global Taskforce of Local and Regional Governments. The Forum will showcase the good practices and acceleration commitments from mayors, governors and local leaders from all over the world. I also want to take this opportunity to invite you to our SDG Pavilion at COP25 in Chile to showcase best practices.
Next year, we look forward to meeting you at the global sustainable transport Conference and the global ocean Conference, where I shall be serving as Secretary-General for both Conferences, to promote synergistic implementation of the SDGs.
We will certainly explore some of these issues in greater detail in these, and other meetings, over the year.
Let me once more reiterate my sincere appreciation to UNIDO and UNHABITAT for organizing this wonderful event and I wish you all a fruitful dialogue.
Good night and thank you.
File date:
Monday, 九月 23, 2019