Message #57517

[Psalm 51:17]

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=50758#.VUqlgY7F9GY
INTERVIEW: UN adviser stresses 2015 critical to setting world on safer, more prosperous path

4 May 2015 – To say that 2015 is a big year for sustainable development may be an understatement given that, over the course of six months beginning in July, countries have the OPPORTUNITY to take decisions that will determine the global course of action to end poverty, promote prosperity, protect the environment and ADDRESS climate change.

“This year is a unique opportunity for our generation to set clear goals and clear pathways to a safer, better, more prosperous world,” says economist Jeffrey Sachs, who is Special Adviser to the United Nations Secretary-General on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a set of global anti-poverty TARGETS that were supposed to be achieved by 2015.

In an interview with the UN News Centre, the internationally renowned development expert explains why it is urgent for the world to change direction and embark on a more sustainable path, what he hopes countries will achieve during this critical year, and what it will take to truly end poverty – which he stresses is not just an economic challenge but a moral one. The interview has been edited for content and clarity.Governments have to achieve a new vision – that is the vision of sustainable development, which means combining economic development, social inclusion and environmental sustainability.

UN News Centre: The UN has dubbed 2015 the time for global action for people and the planet. Why is this year so crucial?

Jeffrey Sachs: This is the big year for sustainable development. It’s happened for various diplomatic reasons that everything’s converging in 2015. We have of course the adoption of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) in September 2015. That was a decision taken BACK in 2012 at the 20th anniversary of the Rio Earth Summit – that we would have SDGs. With the Millennium Development Goals ending, the new sustainable development goals will be adopted in September.

Then, because of the setbacks in Copenhagen way back in 2009 on the climate negotiations, a new timetable was set to reach a good, solid agreement, and it was decided that that would be December 2015 – same year, almost back-to-back with the sustainable development goals. So the world heads to COP21 – the 21st Conference of the Parties – in Paris in late November, early December.

Then countries said, well if we’re going to implement all of this, how are we going to paying for it? We need FINANCING for sustainable development. And a third high-level meeting was put on the agenda in Addis Ababa in July – the Conference on Financing for Development.

Well that’s an amazing line-up – July, September, December – that gives us a chance to change direction in the world to adopt sustainable development as a true operating principle for the planet. It’s urgent that we change direction and this year is a unique OPPORTUNITY for our generation to set clear goals and clear pathways to a safer, better, more prosperous world.