NEW YORK — World leaders will gather at the United Nations in New York City this weekend to adopt the Sustainable Development Goals and take part in a special side-meeting on climate change organized by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
Climate and development are inextricably linked and more action is urgently needed in both areas, according to 350.org Executive Director May Boeve, who issued the following statement ahead of this weekend’s events:
“There is no development on a dead planet. The Sustainable Development Goals will remain a list of empty promises if world leaders do not also commit to ambitious action to tackle the climate crisis. The text of the goals recognizes as much, expressing serious concern about the gap between current pledges to reduce emissions and the actions that science and justice demand.
The goals may be signed here in New York, but they’ll only be truly ratified in Paris, when world leaders must commit to fund a rapid transition away from fossil fuels and towards 100% renewable energy. Rich countries, who are responsible for the bulk of emissions, must move first and farthest, ending fossil fuel subsidies, fulfilling their pledge of $100 billion a year of climate finance, and helping mobilize trillions towards the clean energy revolution.
Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and tackling the climate crisis go hand in hand. The transition to clean energy will create hundreds of millions of jobs around the world and bring energy access and other critical resources to the communities who need them most. People are already leading the way–now it’s time for our leaders to follow.”
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