Meanwhile, SDG Advocates and K-pop superstars BLACKPINK, appeared in a video message inviting the world to take specific actions to tackle climate change and boost sustainable development. UNICEF Ambassador Priyanka Chopra Jonas was in charge of hosting the event. She reminded the room that time is running out, as we are nearly halfway to the 2030 deadline to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.
A moment of great peril
“The world has a long ‘to do’ list”, António Guterres told world leaders, asking for more finance and investment from the public and private sectors, to meet growing needs.
“A world that is driven by a climate crisis cannot provide a sustainable future for us. Are we so arrogant to believe that there will be no failed societies and no extinct species, as history shows us otherwise?”, she asked world leaders.
The President of the General Assembly, Csaba Kőrösi, echoed Mr. Guterres’s words, and said that it was timely and more necessary than ever to “re-dedicate ourselves to the SDGs” as the world falls behind.
Solutions are at hand
The 2022 SDG Moment, which places an annual spotlight on the 17 Global Goals agreed by countries in December 2015, took place as the world faces a deepening cost-of-living crisis against the backdrop of the Ukraine war and the COVID-19 pandemic, which have halted development, especially in low-income countries.
“We cannot let them down. This is a definitive moment… The perils we face are no match for a world united…Let’s get our world back on track”, the UN chief urged world leaders.
A call to children
“The pandemic was a postcard from the future, a bleak future of interlocking global crises. One that we want to avoid and that we can avoid. We must now regain the speed lost to the pandemic and to our inaction. Solutions are at hand”, he said.
Acknowledging the current “moment of great peril” for our world – characterized by conflicts, climate catastrophe, division, unemployment, massive displacement and other challenges – Mr. Guterres said that although “it was tempting” to put long-term priorities to the side, development could not wait.
She urged the children of the world to “lead a revolution” in changing our habits to end plastic pollution and waste, and “hold the leaders’ feet to the fire” to make the world a better place to live in. Mr. Kőrösi added that it is time to “get serious” about saving the world, with all pleasant and unpleasant consequences that this entails, and asked UN Member States to deliver on promises made.
“We all deserve a just, safe, and healthy world to live in. The present and the future is on your hands”, she told the General Assembly.