United Nations Sustainable Development Summit 2015: Adopting New Goals for the Future

On September 25th a set of global goals to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure prosperity for all were adopted together with a new sustainable development agenda, during the United Nations summit, held from 25 to 27 September 2015, in New York.

E SDG Poster_A4.jpg
More detail about the UN SDGs is available here. This image is copyright of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. Permission for re-use is granted by the UN.

The 17 Sustainable Development Goals and 169 targets demonstrate the scale and ambition of the new universal Agenda. They seek to build on the Millennium Development Goals and complete what these did not achieve. They seek to realize the human rights of all and to achieve gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls. They are integrated and indivisible and balance the three dimensions of sustainable development: the economic, social and environmental.

Goal 13 "Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts" specifically targets climate change, including the following targets:

  • Strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-related hazards and natural disasters in all countries

  • Integrate climate change measures into national policies, strategies and planning

  • Improve education, awareness-raising and human and institutional capacity on climate change mitigation, adaptation, impact reduction and early warning

  • Implement the commitment undertaken by developed-country parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to a goal of mobilizing jointly $100 billion annually by 2020 from all sources to address the needs of developing countries in the context of meaningful mitigation actions and transparency on implementation and fully operationalize the Green Climate Fund through its capitalization as soon as possible

  • Promote mechanisms for raising capacity for effective climate change-related planning and management in least developed countries and small island developing States, including focusing on women, youth and local and marginalized communities

Print this article