Major European countries have pledged to keep the Paris climate agreement on track amid “wavering” world commitment in a new development consensus agreed between the EU’s member states.
“These are challenging times. The global commitment to the sustainable development goals – to climate action, to solidarity – this seems to be wavering globally. The significance of this new European consensus on development becomes much bigger than the sum of its parts because of this global questioning of climate action and even the sustainable development goals,” Neven Mimica, European commissioner for international cooperation and development.
The consensus sets out a framework for the overall direction of European development policy, but for some nations the commitments do not go far enough.
“Sweden would have wished for an even more progressive consensus. But we think it’s good. The EU really needs to step forward and showcase the importance of women’s rights and girls’ rights. In the world of today sexual and reproductive rights are being threatened. So we would have wanted stronger language on rights in general. And climate change [is] the biggest threat we face now, with the potential to roll back a lot of the development that we’ve seen. We need to start working and get this into practice,” Ulrika Modéer, Sweden’s development minister.
The agreement included a commitment that all states will reach the UN target of 0.7% of GDP going to overseas development assistance by 2030.
Source: The Guardian. Read full article here.
9 June, 2017
