A new report has been published on the progress towards meeting the targets of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals or SDGs, which commit countries to mobilize efforts to end all forms of poverty, fight inequalities and tackle climate change. Failure to meet the target on climate action jeopardizes progress in other areas.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said that while a “wealth of action” had been taken by governments across the world “the most vulnerable people and countries continue to suffer the most.”
The report tracks progress across 17 goals in the UN’s 193 Member States and largely takes a global view, however, while many trends regarding the SDGs are common to all regions, there are significant regional differences.
Launching the report at UN Headquarters at the start of the UN High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF), the UN Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) chief, Liu Zhenmin, said that the clock for taking decisive action on climate change is ticking. He stressed the importance of strengthening international cooperation and multilateral action.
WMO co-hosted an HLPF side event on understanding progress and implementation of the SDG 13 on Climate Action, providing an update on the current progress and activities. The side event brought together the climate, science, disaster risk reduction and statistical communities and representatives of the United Republic of Tanzania and the Federated States of Micronesia to focus efforts on advancing climate action. Paul Egerton, WMO Representative to the UN, briefed on the state of climate science, based on the recent WMO State of the Climate report and key climate indicators. Ovais Sarmad, Deputy Executive Secretary, UN Climate Change (UNFCCC), gave a keynote presentation.
Original source: WMO
Published on 12 July 2019
