CSO Statement on Environment and Sustainable Development (Written statement)
Delivered by Ms Vishaish Uppal, WWF India on behalf of :
Centre for Environment Action and Development
Horn of Africa - Regional Environment Centre/Network, Addis Ababa University
International Association of Applied Psychology/World Council of Psychotherapy
IUCN
Sustainable World Initiative
Tinker Institute on International Law and Organizations (T.I.I.L.O.)
TNC
United Nations Major Group of Children and Youth (MGCY)
WWF
We congratulate Member States and the Co-Facilitators for your progress towards this historic “global compact for human development and the conservation of the planet”.
We now urge Member States to:
1) Place poverty eradication and sustainable development as the overarching objectives of this agenda.
The Declaration must communicate an agenda of interlinked challenges and solutions. Poverty eradication and sustainable development must be tackled together for either to succeed.
Paragraph 3 should therefore begin: “This agenda is the international community’s commitment to poverty eradication and sustainable development”, followed by Member States’ commitment to eradicate extreme poverty and address poverty in all its forms and dimensions.
2) Better recognize that a healthy natural environment underpins human wellbeing.
Environmental issues are often isolated in the draft Declaration. We believe that :
• Paragraph 15, line 2 should read : “We envisage a world free of poverty, hunger, disease, and want, where all life can thrive.”
• Paragraph 24, lines 1 and 2 should read : “We will seek to build strong economic foundations for all our countries, including through the preservation of the natural resource base. Sustained and inclusive economic growth progress is essential for prosperity.”
• Paragraph 25 should read: We commit to making fundamental changes in the way that our societies produce and consume goods and services to minimize social and environmental impacts. Governments, international organizations, the business sector, other non-state actors and individuals must contribute to changing unsustainable consumption and production patterns. We recognize our different levels of development and capabilities and agree to work together to mobilize, from all sources, financial, technical and capacity-building support for developing countries.
Note : We suggest reversing the order of the last two sentences
• Paragraph 26, line 3 should read: “We will reduce the negative impacts of urban activities, including through...more efficient sustainable use of water and energy.”
• Paragraph 27 is currently heavily focused on climate change, with just passing reference to other critical environmental issues. We suggest creating a new paragraph 27 bis to better speak to the role the natural resource base plays in human development.
New paragraph 27 should read : “We recognise our inherent dependency on the planet’s natural resources, which provide all our needs for food, water, energy and shelter -- indeed all material goods – and that these form the underlying foundations for all our development. We recognise that nature and the services it provides underpin economic and human development. The sustainable management of our natural resource base is essential to ensure economic development, social well-being and poverty eradication. We must also safeguard our oceans and seas, protect biodiversity and ecosystems, and promote resilience and disaster preparedness, and emphasize cooperation in shared management of transboundary natural resources.”
• Paragraph 28 should include the equitable and participatory governance of natural resources.
3) Commit to implement the full set of 17 Goals and 169 targets. Each country must work towards the achievement of all targets, through domestic action and contributions to regional and global efforts. The SDGs should not be taken as a « pick-and-choose » menu.
Thank you.
