Italy, Spain and Turkey

ELEVENTH SESSION OF THE OPEN WORKING GROUP ON
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY

New York, 5-9 May 2014

JOINT STATEMENT FROM ITALY – SPAIN – TURKEY

Statement delivered by the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation. Secretary General of International Development Cooperation

Cluster 6: Sustainable Consumption and Production; Climate Change
Wednesday 7th May – afternoon session
FINAL VERSION

I have the honour to speak on behalf of Spain, Italy and Turkey.

Mister Co-Chair,

Regarding sustainable consumption and production, we believe it is a key element for sustainable development and essential for an inclusive and sustainable economic growth, therefore we welcome the considerations under the SCP as a focus area and we support to have it either as a possible stand-alone goal, or pervasively mainstreamed through other Goals.

SCP uses a “life-cycle perspective” as a mean of increasing the sustainable management of resources and achieving resource efficiency in all stages of the value chain.

SCP may contribute to achieve sustainability in many scopes: water and sanitation, food security and sustainable agriculture, energy, industrialization, material and pollution intensity of all production and consumption functions, management of natural resources, and even education. More efficient consumption and production processes also may mean the promotion of renewed opportunities to prevent and recover valuable materials from waste, as well as a higher potential for job creation and creating new markets, fair trade, green public and private procurement, sustainable housing and infrastructure, renewable energy and sustainable transport, among others. SCP is especially beneficial opportunity for some countries to bypass inefficient and polluting phases of development through the effective use of means of implementation and partnerships at all levels.

For these reasons, we specially welcome the targets a) b) and c). Although we believe that target a), on achieving sustainable management of natural resources sounds more as a Policy that as a concrete target, and has potential to be merged with other targets as (c).
Regarding target b), it could be read as follows: by 2030, reduce per capita waste by x% through prevention, reduction, re-use, recycling and other forms of recovery.

Moreover, we believe that SCP strongly involves a Sound management of Chemicals and Waste, and a possible target on this regard could be considered: Sound Management of Chemical and Waste would imply better coordination of interventions and would represent benefits not only in terms of environment and health but also poverty reduction.



Turning now to FA 12, and as mentioned at the last session, our group supports the idea of having climate change appropriately reflected at the post-2015 framework, but this should be done in a cross-cutting way at all relevant focus areas, and not as a single standalone Goal. It is important to avoid overlapping with the work being carried out under the UNFCCC process.

The Climate is however a planetary capital, like oceans or tropical forests. Since human activities negatively affect the climate, a universal target should be dedicated to the preservation of the global climate, preferably under the goal or goals devoted to the preservation of the natural capital of the planet. Targets b) through e) would serve this purpose.


Thank you very much Mr. Co-Chair