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World leaders at UN pledge to end poverty

“Any harm done to the environment“, the pope said, “is harm done to humanity”.

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The UN’s new Global Goals are a major landmark in our fight against global poverty and people in the United Kingdom can be proud of Britain’s leading role in securing these goals.

As many would know, India has fallen short of meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

The 15-year objectives aiming to create conditions for sustainable growth and shared peace and prosperity replace the previous United Nations action plan, the Millennium Development Goals. They aren’t mentioned in the SDGs, yet the power of corporations is fundamental to the staggering levels of inequality which afflict the world, and are at the centre of an economic model quite prepared to burn the planet in its drive for ever more profit.

Other national leaders stressed more aspects of the SDGs in their speeches at the summit.

The statement came as the Kenyan president was speaking at the UN Summit for the Adoption of the Post-2015 Development Agenda, a three-day United Nations event which kicked off here Friday morning.

“Africa has the weakest institutions and infrastructures in order to cope with the impact of climate change“, Sarah Hearn, a senior fellow at NYU’s Center on worldwide Cooperation told RFI.

Critics say they are too broad, lack accountability and will lead to disenchantment among those in the world most in need of hope.

Xi said that China would also relieve debts owed by least developed countries this year.

It would be unfortunate if we traveled back in time to the era before we recognized the value of country-specific knowledge, country ownership of development efforts and aid aligning with recipients’ specific strategies and priorities.

The 2015 Sustainable Development Summit. “We can not permit ourselves to postpone “certain agendas” for the future”, said Pope Francis.

Millions of refugees and migrants are fleeing “raw terror and violence”, Merkel said, before adding: “We must tackle the causes of flight”.

Mr Xi said China would act “by putting justice before interests and joining other countries in a concerted effort to realise the post-2015 agenda”.

Hearn agreed with Merkel that the 2030 Agenda has the potential to help in the long run.

Ban made a major pitch to the private sector Saturday for its help in financing the development goals.

“It is a deficit in the framework that there was no reference to the burgeoning humanitarian crisis around the world”, she said. “It’s totally irrational”. It is expected that it will also positively influence the negotiations towards a new, meaningful and universal agreement on climate change in Paris this December.

Of the adoption of the goals, he said, “The simplest and best measure and indicator of the implementation of the new agenda for development will be effective, practical and immediate access, on the part of all, to essential material and spiritual goods: housing, dignified and properly remunerated employment, adequate food and drinking water; religious freedom and, more generally, spiritual freedom and education”. Tony Pipa said he is hopeful, “I think this is an incredibly optimistic moment…”

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What we are asking for is that political hypocrisy should be avoided after adopting the new goals, both locally and globally.

UN Sustainable Development Goals Everything you need to know