New Delhi: Ahead of the G20 Summit to be held here on September 9-10, a group of international organisations has written a letter to all leaders of the intergovernmental forum to take urgent action to accelerate the process of meeting the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
“We are writing to you ahead of the G20 leaders’ summit to request your urgent action,” the letter read. “For the first time in a generation, the number of people living in extreme poverty is rising.”
It was signed by Friederike Roder, vice-president of advocacy at Global Citizen, Amy Dodd, policy director at the ONE Campaign, Eloise Todd, executive director and co-founder of Pandemic Action Network, and Ronan Palmer, associate director for clean economy at E3G.
"The impacts of climate change, unsustainable debt burdens, pandemic threats, and increasing food insecurity have left too many people in the world facing multiple and overlapping challenges," added the letter, dated September 5. “The world is in crisis and needs the G20 to deliver on their self-stated role as the 'premier' forum for international economic cooperation."
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The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by all United Nations member states in 2015, provides a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet. At its heart are the 17 SDGs, which are an urgent call for action by all countries – developed and developing – in a global partnership. They recognise that ending poverty and other deprivations must go hand-in-hand with strategies that improve health and education, reduce inequality, and spur economic growth – all while tackling climate change and working to preserve our oceans and forests.
The joint letter from the organisations stated that the forthcoming leaders’ summit "must be a moment of action, urgency, and inclusion". "This is a moment in history that requires leadership and ambition to finance our future and save our people and planet," it stated.
Calling for the fast-tracking of reforms in multilateral development banks (MDBs), it further stated: "MDBs play a crucial role in achieving the UN Global Goals (or Sustainable Development Goals, SDGs), ending poverty, and tackling climate change. The G20’s own Independent Expert Group in 2023 emphasised their importance and the need to right-size them with a triple agenda, including tripling MDB financing. To this end, the G20, as shareholders of the MDBs, should instruct MDBs to rapidly and fully implement the G20 MDB Capital Adequacy Framework (CAF) review recommendations in order to leverage additional lending room.”
The organisations also called for “immediate meaningful transparency and action” on meeting the goal of $100 billion needed for climate finance while pointing out that this is already three years overdue this year.
"To this end, all donors and countries providing international climate finance need to commit to reporting their full data set for 2021 and 2022, and give an outline of prospective pledges for 2023, 2024, and 2025 to the OECD before COP28,” the letter stated.
The organisations also stated that ending the use of fossil fuels requires global action and time-bound ambition. “G20 leaders must commit to and set out how they plan to phase out fossil fuel subsidies by 2025 or sooner and work to ensure that fossil fuel subsidies are reinvested in clean, just, and sustainable energy systems, and green recoveries to support the poorest and most vulnerable.”
The other issues the letter highlighted are tackling the global hunger crisis and pandemic preparedness in the wake of COVID-19. The world’s eyes will be on New Delhi in connection with what decisions the G20 will take in terms of meeting the SDGs.
A Seven-Year Action Plan issued following the G20 Development Ministers’ Meeting in Varanasi in June this year stated that the Group’s comparative advantage lies in its convening power and its collective ability to adopt and support initiatives at the highest global level, including those that involve macro-economic framework, and to create the global enabling environment, that will help achieve the 2030 Agenda and its SDGs.
“The 2023 Action Plan will be focusing on actions in the areas that would have a transformative impact on accelerating progress towards achievement of all SDGs – including digital transformation; gender equality and empowerment of women; and implementing sustainable, inclusive and just transitions globally, while leaving no one behind,” the statement read.
“This approach would help address challenges faced especially by developing countries, including bottlenecks in financing for development and will feed into the (Indian) Presidency’s goal of discussions on the G20 Green Development Pact as a leaders’ deliverable aimed to foster strong collective actions for powering sustainable development, climate and environment actions in an interconnected manner around the world.”
Addressing the G20 Development Ministers’ Meeting, Prime Minister Narendra Modi emphasised that it is the collective responsibility of the people to not let the SDGs fall behind. He further added that the Global South must send a strong message to the world about the action plan required to achieve this.
“We should increase investment in fulfilling the SDGs and find solutions to address the debt risk faced by many countries," Modi said. He also stressed that gender equality and women’s empowerment are crucial to achieving the SDGs.
In a world where the challenges of climate change, poverty, inequality, and environmental degradation loom large, the global community finds itself at a pivotal crossroads. The SDGs have emerged as a beacon of hope, offering a comprehensive roadmap to a more equitable and sustainable future for all. Now, as the international community grapples with the urgency of these issues, the G20 nations stand poised to take centre stage in the collective pursuit of a better world.
Championing the SDGs enhances a nation's global reputation and soft power. In the summit this weekend in New Delhi, India, holding the G20 Presidency has a never-before opportunity to prove that it is committed to meeting the UN’s 2030 agenda.
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