Why this Week Is Huge for Climate Action

Events ranging from the United Nations’ sustainability assembly to climate change rallies on the National Mall are all happening over the course of this week, in coordination with Pope Francis’ visit to the United States.

This week the United Nations is meeting to adopt a new 15-year plan for sustainable development.  The plan outlines 17 broad goals and 169 specific targets to end world poverty, improve health and education, ensure gender and racial equality for all, implement sustainable building and agricultural practices in impoverished countries, conserve world oceans, and take urgent action to combat climate change.  These Sustainable Development Goals replace the previously developed Millennium Development Goals and are intended to be achieved by 2030.

Right now there are no specific plans on how to measure the progress of each target.  The goals will be discussed at the Sustainable Development Summit scheduled to take place September 25 to 27, preceding the annual U.N. general assembly on September 28 in New York City.
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The goals clearly emphasize the need to connect the impacts of climate change to gender and racial equality — specifically women in developing and impoverished countries.  With women often being charged with providing critical resources such as food and water, as well as making up the majority of the agricultural workforce, sustainability movements have been pushing the importance of women’s rights in the realm of environmental protection.

“I urge partners across the world to embrace the ambition embodied in the new set of goals.  I look forward to working together to deliver on the unfinished MDG commitments, tackle inequality and meet the new challenges that have emerged across the three dimensions of sustainable development — economic, social and environmental,” Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said at a press conference in New York on September 18.

Read more at Why this Week Is Huge for Climate Action