Asia-Pacific may meet only one of 17 SDGs, warns UN-official
The Asia-Pacific region is on track to meet only one of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) -the SDG on education- by 2030, a senior UN official has warned. UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN ESCAP) Deputy Executive Secretary, Kaveh Zahedi, underscored that global success in achieving the 2030 development agenda is "highly reliant" on India's performance. Here's more.
What are SDGs?
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), otherwise known as the Global Goals, are a universal call by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) for action to end poverty, protect the planet, improve health, education, and ensuring that all people enjoy peace and prosperity by 2030.
Achieving only universal education in Asia-Pacific not enough: Zahedi
"While that is a great achievement - universal education in a region as vast as the Asia-Pacific - it is not enough," UN ESCAP's Kaveh Zahedi said. The senior UN official was in New York to participate in the High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) on Sustainable Development at UN headquarters last week that reviewed progress towards several of the SDGs.
UN official says the Asia-Pacific region is becoming more unequal
"We are highly reliant on India's success to demonstrate the global success on achieving the 2030 Agenda," Zahedi said, adding the same was dependant on the government's ambition and vision, money, and investment. He expressed concerns over Asia-Pacific region not achieving SDGs and instead "moving backwards" on inequality in health, education, income, social protection etc. besides the emerging "digital divide" within and between countries.
India undertaking transformation of energy mix towards renewable energy: Zahedi
Referring specifically to SDG on access to affordable and clean energy, Zahedi said while in the past 20 years access to energy has increased, access to clean fuel, especially clean cooking fuel, has not. About 2.2 billion in Asia-Pacific, mostly in China and India, still cook with traditional bio-mass-fuel. Zahedi, however, lauded India's efforts towards increasing renewable energy component in its overall energy mix.
Zahedi highlights urgent need for nations to speed up development-efforts
Zahedi said countries need to increase their investments to achieve the SDGs. "Regionally, we need an investment of up to $1.7 billion to achieve universal access to energy. It's an extraordinary investment...needed but it is not happening right now. We see that the major investments are not aligned with the SDGs," he said. He said economic growth alone will not bring the results.
Economic growth is important but not enough, says Zahedi
"Just economic growth will not help with sustainable and inclusive development. If we have a challenge...we cannot just grow out of that problem. We need to invest in overcoming that problem," Zahedi said. "Economic growth alone really will not resolve our problems. We have to see investments...in building the social safeguards, in building the resilience that will bring ultimately the SDGs success," he added.
