UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY 78 DRAFT RESOLUTION ON THE POLITICAL DECLARATION OF THE HIGH-LEVEL POLITICAL FORUM ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT - CANZ JOINT STATEMENT
29 September 2023
Statement by HE James Larsen, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Australia to the United Nations
I have the honour of delivering this statement on behalf of Canada, New Zealand, and my own country, Australia.
I would like to start by recognising the Permanent Representatives of Ireland and Qatar and their teams, for their efforts in facilitating this Political Declaration.
CANZ is staunchly committed to protecting, promoting, and advancing the 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals both domestically, and through our international development programs.
For CANZ, last week’s SDG Summit represented a crucial milestone in our shared agenda.
The Summit marked the halfway point in trying to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, which we all agreed to eight years ago.
And with only 15 percent of targets on track, it is clear that we are far behind where we need to be to meet the commitments we have made to our own populations and to one another.
The health of our planet, our people, our institutions, the wellbeing of all our populations, and indeed our global economy are all at serious risk.
This is why this political declaration is so important.
It is a moment for all Member States to re-commit to the spirit and substance of the 2030 Agenda, and to double down on implementation of all 17 Sustainable Development Goals.
It is therefore disappointing that some Member States used this negotiation to try to roll-back hard-fought agreement on critical issues such as climate ambition, gender equality, health, and the very foundations of the 2030 Agenda as underpinned by respect for human rights and international law.
And that the perspectives, priorities and needs of all peoples, including Indigenous and First Nations Peoples, were not given sufficient consideration.
As a result, we regret that the political declaration displays unequal ambition across the three pillars of sustainable development.
The great wisdom of the 2030 Agenda is in recognising the connection between different aspects of social and economic development and environmental protection – and how together they enable prosperity and peace.
The relationship between gender equality and sustainable development is a clear example of this.
If we closed the gender gap in economic participation, we would add at least twelve trillion US dollars a year to global GDP.
In other words, closing the gender gap would generate three times more money than the estimated amount needed to achieve the SDGs.
And yet, some Member States staunchly opposed efforts to recognize the critical importance of creating an enabling environment to achieve gender equality, through eliminating sexual and gender-based violence, and through meeting our commitment – a commitment specified in the 2030 Agenda itself – to provide sexual and reproductive health-care services.
We all invested years in negotiating the 2030 Agenda.
It provides an irreplaceable normative framework for collective global action.
All member states have a duty to protect and deliver on what we have agreed.
As we move towards 2030, CANZ remains fully committed to fulfilling our shared commitments to achieve sustainable development for all, and leave no one behind.