Ministry Statements & Speeches:
Thank you, Chair and good morning colleagues. I am honoured to deliver this Statement on behalf of Canada, Australia and my own country New Zealand.
CANZ remains steadfast in our commitment to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals. It sets out a transformative agenda for people, planet and prosperity that aims to leave no one behind.
We place great stock in the substance of the Sustainable Development Goals and believe that realisation of the SDGs is essential to creating conditions for peace, just as peace is a precondition for development and progress.
CANZ has five key points.
First, this Session should reflect the outcomes of recent intergovernmental processes. This will allow us to reduce inefficiency and deliver truly impactful and progressive outcomes for the communities we serve.
Second, we must provide effective direction for the UN Development System’s work addressing serious environmental challenges.
The impacts of climate change – including through extreme weather events, natural hazards and environmental degradation – continue to undermine hard-won development gains, especially for vulnerable countries at the frontlines of the climate crisis.
CANZ reiterates the need for ambition in Second Committee resolutions. We cannot walk back our commitment to addressing this pressing global challenge. We must honour our commitments to the Paris Agreement and accelerate mitigation and adaptation efforts, and our actions should be based on the best available science and knowledge, including Indigenous knowledge.
Third, we must build on the important progress made to support Small Island Developing states, including through effective implementation of the Antigua and Barbuda Agenda for SIDS.
Fourth, we reiterate that gender equality is essential for the freedom and wellbeing of all women and girls. Gender-responsive sustainable development efforts are critical in regaining lost ground, and in advancing us further. We simply cannot achieve sustainable development without gender equality.
And finally, CANZ wants to see Member States implement the commitments of resolution 80/251 and Second Committee revitalization in the resolutions under this item.
That means streamlining texts, greater discipline, clarity and brevity in creating mandates, supported by concept notes, and introducing mandate review clauses and retirement clauses.
This is not simply a box ticking exercise, the tools that Member States agreed to use in 80/251 will support better accountability for the promises we make and increase the likelihood of the UN system truly implementing the mandates we negotiate.
I thank you Chair.