Search results for: Sustainable

The United Nations Committee on Sustainable Development (UNCSD) hold their second session of the Preparatory Committee (PrepCom 2) at UN HQ in New York on March 7-8, 2011. This meeting marks the begining of the Zero Draft version of "The Future We Want" report which forms the basis for the the 2015 Sustainable Development Goals, along with "the scope of a green economy" which is adopted in the June 2012 second Earth Summit. [1, 2, 3, 4,]

The United Nations convened the first World Data Forum (UNWDF) in Cape Town, South Africa on January 15-18, 2017, which has become an annual event.  At the conclusion of the first event, "the Cape Town Global Action Plan for Sustainable Development Data was launched" [1, 2, 3, 6] "The Forum was organized with the guidance of the UN Statistical Commission and the support of the UN Statistics Division of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) and the High-level Group for Partnership, Coordination and Capacity-Building for statistics for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (HLG)." This platform was used "for intensifying cooperation with various professional groups, such as national statistical offices (NSOs), information technology and geospatial information managers, and data scientists among other representatives of government, intergovernmental organizations and civil society." [4]  With "particular focus on addressing the monitoring needs of the 2030 Agenda" "The decision to organize a series of UN World Data Forums followed a recommendation in the report titled, “A World That Counts: Mobilising the Data Revolution for Sustainable Development,” [6] which was presented in November 2014 by the UN Secretary-General’s Independent Expert Advisory Group on a Data Revolution for Sustainable Development" [5] On day..> READ MORE

Starting 2005 the United Nations began their Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD) aiming "at integrating the principles and practices of sustainable development [Agenda 21] into all aspects of education and learning, to encourage changes in knowledge, values and attitudes with the vision of enabling a more sustainable and just society for all." [1, 2, 3] UNESCO’s Global Action Programme (GAP) was launched at the World Conference on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in November 2014 in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan. It focuses on generating and scaling up ESD action at all levels and in all areas of education, and in all sustainable development sectors. [4] If we can shape the minds of children it will be easier to implement the Sustainable Development goals!

The idea of the Earth Charter originated in 1987 from the recommendations in "Our Common Future" document, when the United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development called for a new charter to guide the transition to sustainable development. [1] The drafting of the Earth Charter text was done during a six-year worldwide consultation process (1994-2000), overseen by the independent Earth Charter Commission, which was convened by Martin Strong and Mikhail Gorbachev with the purpose of developing a global consensus on values and principles for a sustainable future. It was approved at a meeting at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris in March 12-14, 2000, it contains a preamble, 16 main principles, sixty-one supporting principles, and a conclusion entitled “The Way Forward.” [5] The document was justified as a "five year review of the implementation of Agenda 21 demonstrated, so far the world has failed to take the new course towards sustainable development." The Preamble affirms that “we are one human family and one Earth community with a common destiny,” and the Earth Charter encourages all people to recognize their shared responsibility, each according to his or her situation and capacity, for the well-being of the whole human family, the greater..> READ MORE

“Habitat III” [7] is shorthand for a major global summit, formally known as the United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development, held in Quito, Ecuador, on 17-20 October 2016. [1, 2] The United Nations called the conference, the third in a series that began in 1976 (UN Habitat), to “reinvigorate” the global political commitment to urban sustainable development goals.  The agenda will set a new global strategy around urbanization for the next two decades - The New Urban Agenda. Habitat I (1976): Vancouver Declaration on Human Settlements - Vancouver, Canada, May 31 – June 11, 1976 [5] Habitat II (1996): Istanbul Declaration on Human Settlements - Istanbul, Turkey June 3-14, 1996 [3, 6] Habitat III (2016): Ecuador - Declaration of  "The New Urban Agenda" Starting in 1972 it was recognised that privately owned land was a threat to social equity on the planet, including ownership of "self"! [4] Since 1985 the United Nations designated the first Monday of October of every year as World Habitat Day "to reflect on the state of our towns and cities, and on the basic right of all to adequate shelter."

The UN/WHO Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) (a UN signed in 2000) come to the end of their term December 2015 and a post-2015 health agenda, comprising called the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) takes their place and came into effect January 1, 2016. On 25 September 2015, the United Nations (UN) General Assembly adopted the new development agenda called "Transforming our world: the 2030 agenda for sustainable development...The agenda builds upon the outcome document of the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20 conference)” [1, 2, 3]  Australia signed by Julie Bishop. In late December 2015 the WHO released their first report "From MDGs to SDGs" which has gone from 8 goals to 17 goals.  The WHO's Director-General Dr Margaret Chan wrote in the report "[w]hile progress towards the MDGs has been impressive in many ways, much work remains to be done...[as] several global and many country MDG targets were not met. The unfinished agenda needs to be addressed, but more importantly the dramatic progress paves the way for more ambitious achievements by 2030." [PDF] According to the report, the SDG date back to a resolution made at the pivotal 66th UN General Assembly in Rio de Janeiro on July 27, 2012,..> READ MORE

Following 3 years of negotiations, on September 25, 2015, the United Nations General Assembly formally adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, along with a set of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and 169 associated targets. This builds on and broadens the utopian targets of the 2000-2015 UN Millennium Development Goals (MDG). "If the world is to eradicate poverty, address climate change and build peaceful, inclusive societies for all by 2030, key stakeholders, including governments, must drive implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)..."[1]  (And so the "ZERO" targets begin, with the ultimate goal of zero poverty) The UN Resolution UN A/Res/70/L1 'Transforming our World: the Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development "outlined an ambitious vision for a new era of global development from 2016 - 2030".."for achieving a fairer, safer and healthier world". [2, 3, 4] UN’s 1992 Agenda 21 was significantly expanded to become Agenda 2030, a 15 year plan to achieve 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to create utopia by 2030 and “leave no one behind”, signed by 193 member states including Australia. Health utopia will be achieved through vaccinating everyone, through the new decade of vaccines agenda IA2030, in addition to Bill Gate's Decade of Vaccines (2010-2020)...> READ MORE