A/70/PV.5 General Assembly

The Assembly will now hear an address by His Excellency Mr. Raimonds Vējonis, President of the Republic of Latvia. President Vējonis: Today, we, the world’s leaders, take on a great responsibility. The peoples whom the United Nations stand to represent want to see if we are capable of transforming our world in order to overcome poverty and to ensure a decent life for all. The people we each represent at home should be informed that all countries and all stakeholders have worked together to design this truly universal agenda. The scope of current challenges is too broad and our vision is too grand to be achieved by any one country acting alone. We will help to do that by working effectively together. In one way or another, we are all on board, and we all should bring this ambitious plan into action. If left unattended, the *1529155 * 15-29155 (E) challenges will become progressively more difficult. That is why we are here to give guidance on the way forward. The new agenda reflects evenly shared challenges for policymaking and implementation. It gives us a common destination and the comprehensive means for achieving it. I am a biologist by training. But one does not need to be a biologist to be concerned about climate change, loss of biodiversity, air pollution and access to safe drinking water. One does not need to be a lawyer or a statesman to know that access to quality education, health care and social protection, good governance, justice and respect for human rights, will work for the benefit of all. It is a great collective achievement that the rule of law and good governance are highlighted and recognized as universal principles in the new development Agenda. From our experience with transition, Latvia has seen that these principles are the backbone of social and economic transformation and should be entrenched in the national value systems in promoting zero tolerance for corruption. If justice systems do not work, if public administration is inefficient and lacks transparency, if a Government disregards human rights, the very foundations of a peaceful and safe society are undermined. Modern technology and e-governance offer a unique opportunity to build trust between policymakers and civil society. In Latvia, citizens can propose initiatives to the Parliament through an online petition platform and, if a proposed initiative gathers enough signatures, the idea can be enacted into law. Inclusive political processes and responsiveness to public needs are woven into the fabric of just and stable societies, particularly with respect to women and girls, who represent half of the world’s population. The new Agenda provides us all with an opportunity to end the persistent inequalities, discrimination and violence that the world’s women and girls confront on a daily basis. Gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls is not only a matter of social justice, it also contributes to economic growth and sustainable development. In Latvia, we have seen how that works. Women become senior Government officials and reach top positions in business management. Latvia has the seventh-highest proportion of women in middle and senior management positions in the world. The empowerment of women in Latvia has occurred because the Constitution, our education system and public opinion support this goal. When men and women have equal rights and equal opportunities, societies function better. Domestically, we support gender equality with the awareness that doing so makes a stronger nation. Likewise, acknowledging gender equality as a universal value makes the United Nations stronger. With women and men having equal rights to participate and take on leadership roles at all levels, the international community will become stronger and more efficient. Today we come to terms with a simple truth: present and future social, economic and environmental challenges that our planet is facing are interlinked. We must coordinate our efforts more fully in addressing these challenges. While each country has the primary responsibility for its own economic and social development, it should be underlined that the Sustainable Development Goals have been developed by all countries and are applicable to everyone. Every country should be held accountable for the implementation of these crucial goals. Each one of us has a decisive role to play in charting the course of history. We are looking ahead to a time 15 years from now when we can proudly say that we have given people a real chance to rise above the poverty line and that we have done that on a global scale.

I thank the President of the Republic of Latvia for his statement.

The Assembly will now hear an address by the President of the Republic of El Salvador. President Sánchez Cerén (spoke in Spanish): For the people of Salvador, today’s Summit, which will define the fate of humankind, is taking place in a special year, the year of the beatification of our martyr Archbishop Óscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdámez. The beatification of his universal voice will assist in fulfilling the objectives of this international meeting. Monsignor Romero worked and gave his life for the very ideals of justice and human dignity that we are proposing today. The message of courage and peace of the blessed Romero also guides us in this Summit and give us momentum to build well-being and happiness in the world. On behalf of the Government of El Salvador, I would like to say that we are honoured to be part of this historic moment for humankind. Today we begin a new stage where we undertake not to leave anyone behind, by adopting an Agenda for Sustainable Development of universal character (resolution 70/1). We build upon the major efforts made to achieve the objectives of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which allowed substantial progress to be made even though all goals were not met at the global level. In El Salvador we made significant progress in achieving the MDGs, even though we faced enormous environmental and economic difficulties, droughts, earthquakes and tropical storms, such as Tropical Storm 12E, which caused damage equivalent in value to 4 per cent of our gross domestic product in 2011. In spite of all that, El Salvador has made important strides in recent years on social issues and has achieved most of the objectives set forth in the Millennium Development Goals. Since 2009, we have decided to make social issues the State’s main priority by implementing public policies related to equitable socioeconomic inclusion, public safety and environmental protection. When my Government came to power, in 2014, we strengthened the State’s ability to fulfil its social responsibilities and improved the system for providing environmental protection and gradually recovering damaged ecosystems. We strengthened the basis of a system of universal social protection with an emphasis on policies and strategies that favour vulnerable groups and improving infrastructure and basic services. We are proud to tell the world that now in El Salvador all public school students receive educational materials, uniforms, shoes and food for free. We have achieved universality in the delivery to our people of quality public health services with a human touch. In 2012, we surpassed the goal of reducing the number of households living in extreme poverty. By 2013, primary education covered 93 per cent of the applicable population, and with the commitment of thousands of young volunteers, we worked to eradicate illiteracy. El Salvador exceeded the targets relating to reducing maternal mortality, increasing households with access to safe drinking water and promoting gender equality and the empowerment of women. We will continue to work on the agreed development goals and the new goals we have adopted today. Humankind is going through great transformations in all areas, and there is a growing consensus among nations that development must at all times make the human being the central focus and ultimate end of its objectives. Based on the painful experiences of war and conflict that many countries, including ours, have suffered, we must undertake with responsibility and courage a commitment to life and peacebuilding. Life on the planet, with all its biological and cultural diversity, continues to be in danger. Mother Nature is calling us on the centuries of abuse to which we have subjected her. This Summit represents an unprecedented opportunity, as the resolution we have adopted is the first-ever to have been drafted with contributions from every country and involving the active participation of civil society. We are presented with an opportunity to decide together on a path for improving the lives of our peoples. We seize this opportunity. Experience has taught us that, to achieve essential sustainable development, the international community should address equality among countries and regions while respecting sovereignty and the principle of common but differentiated responsibility, as well as countries’ vulnerabilities and particular problems. We know that, for the fulfilment of the post- 2015 Agenda and to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, it is essential to build a new model of international cooperation, expand South- South cooperation and change the current structure of development financing. It is necessary that the review of the system of financing for development be based on a comprehensive and multifaceted vision in terms of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. It is also imperative that developing countries be duly represented in the process of reviewing the structure of the financial system in order to increase their participation in defining and establishing international standards and in decision-making. The Government of El Salvador is implementing a five-year development plan based on the spirit embodied in the 2000 Millennium Summit. To realize this plan, we are relying on the valuable support and assistance of friendly countries and strategic partners with which we are carrying out high-impact projects, such as the City of Women, FOMILENIO II, a clean-energy-generation programme, the City of Childhood and Adolescence, a programme entitled “A Boy, A Girl, A Computer”, and much more in the areas of ​health, public safety, justice and social inclusion and in strengthening dialogue and national understanding, which are key to deepening democracy. I welcome in particular the support that has contributed to sustainable development in my country. We hope that our partners will continue their invaluable contribution to ensuring that we comply with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. I am convinced that only by uniting wills, capabilities and resources can we achieve the objectives and targets set for the next 15 years. To conclude, I wish to emphasize that the commitments that we assume today do not apply only to future generations. They are a necessity for the present generation as well. I invite the General Assembly to make the transition from words to deeds with unity, courage and hope, and without hesitation. That is what our peoples expect from us.

I thank the President of the Republic of El Salvador for his statement.

The Assembly will now hear an address by the President of the Togolese Republic. President Gnassingbé (spoke in French): I would like to commend the important step that the great United Nations family has made in taking on the global vision of post-2015 development as set out in resolution 70/1. Even if it has been modest and uneven, the progress that the regions concerned have been able to accomplish to date opens for us the way to deal with the new Sustainable Development Goals we set today with renewed vitality. The first factor for success in achieving the new goals is the ownership that the people we represent at this Summit take in them. If we are to fully realize our Agenda, we need to adapt the goals to our regional and national contexts and to the diversity of our cultures. In that context, I am pleased that His Holiness Pope Francis was able to generously share with us this morning (see A/70/PV.3) his just view of the moral, human and religious requirements that we must not lose sight of in our quest for sustainable and inclusive development. In the same vein, we must pay close attention to the urgent appeal launched in June 2015 by the Bishops of Africa and Madagascar. Through their appeal, they expressed their conviction that the development that our people earnestly aspire to cannot come at the expense of their core values, including with respect to life and family. That is why the Bishops of Africa and Madagascar offer us a more integral vision of the human person that takes into account the rich cultural heritage of Africa and the moral values ​to which it remains committed. Whatever the results of our individual countries in the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the most important today is probably to know how to build on the sum of the experiences of each of us in order to project ourselves resolutely into the future. In that context, I would like to express my gratitude to the Organization for involving my country, Togo, in the process of preparing the post- 2015 development agenda. We are particularly pleased to have been selected, together with Belize, as a pilot country for trying out the new planning approach for integrating sustainable development. Through that initiative, Togo was able to assist in the consideration of Agenda 2022. It also strengthened its national programme for capacity-building and modernization of the State for sustainable development. Togo’s experience in this field has demonstrated once again that development is based essentially on human factors. That is why we have resolved to commit for the long term to the capacity-building efforts of development actors at all levels. I would like to recall the extent to which our fates are now linked. The effectiveness of the national development effort also depends upon the international context. It depends upon our ability to achieve the security prerequisites without which no sustainable action can be considered. When we consider how much maritime insecurity and the major environmental risks hanging over our marine areas are costing our economies, there is only one possible conclusion: the sea and oceans are at the heart of the issues of sustainable development. Based on that observation, the African Union Commission and Togo have agreed to organize in 2016 the African Union extraordinary summit on maritime security and safety and development in Africa. I therefore take this opportunity today to call on the international community to remain mobilized so that the Lomé conference that we are actively preparing will be a success. I am deeply convinced that such success will enable us to take a qualitative leap forward in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.

I thank the President of the Togolese Republic for his statement.

The Assembly will now hear an address by the President of the Republic of Chile. President Bachelet Jeria (spoke in Spanish): Chile is pleased to sign onto this agreement, as it will allow us to work for a better present and future for all the countries that make up the General Assembly. From now on, we will have an Agenda that addresses the great challenges of a reality that does not allow for further delay. What we do or fail to do today will determine our fate in the coming decades. We acknowledge the enormous value of the agreement reached because it is commensurate with the demands of today’s world and was drafted with the participation of civil society, which gives it greater strength. This Agenda did not come out of nowhere, nor is it naive. We have the experience of the Millennium Development Goals, which allowed us to make our efforts converge and achieve results with respect to shared goals. Among the various achievements reached in Latin America were the reduction of poverty by 20 percentage points, better income distribution, diminution by half of the proportion of people suffering from hunger, guaranteed access for girls to primary, secondary and higher education, and the cutting by two thirds of the number of deaths among children under 5 years. Now, with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (resolution 70/1), we have committed to an action plan to coordinate national, regional and global efforts. We know that, because of the magnitude and complexity of new challenges, the individual actions of countries will need to be accompanied by efforts to work together. We also know that each country can participate in the financing mechanisms that are required, in accordance with its abilities and particularities. The point is that it is now time for action, so that our efforts are consistent with the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. It is a commitment that in Chile we are undertaking with reforms that are already under way. It is not an easy path, but we are working to ensure fully paid-for quality education, true gender parity, development that is harmonious with the environment, and balanced relationships between employer and workers, so that ultimately there is a solid basis for social cohesion. Because it is a matter of specific commitments, each country must focus its strengths on the urgent change that our times require and that this framework of working together demands. We all have a duty to perform. Accordingly, Chile will continue to meet global challenges in Latin America and the Caribbean while promoting economic integration, security and peace and programmes in favour of South-South cooperation. We should not forget that in our region there are still about 71 million people who remain destitute and that inequality continues to be the main problem to be solved. More than 7.5 million of children under the age of 5 still suffer from chronic malnutrition, and gender gaps persist in the workplace and in political participation. We are committed, together with the United Nations community, to meeting the obligation to move forward together in the fight against hunger, injustice, inequality and pollution of the land and oceans. As is required by the Sustainable Development Agenda, we must look at the present with the responsibility of one who comes to a decisive crossroads where the survival and the development of our peoples are at stake. Today we can take steps to build a more just world and deliver a better quality of life for millions of inhabitants of the world. But if we do not act resolutely or with the gravity that the situation requires, we will surely not have the chance to do so tomorrow. That is the extent of the challenge being faced by our nations and our leaders. It is the scale of the challenge that we are undertaking in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and which we must also face at the twenty-first session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Paris.

I thank the President of the Republic of Chile for her statement.

The Assembly will now hear an address by the President of the Republic of Malawi. President Mutharika: It is a pleasure for me and my delegation to be part of this event, at which we have adopted the post-2015 development agenda (resolution 70/1). Malawi welcomed the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) because they established the benchmark for global development policy. At the national level, Malawi implemented the MDGs through a number of medium-term development strategies that we, as a country, developed. Those medium-term development strategies mainstreamed the MDGs and ensured that their implementation was financed through the national budget framework. Therefore, the mainstreaming of the MDGs into national strategies simplified implementation of the goals because they formed part of our sector activities. I would now like to turn to the progress that Malawi has made in achieving the MDGs. It has become clear that Malawi has managed to achieve only four of the eight MDGs — namely, reducing child mortality; combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases; ensuring environmental sustainability; and developing global partnerships for development. Malawi has therefore not been able to attain the gender-related MDGs, including eradicating extreme poverty and hunger; achieving universal primary education; promoting gender equality and the empowerment of women; and improving maternal health. Therefore, as Malawi starts implementing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), there will be a need to seriously take a keen interest in implementing the gender-related goals. That will, inter alia, ensure that our women are empowered and that the girl child is assured of finishing her basic education. We learned a number of lessons during the implementation of the MDGs, including the importance of localizing international commitments, the use of “smart” indicators in measuring progress, the value of the multi-stakeholder approach in implementing development frameworks, the need for resources in implementing the MDGs, the role of interlinkages within the MDGs, the impact of emerging natural disasters on the attainment of MDGs, and the importance of sustaining progress once implementation has begun. Malawi was part and parcel of the intergovernmental consultations that shaped the SDGs. My country was selected as one of 50 countries for initial consultations done to provide information that formed the post-2015 discussions on “the future we want”. Malawi therefore does not have any problems with the SDGs negotiations outcome document, because it reflects the wishes of Malawians. I therefore have no doubt that Malawi’s adopting the SDGs in their current form will serve the interests of Malawians. My country realizes that localizing international commitments is a sure way of implementing international commitments, because they are implemented as part of sector activities. In view of that, the localization of SDGs will be an important aspect of developing the successor to the country’s development strategy. Finally, as we adopt the SDGs, let us not forget to learn the lessons from the shortfalls in the implementation of the MDGs, especially for us, the developing countries.

I thank the President of the Republic of Malawi for his statement.

The Assembly will now hear an address by the President of the Republic of Guyana. President Granger: The Cooperative Republic of Guyana is honoured to participate in this worldwide observance of the seventieth anniversary of the founding of the United Nations. This event coincides, happily, with the adoption of a worldwide, transformative 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (resolution 70/1). These twin events provide the opportunity for us to reaffirm both our resolve to respect the founding principles of the United Nations and our commitment to the renewal of our promise to pursue development for all. We embark upon this new Agenda by building on the achievements and experiences of many countries across the globe, including my own, in implementing the Millennium Development Goals. We are conscious that in doing so the imperatives of strong and effective monitoring, the full integration of the economic, social and environmental dimensions and early and concrete actions to give effect to the global partnership for development will be given particular relevance. Guyana is conscious of the fact that achieving the sustainable development goals for all will require high levels of political commitment. This Summit is only a start. We must continue to work with one another as States in the international community and to work together with our own people within our countries. Unity of effort is essential to confront the difficult but necessary choices that must be made to realize the goal of sustainable development. Vigilance will be required from us as leaders, and from all stakeholders. A reformed and revitalized United Nations development system and intergovernmental machinery, including the Economic and Social Council and the High-level Political Forum, will be needed to exercise core functions in such a manner as to provide impetus, enable accountability and actualize course correction. There must be policy integration to address competing priorities and demands. We count on the United Nations system for effective support and guidance in that regard. The Cooperative Republic of Guyana is of the view that the same spirit of understanding and cooperation that attended the preparation of this Agenda should mark its implementation. Success will require nothing less. We have laid the basis for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda. The means of implementation outlined in the Agenda, in conjunction with the provisions of the Addis Ababa Action Agenda, will be critical to the realization of the Sustainable Development Goals and targets. We recognize that all sources of financing will be required to contribute to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda. All countries, developed and developing, will be required to play positive roles in accordance with their diverse circumstances, situations and resources. Progress in implementing the Addis Ababa Action Agenda can provide a strong impetus to efforts to implement the 2030 Agenda. That is especially pertinent to such service deliverables as implementing a new global social compact for the delivery of social protection and essential public services for all, increasing international cooperation in tax matters, ensuring debt sustainability, intensifying efforts to end hunger and malnutrition, bridging critical infrastructure gaps, operationalizing the technology facilitation mechanism, and using the Economic and Social Council forum for the follow-up to the third International Conference on Financing for Development. Guyana recognizes the links between peace, security and the rule of law and the successful implementation of this Agenda. Guyana calls on all nations to eschew recourse to the threat or use of force in the resolution of controversies. Guyana urges that friendship and understanding should underpin relations between States in consonance with the principles of international law and in a renewed spirit of global solidarity and partnership. At the national level, Guyana is richer for the many lessons of our collective development experience. Not the least has been our long embrace of the primacy of the pursuit of a path of sustainable development, including the effective integration of its three dimensions at all levels. Guyana will work tirelessly, in accordance with our national plans and aspirations, to build a modern, peaceful and prosperous nation in which all citizens share equally in the benefits of development. Guyana’s policy is to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and to promote opportunities for all. Education, which is Sustainable Development Goal 4, is the mother of the other goals. It is the gateway to reducing inequality. It is the gateway to empowering all women and girls, which is Goal 5. It will boost national efforts in the fight against poverty — Goal 1. Its achievement is necessary to end hunger. Over the next five years, Guyana will have as one of its foremost priorities of national development the provision of inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong learning opportunities for all. It lies within our collective will to address the defining challenges of our time successfully. The challenges include eliminating trafficking in persons; eradicating poverty; promoting more inclusive, just and peaceful societies; and combating climate change. We must harness a spirit of understanding and cooperation to ensure the successful implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development within the next 15 years. The Cooperative Republic of Guyana declares today its full support for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. We commit to working untiringly for its full realization. We are determined to achieve all the Sustainable Development Goals and their targets — they represent the finest aspirations of humankind. The world we want for future generations is within our grasp. In this great global family, the United Nations, no woman, no child, no one should be left behind.

I thank the President of the Republic of Guyana for his statement.

The Assembly will now hear an address by His Excellency Mr. Uhuru Kenyatta, President and Commander-in-Chief of the Defence Forces of the Republic of Kenya. President Kenyatta: It is a great honour and pleasure to join the General Assembly on this historic day as we convene to adopt a new development Agenda. Let me commend the Member States and every stakeholder, all of whom patiently engaged in the negotiations, whose culmination is a visionary, transformative and ambitious blueprint. Let me also thank the Assembly for the confidence shown in Kenya by bestowing on my country the honour of co-chairing the intergovernmental process that led to this outcome. I believe that the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (resolution 70/1) will galvanize global action towards ending poverty in all its forms. Fifteen years ago, at the Millennium Summit, we adopted the Millennium Declaration (resolution 55/2). Through that Declaration, we adopted the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), through which we undertook to exert all efforts to reduce extreme poverty by the year 2015. Since then, we have made significant progress in poverty reduction. Many of the MDGs have been achieved. Between 1990 and 2002, for example, overall incomes rose, and there was a sharp decline in the number of people living in extreme poverty, as well as in child mortality rates. Life expectancy rose from age 63 to nearly 65. An additional 8 per cent of the developing world’s people received access to water, while an additional 15 per cent acquired access to improved sanitation services. Similarly, over 100 million people have been uplifted from slums. We know that today more girls than ever before are going to school at all levels. More women are joining the ranks of formal employment. I also note that the spread of HIV/AIDS is being reversed: new infections fell by 40 per cent between the years 2000 and 2013. Important milestones have also been reached in the fight against malaria and tuberculosis. Similarly, efforts to manage the global environment have been accelerated, with significant reductions reported in ozone-depleting substances. However, we must acknowledge that progress has been uneven across the world and across the Goals. There remain huge disparities between and within countries. Rural poverty remains unacceptably high within countries, while urban poverty is extensive and underreported via traditional indicators. In some parts of sub-Saharan Africa, child and maternal mortality are rising. Even where progress has taken place, consumption patterns and their impact on the environment are unsustainable. The world continues to be under threat from the negative impacts of global warming and climate change. Millions of people worldwide still lack access to quality education and health care. In Kenya, we have made tremendous progress over the past decade. For instance, since the adoption of free universal primary education in the year 2003, gross enrolment rates have risen from 88 per cent to 96 per cent. Even more significantly, we have now achieved gender parity in the primary school cycle, while the transition from primary to secondary and tertiary levels have greatly improved. My Government has also introduced several measures to promote gender mainstreaming. For example, by legislation and Government policy, one third of all public appointments and legislative positions are reserved for women. The Government has also established the Women Enterprise Fund and the Uwezo Fund to advance the cause of women’s entrepreneurship. My country has also reserved at least 30 per cent of all positions in the public sector for women, youth and people living with disabilities. We continue to promote appropriate skills to increase employment for women and youths. In the health sector, we have eliminated user charges for maternity services in our public health facilities. My Government is also providing free antiretroviral drugs and voluntary counselling and testing services, all part of a sustained national campaign against sexually transmitted diseases. That mix of preventive and curative measures has ensured important gains in the health of our nation. The rate of immunization for children under 1 year old, for instance, has risen to 85 per cent, while HIV/AIDS infections have fallen to 6 per cent. The lessons learned from the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals show that much can be achieved when the world finds focus around shared common goals. The new Agenda we have adopted today is an ambitious plan for collective action to transform the fate of humankind by lifting all people out of poverty while remaining in harmony with our planet. Many of the Goals in the post-2015 development Agenda strongly resonate with Kenya’s development aspirations as articulated in our development blueprint, which we call Vision 2030. We are convinced that, under this Agenda, a world free from poverty and hunger is achievable within the next 15 years. We also believe that a world in which development is in harmony with nature is also possible. The vision on the environment is therefore correctly rooted in the Agenda as a prerequisite for moving our societies towards sustainable development. The goals of this Agenda are extremely ambitious. They therefore require an equally ambitious means of implementation. Without adequate resources from diverse places and institutions, the Agenda we have adopted today might never be realized. Of course, we recognize that the primary responsibility for development in our countries shall first and foremost lie with us. However, resources from our development partners will also be critical. I urge them to substantially increase the resources that are available to developing countries as official development assistance. In addition, we should all address issues that have in the past impeded developing countries from channelling adequate resources to the needs of the poor. I believe that addressing debt sustainability and trade reforms will go a long away towards addressing these needs. After all, trade is at least as good a means of ending poverty as aid. As I conclude my statement, I reiterate once again that the success of today’s Agenda in the years ahead will require new ideas and courage. The effective mobilization of resources in the context of a global partnership will be critical in that effort. I am therefore happy to announce that, to that end, Kenya will host the second high-level meeting of the Global Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation in November 2016. I am happy to welcome all Member States to that important meeting. I believe it will provide us with an important forum to exchange ideas on how to move this Agenda forward. Finally, I join the global community in adopting this important Agenda.

I thank the President and Commander­-in­-Chief of the Defence Forces of the Republic of Kenya for his statement.

The Assembly will now hear an address by the President of the Republic of Liberia. President Johnson-Sirleaf: Our new global development Agenda (resolution 70/1) — entitled “Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development” — is the result of the most consultative process in history. Consultations and negotiations spanned many years, starting with the 2010 Summit to adopt the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and proceeding to the 2012 Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, which crafted a vision of the future we want. Our Sustainable Development Goals and targets were formulated following protracted negotiations in 2013 and 2014. This year’s negotiations culminated in the consensus document we adopted this morning. I commend Member States, regional groupings, civil society organizations, private-sector actors and all stakeholders who worked tirelessly to create this new framework. Given the complex nature of the intergovernmental negotiations, we offer deserving commendation to the outgoing President of the General Assembly and to the co-facilitators, the Permanent Representatives of Kenya and Ireland, who skilfully navigated the process. We pay tribute to Secretary- General Ban Ki-moon for his leadership in guiding the process, and we appreciate the effective work of his Special Adviser. In 2013, I was honoured to serve, along with Prime Minister David Cameron of the United Kingdom and President Susilu Bambang Yudhoyono of Indonesia, as one of the three co-Chairs of the Secretary- General’s High-Level Panel of Eminent Persons on the Post-2015 Agenda. We worked with 27 panellists from around the world to set the vision and policy framework for a bold, strategic and universal agenda. The membership of the Panel included representatives from every segment of society, including Governments, academia, civil society organizations and the private sector. Fifteen years ago, the MDGs were launched with a vision to build a better world. At the Millennium Summit in September 2000, we set time-bound targets to address critical challenges. The world has made significant progress in achieving many of those targets. Average overall incomes have increased, extreme poverty has declined, child mortality rates have fallen, life expectancy has risen and more people in the developing world have access to improved sanitation services. But progress has been far from uniform across the world and across the Goals. Huge gaps remain across and within countries. Poverty remains the greatest challenge, especially in rural areas. Urban poverty is also extensive and underreported by traditional indicators. We are grateful that the new development Agenda calls our attention to the unfinished business of the MDGs while broadening the vision to incorporate new challenges. That is why every segment of the global community contributed to making this Agenda a reality. In Africa in 2013, the African Union established a high-level committee on the post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals, which I was honoured to chair. The committee launched a consultative process that culminated in the adoption of a common African position that reflected the priorities of our continent. I am very pleased to acknowledge today that our priorities are substantially integrated into both the post- 2015 Development Agenda and the Addis Ababa Action Agenda. Together those documents demand a universal commitment to the shared vision of eradicating poverty and hunger, safeguarding our planet and opening the door to prosperity for the benefit of people everywhere. Peaceful societies and revitalized global partnerships are essential requirements for the achievement of those aspirations. We must pursue single-mindedly the achievement of the Goals enshrined in this Agenda. It can be done. Our world has never been richer, more integrated or better educated than now. Therefore, with the resources at our disposal and the creative power of all, we can lift those at the margins of progress — women and youth — and achieve success. Dignity for all, peaceful societies all around the globe and providing every human being with the means to live to his or her full potential are well within our means. We cannot afford to fail. And we must truly leave no one behind. The Addis Ababa Action Agenda provides the toolkit for countries, especially poor and post- conflict countries, to galvanize the resources needed to implement the new Agenda. It challenges all of us to take concrete measures that will transform our commitments into practical solutions that improve the lives of our people. Based on that common framework, with sustainability at its core, we will move forward in crafting national development policies and strategies, but with the recognition that, while the goals and targets are universal in nature, every country will have to develop its own priorities towards achieving the global ambition of a new world of peace and prosperity in a safe planet. Given its scope and level of ambition, the post- 2015 development Agenda will require more effective, strengthened and improved modes of development cooperation to support its implementation. We call for a renewed and revitalized global partnership among nations, underpinned by North-South, South-South and triangular cooperation, with specific attention on fair trade, taxation and technology, while combating illicit financial flows and terrorism. At the core of our actions, we must affirm our commitment to transparency, accountability and mutual respect. Those are the fundamentals of genuine partnerships. The successful implementation of the 2030 Development Agenda for Sustainable Development will depend largely upon the concrete measures taken at the subnational, national, regional and global levels. We must set in motion national processes that will guide our efforts to domesticate and integrate the new Agenda into local content that will engender national ownership in the implementation process. A strong follow-up and review mechanism will enhance effective implementation and ensure that citizens have the means to assess progress. We must also embark upon a data revolution geared towards developing capacities for development planning, monitoring and evaluation. Today we made history by adopting the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development to replace the Millennium Development Goals. In so doing, we have assumed the challenge and responsibility to deliver to future generations, in the next 15 years, a world free of poverty and hunger and a more secure planet for everyone. This must be our legacy.

I thank the President of the Republic of Liberia for her statement.

The Assembly will now hear an address by His Excellency Mr. Anote Tong, President, Head of Government and Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kiribati. President Tong: It is an honour and a privilege for me to address this historic Summit on behalf of the Government and the people of Kiribati. Let me greet the Assembly formally: “Na bane ni mauri”. Today indeed marks a truly momentous occasion as we, representatives of our peoples from all corners of the globe, gather to adopt an ambitious Agenda for Sustainable Development (resolution 70/1) for our respective peoples for the next 15 years. At the outset, I wish to commend the sterling leadership and commitment of Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in steering our family of nations forward and in pushing our ambition to achieve sustainable development for all. I also wish to take this opportunity to congratulate the co-Chairs on their appointment to chair this historic Summit. And I commend the new President of the General Assembly on his assumption of the presidency of the Assembly at its seventieth session. I also would like to commend his predecessor, the President of the General Assembly at its sixty- ninth session, His Excellency Mr. Sam Kutesa, for his leadership in guiding the massive task of shaping the Agenda before us today. I would like to especially commend the co-facilitators, Ambassador Kamau and Ambassador Donoghue, for their outstanding leadership in chairing the lengthy work of the Open Working Group on intergovernmental negotiations, indeed a massive, inclusive and consultative process that lasted more than two years. Allow me to congratulate them on a job well done. This is truly a major multilateral achievement as we celebrate the seventieth year of the United Nations. As we celebrate, we should also reflect and ensure that this premier global body remains responsive to the needs of the most fragile and vulnerable of people in its membership. That is the real litmus test for the Organization’s relevance and effectiveness. The new Agenda we have adopted at this Summit presents an agenda of hope for humankind, one underpinned by the overall goal of eliminating poverty and the key theme of leaving no one behind — an agenda that we hope can ensure that no one is left behind. Some critics were already delivering a verdict even before the adoption of this new Agenda, saying that there were just too many goals and targets. There will always be critics, and who knows that better than we do as politicians. But the truth of the matter is that these Goals reflect the realities and the multitude of challenges facing humankind across the globe today. If we were to ask the question, “What are the root causes of the violent conflicts around the globe that are causing the senseless loss of tens of thousands of lives, the massive movement of refugees now experienced in Europe, the emergence of fundamentalist terrorist groups around the world, and the change in our climate system?”, many of the answers to those questions could be found in the lack of attention to the Goals in front of us in this new Agenda. These Goals are not new. Most, if not all, are in our national development plans and strategies. What is new is the global call for the international community and national Governments to do things differently to effect the transformational changes necessary to achieve what we politicians promise our people every time before elections. That is crucial in an increasingly interdependent world where the decisions made and actions done in one country will have rippling effects elsewhere in other countries. That is why we come to the Assembly every year to share our national agendas so that we can shape the global agenda in a positive way as an agenda that would be meaningful to all. Let me therefore focus on the one key global goal for us in this Agenda: Goal 13, the need to take urgent action to combat the effects of climate change, which is particularly important for the most vulnerable countries such as mine, which are now already experiencing the impact of climate change. I do so because it poses an existential challenge for my people, and this goal is one that, if not given urgent attention now, has the potential to negate all efforts towards sustainable development, but it is also one that will challenge the survival of generations to come. Over the years, I have come here to this forum to explain the vulnerability of our people. I do not want to repeat what I have said year after year. This is the last time I want to do it. But the point I want to share is that things are happening. Storm patterns are changing; weather patterns are changing. We are already experiencing extreme storm events that we never experienced in the past. The real test of our commitment to the new Agenda will be the United Nations Climate Change Conference. The new sustainable development agenda will mean nothing if the Paris summit in December does not come up, not with an ambitious, but with what I believe to be a meaningful, legally binding agreement that can address the urgent challenge for those of us on the front lines of the climate change challenge. We must step up our national and collective efforts to meaningfully reduce global greenhouse gas emissions. We must urge major greenhouse gas emitters to do their part. We must also call with urgency on our development partners and on philanthropy from the private sector to assist those on the front line of the climate calamity to deal with the impacts of climate change and sea-level rise now being experienced in our countries to assist in our efforts to prepare our people for a very uncertain future. Let us call on those with the ability to assist and who have a contribution to make to join in the global dialogue — but, more important, in the call for urgent action to address this major challenge. Business as usual can no longer be considered to be a path forward. Let us not limit ourselves to working within the shackles and boundaries of our comfort zones. The challenge of climate change continues to demand that we think outside the bounds of conventional thinking, because these are extraordinary challenges that call for extraordinary and unconventional solutions. We need to take bold steps, even if we are not sure they are the right ones. If necessary, we can improvise on the way. But whatever we do, we cannot afford to be paralysed into inaction simply because of the apparent impossibility of the challenge confronting us. Time is running out, and the current alternatives are not acceptable. It is most gratifying to note that an emerging glimmer of hope exists — that a shift in the wind in the dialogue on climate change has occurred. This morning we heard His Holiness Pope Francis speak on climate change. We welcome the messages and expressions of commitment from a growing number of quarters, from more capitals around the globe and from civil society, which recognize that climate change poses a major challenge and requires urgent action. We from the front-line nations welcome that most gratifying shift as a very positive development in the right direction. At last, the international community has heard our messages and our shared stories on the plight of our peoples. But hearing our story and recognizing that climate change is a major challenge is not enough. We need to act on the problem with urgency. We may be on the front line now, but so will the millions of others in the times ahead. As we endorse our new Sustainable Development Agenda and celebrate the seventieth anniversary of the United Nations family, we must believe that no Member nation should have to plan on its own for a time when its people will no longer have a country and a place that they can call home. Merely saying and acknowledging that climate change is a challenge simply will not do. What is important is our response to the problem as a global community of moral human beings. The real test of the effectiveness and relevance of the new Agenda for Sustainable Development and of the United Nations family as we celebrate its seventieth anniversary is in ensuring that no one is left behind. Yet my people and those on the front line of climate change face the real possibility of being left behind. I therefore call on this Summit and on the General Assembly at its seventieth session to lend their support to the voice of the most vulnerable. We call on the international community to establish an ambitious and meaningful, legally binding agreement that can begin to heal our one shared home and planet. I also call on this Summit to join our voice so as to ensure that the agreement in Paris will include a special mechanism to fast-track urgent action for those countries on the front line of climate change that need such action now. It is no longer about who is to blame or what caused the problem, it is about urgently working together, within our capabilities, as good global citizens, to urgently address the major challenge to all peoples and to our one and only home: our planet Earth. Let me conclude by sharing with the Assembly our traditional Kiribati blessings of “Te mauri, te raoi ao te tabomoa”, which means “May health, peace and prosperity be with us all”.

On behalf of the General Assembly, I wish to thank the President of the Republic Kiribati for his statement.

The Assembly will now hear an address by the President of the Republic of Panama. President Varela Rodríguez (spoke in Spanish): On behalf of the people and the Government of the Republic of Panama, I have come to affirm our strong commitment to the new 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which we have adopted at this Summit (resolution 70/1). It is dedicated to uniting our efforts and aligning our national priorities with global ones in order to ensure domestic tranquillity, welfare and prosperity for present and future generations. Above and beyond any differences that may arise between countries, Governments must seek the same criteria and work together to tackle the problems facing us, both within and beyond our borders. That was the spirit of the seventh Summit of the Americas, held in April this year in Panama, where the slogan was “Prosperity with equity”. The 35 countries of the continent sent a clear message that we stand ready to work together for a better region and a better world. A strong global alliance among countries, bringing together Governments, civil society and citizens, is the only way to transform the lives of millions of people who still face social exclusion. We believe in that vision, and in Panama we have set the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as the official guidelines for our Government, while ensuring the resources for its effective implementation. Our Government plan is in line with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. It is backed up by a strategic plan for public investment that will enable us to move steadily towards achieving the 17 Goals of the new Agenda. In order to eradicate poverty, we have strengthened and expanded the coverage of the programmes of our social protection system, which currently serves 20 per cent of the population. Access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation is a priority. That is why our Administration has allocated about 30 per cent of total public investment for 2015-2019 to achieving that objective. In drawing up the Goals we have been thinking of future generations. For them, education is the key. In our country we are allocating the resources needed for full secondary-school coverage. That will benefit young people, in particular young people at social risk and school dropouts, so that they can return to the educational system and the job market. Our economy is still growing at approximately 6 per cent per year, and we are now generating more better-paying jobs. And we are very close to becoming the first country in the region to be declared free of child labour. The efficient use of State resources will be key to meeting the Sustainable Development Goals. That is why in our country we have just held a national dialogue for the effective coordination of the public health system, which will make it more effective and will improve health benefits. New technologies and databases must be used constructively. They can be used to measure progress in achieving the Goals. In Panama we decided to use them in a national census on preventive health to determine the state of health of our people. We also want to replace the shantytowns in our country. We want to make sure that all our citizens have decent housing. That is a goal that we hope to achieve by 2020, jointly with the private sector, via a project called “Roofs of Hope”. We also need to provide the environmental departments of our countries enough human and economic resources for them to protect the planet. In Panama our goal is to restore 50 per cent of the deforested area over the next 20 years, as well as to protect our oceans. Next year, the Panama Canal expansion project will be completed, which will not only give us more resources to achieve our objectives but will also serve the world and global trade. The Sustainable Develoment Goals offer us a 2030 Development Agenda from the perspective of solidarity among human beings. It is now up to us to respond to the legitimate hope of a world with opportunities for all and with sustainable development. Panama will do its part, and our country will participate actively in that noble undertaking, which is the main challenge facing humankind. It is only by meeting the challenge of sustainable development that we will achieve peace. I believe that all the members of the Government, as temporary administrators of the goods and resources of our peoples, have a great responsibility to ensure that politics is understood as serving others, and that public funds are used honestly, transparently and fairly to improve the quality of life of our citizens. In conclusion, I want to confirm my commitment to move my country forward over the five years of my term so that we can achieve the 17 Goals. I appeal to Heads of State and all who share this responsibility to administer public funds honestly and transparently so that 15 years from now we can look back and feel that together we did our best to ensure that our countries attain the Sustainable Development Goals.

I thank the President of the Republic of Panama for his statement.

The Assembly will now hear an address by the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. President Buhari: The Declaration that we have adopted today (see resolution 70/1) testifies to the urgency of and the need for action by all of us. It is not for want of commitment that previous initiatives failed or could not be fully realized. What seemed to be lacking in the past were political will and the requisite global partnerships to pursue and implement the programmes to which we committed ourselves. Global consensus is needed. We agreed to deliver as one and to leave no one behind. That promise was kept. We have agreed to create viable partnerships and to adopt the means of implementation for the Goals and targets of a global Sustainable Development agenda in all its three dimensions: the economic, the social and the environmental. The post-2015 development agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), together with the Addis Ababa Action Agenda, which we adopted in July 2015, offer us a unique opportunity to address the unfinished business of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). They also provide the basis for a new set of global development priorities to usher in a peaceful and prosperous world. Since 2000 we have witnessed a number of areas in which progress has been made in meeting our commitments. Respect for human rights and accountability for gross violations are now at the forefront of most major international initiatives. National efforts have been exerted to meet the MDGs and rescue millions of people from the clutches of extreme poverty and want. Illnesses such as polio, tuberculosis and malaria are being systematically attacked and eliminated from our countries. Maternal and child mortality, as well as mother-to-child transmission of diseases such as HIV/AIDS, are high on our national agendas. Through a concerted effort by the world community, Ebola in West Africa was contained, then overcome. The prospect of wars and conflicts between and among States has for the first time in human memory been considerably reduced. Threats to international peace and security are now caused more by non-State actors whose terrorist groups pose a more deadly threat by drawing national armed forces into neighbouring conflicts. The war against terror is now the most significant effort that we are all called upon to prosecute, in unison and with renewed determination and vigour. We must not lose sight of or diminish the fact that poverty poses a serious threat to global development. If we are truly committed to leave no one behind, we must then translate rhetoric into action and fight poverty on a global scale. Illiteracy, hunger and diseases are associated with evils that go hand in hand with poverty. We must exert all efforts to eliminate those ills from our midst by 2030, as the Declaration loudly proclaims. The bottom billion that have neither a safety net nor social protection need to be rescued from their perpetual state of hopelessness, fear and indignity. Now that it has fallen on our shoulders to discharge that responsibility, we should do so with the enthusiasm and commitment worthy of the cause. We must create viable partnerships that bring together national, regional and global actors with shared objectives to carry them forward. We must also create an enabling environment for executing this global Agenda by developing the relevant framework for working with different types of partners and constituencies, one that recognizes the contributions of civil society, religious and cultural bodies, the private sector, academia and, most important, Government. Just as the success of the MDGs was underpinned by national ownership, the post-2015 and the SDG frameworks must also be guided by national priorities and ownership. Domestic resource mobilization, supplemented by improved terms of trade between industrial and developing economies, should drive the implementation process in both streams. The facilitation of remittances by migrant and overseas workers, as well as efficient tax collection, are needed as complementary sources of financing for development. Mindful of that, I wish to reiterate Nigeria’s commitment to the pursuit of transparent and accountable fiscal and economic management. We are taking measures to improve and streamline the internal generation of revenue and to plug all loopholes that have led to illicit capital flight from Nigeria. We are also putting in place mechanisms to prevent oil theft and other criminal practices that are detrimental to our economy. We are taking concrete steps to address environmental challenges, especially in cleaning up the greatest damage to ecosystems caused by oil spillage, land erosion, desertification and floods. The threat posed by climate change is real and present in our country. It is my hope that as we embark on this renewed journey we will match our words with deeds, so that when the General Assembly meets in 2030, the people of all races and creeds will say that we have kept faith with each other.

I thank the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria for his statement.

The Assembly will now hear an address by the President of the Republic of Palau. President Remengesau: It is my great honour to join everyone here today to congratulate the Secretary- General and, for that matter, the global community on the adoption of the post-2015 Agenda. It is a privilege to thank the General Assembly for that signal achievement. It is fitting that we take this uniquely important moment to recognize the hard work and dedication of literally thousands of people from all nations that has allowed us to gather here today. By virtue of that work by so many, we now have a strong set of imperatives for the transformational change that our peoples and our countries need in order to safeguard our planet for the future of our children. It is also with deep gratitude and humbleness that I recognize and acknowledge the leadership of His Holiness Pope Francis for his inspirational remarks (see A/70/PV.4) and for his extraordinary encyclical Laudato Si’. That profoundly important document laments the careless use of our planet’s resources leading to environmental degradation and global warming. That encyclical on climate change, which calls for swift and unified global action, is an inspiration to us all and is already beginning to change hearts and minds and to focus the world’s attention on the most vulnerable among us and on our mother Earth. The encyclical clearly and eloquently states a fundamental truth: what we do, or do not do, about climate change today will affect the lives of countless people for many generations to come. His Holiness speaks passionately of the impacts of climate change on the suffering of the poor. That also is fundamental. The people who contribute least to this crisis are suffering the most from it. That realization must be part of the solution that we will develop in Paris at the end of the year. There is still time to tackle climate change, the greatest challenge of our times. Human suffering, and the suffering of all creation, will deepen with each moment of delay. At the same time, all countries and all peoples have a role to play in building a more sustainable future. The eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) helped drive global progress in developing countries. Most assuredly, they helped to reduce extreme poverty, improve health, enhance environmental sustainability and address gender equality. Today we have before us the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The new SDGs are critically important as the next great step forward beyond the MDGs. These SDGs must raise the bar of our global commitment to finally address the root causes of poverty and environmental degradation. As we all know, we have enormous challenges ahead. Over 1 billion people on this fragile planet still live on less than $1.25 a day. Almost 1 billion people do not have enough to feed themselves or their families. Climate change is already wreaking havoc in my home, the Pacific. Our nations are at present feeling the effects from rising seas, storm surges, droughts, floods and ocean acidification, which together threaten our water and food supplies, our marine biodiversity and our very livelihoods. Those enormous challenges are not limited to my region. As our new 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (resolution 70/1) recognizes, there is no region on Earth, no country and no people who are not suffering — and who will not continue to suffer — until we take effective and long-lasting global action. Like the Millennium Development Goals, the Sustainable Development Goals are but a blueprint for change and regeneration. The hard work lies ahead for the global community, rich and poor nations alike, to make those Goals real across the broad expanses of our planet and for all of our citizens. In Palau, we are working hard to do our part and to take those next steps that will define our future. We have committed to provide 20 per cent of our energy through renewable resources by 2020, and are already three quarters of the way there. We have also committed to become carbon-neutral by 2050. In that context, we have finalized a comprehensive climate change policy and will soon submit our intended, nationally determined contribution. We are working hard to protect our ocean — the foundation of our culture and the backbone of our livelihoods. We have created a comprehensive network of near-shore marine protected areas and are in the process of establishing the Palau national marine sanctuary, which will close 80 per cent of our exclusive economic zone  — an area the size of France  — to commercial fishing. Representing a small island developing nation, I must particularly congratulate and thank the Assembly for the Sustainable Development Goal on the oceans. That SDG is enormously important to all of us. It will pave the way towards a healthier global marine environment through a well-connected system of marine protected areas; the restoration of fish stocks and the elimination of illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing will be addressed. While small nations like mine are taking many actions on our own to stem the tide of environmental collapse, it is only through a true global partnership for sustainable development, with the participation of all countries, all stakeholders and all peoples, that we can implement our new list of Sustainable Development Goals with the speed and scale necessary to respond to our urgent situation. To move forward, we will need funding and technical support to implement, monitor and strengthen our solutions. And we will need that support sooner rather than later. Global partnership is our only hope. Only through real partnerships at every level can we implement the SDGs in our generation to indeed transform the world. Only through partnerships can we hope to realize the promise of the future we want — a future we need for our children and all the generations to come. God bless our mother Earth.

I thank the President of the Republic of Palau for his statement. The Assembly will now hear an address by the Constitutional President of the Plurinational State of Bolivia. President Morales Ayma (spoke in Spanish): I greet all the heads of all delegations, representing their countries. In the name of the Bolivian people, I note and pay tribute to the decision of the General Assembly to discuss and adopt the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (resolution 70/1). First, we have to assess what was done with the Millennium Development Goals and ask ourselves why we were unable to achieve them. I would like to say that we have to debate thoroughly what are the causes of poverty, what are the causes of inequality in the world, why is it that in some countries, some regions, poverty — extreme poverty — continues to grow. For that I would like to quickly explain that the policies of the capitalist system do not solve the current problems of life and of humankind. Wealth is concentrated not in just a few hands but in just a few States. The most developed countries are where the greatest wealth of the humankind is concentrated, but at the same time capitalism allows that a few citizens can gather the wealth of various countries and millions and millions of human beings. Capitalism uses the environment for its own purposes by plundering natural resources and through environmental degradation. Capitalism uses the economy in the service of politics. The capitalist economy operates through a dictatorship of the financial system that favours the banks and robs the peoples. Capitalism places peoples in extreme poverty. War is the biggest business of capitalism. It cannot survive without producing violence, invading peoples and plundering strategic resources. The capitalist system underwrites the industry of death — weapons production, military expenditure, military bases and the extraterritorial commerce in logistical and security systems. Today there are more wars in the world than in the past, and the destructive capacity of weapons and technology is unparalleled in the history of humankind. Furthermore, more people than ever have been displaced by war, and military expenditures have risen to astronomical levels. Never before have we seen so much spent on destroying people in such a short time. For example, the NATO annual budget exceeds $1 trillion. As a result of imperialist wars, today oceans have been converted into cemeteries of refugees perishing at sea. Countries have become trenches of war. If war fuels the economy of a capitalist system, it feeds off a sham. Today wars are being manufactured and leaders demonized. War criminalizes progressive States having an anti-capitalist orientation. Worse, today this imperiousness creates real armies of religious fanatics that cannot be controlled, such as the army of the Islamic State. To survive, the capitalist system transfers its crises to peoples, sometimes by lowering the prices of oil and other raw materials, sometimes by invading States through supposedly just wars, and at other times by imposing economic and financial models to plunder their natural resources through global financial institutions. In the capitalist model, the major political and economic decisions are concentrated in the hands of bankers, businessmen and industrialists, and democracy concludes with the vote. To change the social situation in Bolivia, we worked politically to free ourselves from imperialist domination and economically to free ourselves from the neoliberal model. In doing so, we promoted a comprehensive policy of living well, under the guidance and wisdom of our social movements, because the Bolivian people are organized in social movements. It is very important for us to regain ownership of our natural resources. We have nationalized our natural resources, and there is one important thing to keep in mind: before nationalization and modification of the hydrocarbons law, the oil revenue was just $300 million a year. Last year we reached $5.6 billion in oil revenues. Those present here can therefore imagine under a neoliberal model how much money they stole from us, how much money was taken by the international oil companies who were masters of our natural resource. Thanks to the Bolivian people, Bolivia is building a truly plurinational State, where all people have the same rights and duties. Earlier, the indigenous people were completely excluded. Now we have a classless State. We had Governments that were imposed on us; now it is the people who are in power in Bolivia. As for participation in the national economy, earlier we were falsely led to believe that the private sector would solve Bolivia’s economic problems and that the distribution of wealth would lead to equality with dignity, deepening democracy. In Bolivia economic policies are debated and approved with the social movements. For the first time, we are beginning to give added value to our natural resources. We have a patriotic agenda. In 2025, Bolivia will celebrate the bicentennial of its founding, with an agenda to deliver ourselves fully from domination. But I also want to say how important it is to democratize and redistribute the national economy. Before, our small economy was being privatized and exported. Today, the economy remains in Bolivia and is being socialized and democratized, through transfers and actions or through goods and revenues, for both grandparents and children. Fortunately, thanks to those policies, in just a short period of time we have reduced extreme poverty from about 40 per cent to 17 per cent, and I would like to say that Bolivia has achieved most of the Millennium Development Goals. If our economic resources had remained in the private sector, that would have never been possible. Lastly, I would like to say that, if we wish to end poverty by 2030 and achieve development for our people,, we have to look at how we can put an end to the values of the capitalist system  — selfishness, individualism and consumerism. All of us want to eradicate poverty. In order to do so, as elected officials in our countries, we have the obligation to put an end to the capitalist system. Thus we will be able to end poverty.

I thank the President of the Plurinational State of Bolivia for his statement.

The Assembly will now hear an address by the President of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam. President Truong Tan Sang (spoke in Vietnamese; English interpretation provided by delegation): On behalf of the State and the people of Viet Nam, I extend my warmest greetings to the co-Chairs, the Secretary- General and fellow leaders at this Summit. At the dawn of the millennium, 15 years ago, we adopted a political declaration, the United Nations Millennium Declaration (resolution 55/2), and endorsed the actionable Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), expressing a strong commitment to our people’s development. Today the economy has witnessed varied progress, yet the implementation of the MDGs has produced encouraging results throughout the world, helping to change the lives of hundreds of millions of people. Nevertheless, more than 1 billion people still live in extreme poverty, and progress on several MDGs fall short of our expectations. Challenges such as hunger, poverty, epidemics, social injustice, the depletion of natural resources, environmental degradation, climate change, conflicts, crises, escalating violence, instability and tension in many corners of the world are serious threats to peace, security and sustainable development. In that context, we gather here today in order to express our strongest commitment to, and support for, a truly transformational global development agenda. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, with its 17 Goals and 169 targets, presents a new strategic fusion that reflects the aspirations of humankind to live in a world of peace, safety, equality and justice, a world where development is green, clean and sustainable. The Agenda creates a framework and sets the direction for all nations to collectively respond to common challenges in the three pillars: the economic, the social and the environmental. Viet Nam wholeheartedly supports the 2030 Agenda, and we pledge to do our level best to ensure its successful implementation. We will mobilize all the necessary resources. We will engage all ministries, sectors, localities and organizations in our communities. Three points require our particular attention. First, peace and development are intertwined. We could never expect the MDGs to be achieved in circumstances of war, conflict and instability. Only by ensuring peace and stability can we pool the required resources and foster the partnership necessary for the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Therefore, maintaining peace and security, on the basis of respect for international law, is a precondition for the successful implementation of the SDGs. It is incumbent upon all of us to find peaceful and satisfactory solutions to conflicts and disputes, exercise restraint, refrain from the use or threat of force and strengthen cooperation among all countries on the basis of equality and mutual benefit. Secondly, having achieved most MDGs ahead of schedule, Viet Nam believes that the successful implementation of the 2030 Agenda requires strong political will and the full and effective mobilization of domestic resources. It is necessary to envision sustainable development as a long-term, people-centred final goal and to mainstream the SDGs into all national programmes and strategies, while taking into account the specific conditions and circumstances of each country. As part of its own national sustainable development strategy for the period 2011-2020, Viet Nam is committed to accelerating economic restructuring and transforming the growth model, in order to enhance growth and economic efficiency, ensure social equality, preserve natural resources, protect the environment and respond to climate change. Thirdly, it is imperative to strengthen the global partnership for sustainable development. The United Nations can and should play the critical coordinating role, along with other international organizations. Developed countries are called upon to take the lead in supporting developing countries in implementing the SDGs, particularly through capacity-building, technology transfer, trade facilitation and access to financial resources. On behalf of the Vietnamese people, I would like to thank all partners, countries and international organizations for supporting Viet Nam in its social and economic development and MDG implementation over the past years. We look forward to further cooperation and assistance during the achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Viet Nam is working with other States members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to build an ASEAN community by the end of 2015, and a South-East Asian nation of peace, stability, cooperation and prosperity. In order to ensure an environment conducive to sustainable development, Viet Nam is working with ASEAN and its partners in common efforts to maintain and consolidate peace and security in the region, including ensuring maritime safety and security and the freedom of navigation and overflight in the South China Sea — the main artery connecting ASEAN with other regions. It is our consistent policy that all disputes in the South China Sea can be resolved only through peaceful means — on the basis of respect for international law, including the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea of 1982, the effective and full implementation of the Declaration of the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea and the early conclusion of the code of conduct for the South China Sea. I believe that, with strong conviction and political will, we will be successful in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, in the interests of all the peoples of the world, for a safer and better life of the children of today and tomorrow. Viet Nam pledges to be an active and responsible partner in that common endeavour, in order to make sure that no country or individual is left behind.

I thank the President of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam for his statement.

The Assembly will now hear and address by the President of Hungary. President Áder (spoke in Hungarian; English interpretation provided by delegation): It has been over 40 years since the publication of the Club of Rome’s report The Limits to Growth. For over 40 years, we have known that development, which we had once thought was without limits, is very difficult to sustain, and it has taken more than 40 years for us to finally agree on sustainable development goals. That happened today, and we owe our gratitude to everyone who worked on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (resolution 70/1). However, over the course of the past 40 years, the world has also changed considerably. Today’s world hardly resembles the world of 40 years ago. Over the past 40 years, the population of the world has doubled, and greenhouse-gas emissions have also doubled. Over the past 40 years, the quantity of fresh water per capita has decreased by half, and, during those same 40 years, we have witnessed an annual loss of agricultural land, the area of which represents the size of Belgium. Over the past 40 years, some of the key freshwater sources of protein have decreased by 75 per cent. Today we have adopted 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with Goal 13 dealing with climate change. Nevertheless, the new Agenda leaves a number of other issues unresolved. Much work therefore remains to be done on the road to the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Paris in December. Accordingly, we can safely say that the road we are facing is a long one, while the time we have available is extremely short — a far cry from 40 years. Within a few days, there will only be 40 days left until we will have to reach an agreement in Paris. People often cite an East-African saying, to the effect that we have not inherited the Earth from our ancestors to do with it whatever we want; we have borrowed it from our children. However, considering the intended nationally determined contributions to the Paris Conference to date, if we do not come to our senses, we will wind up destroying and squandering the inheritance of our children. Clearly, we have adopted impressive Sustainable Development Goals in other areas. If the climate objectives are not met, the consequences of that failure will render all the other Sustainable Development Goals hopeless. If we are not successful in Paris in reaching an agreement, if we continue to emit unacceptable levels of carbon dioxide, if we continue to further overheat our planet and if we continue to increase the adverse impacts we cause, then the ideas of sustainable agricultural food production and sustainable water management will remain only dreams. It is not terribly difficult to understand that if we continue to reduce the amount of agricultural land, we are also going to reduce the amount of food that can be produced. If we continue to reduce the natural circulation of water — known as the hydrological cycle  — then natural disasters will become increasingly frequent and impactful. If we continue to see the current rate of acidification of the seas and oceans, we will endanger the primary food source of over 1 billion people. What would the consequences of such a scenario be? Rather than decrease, poverty would grow. It would also entail an increase in social inequality. As a result, social tensions would also increase, which would not be conducive to good governance, security or peace— in fact, such a scenario would render them impossible. In the end, that could lead to wars and mass migrations on a scale much greater than that which we are currently witnessing. This morning, His Holiness Pope Francis said the following in this very Hall: “[men are] not authorized to abuse [creation], much less destroy it” (A/70/PV.3, p. 3). He also went on to quote the words of his predecessor, Pope Paul VI, which were uttered in this Hall 50 years ago: “The real peril is in man” (A/PV.1347, para. 45). All of us stood up and gave Pope Francis a standing ovation for his words. We also gave a standing ovation for the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. One year ago, at the Climate Summit here on 23 September 2014, we all stood and clapped after hearing the words of Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner, who came from Marshall Islands and asked us all to agree, as soon as possible, on the climate objectives — because if we did not, she and her fellow citizens would be forced to move away from Marshall Islands. If the enthusiasm of that moment or today’s is genuine, if the applause back then and now was not only for the moment, then I would ask all Member States to reconsider their positions before the Conference in Paris. Please think what we stand to lose if we do not come to a tangible agreement at the end of the year in Paris. We do not even have two times 40 days to conclude an agreement that will substantially influence the future of our children.

I thank the President of the Republic of Hungary for his statement.

The Assembly will now hear an address by the President of Mongolia. President Elbegdorj: At the dawn of the new century we adopted — and have since then implemented — the Millennium Development Goals. We have achieved many targets, but have failed to achieve others. By and large, however, the global community passed the test. We have all learned lessons and made huge strides. This time, the international community has produced a history-making document contained in resolution 70/1. The entire family of the United Nations agreed on the road map towards sustainable development. Now humankind has a truly universal, ambitious action plan for the next 15 years. Never before in human history has such a universal and unanimous agreement been reached. We agreed on urgent targets, on a broad range of economic and social challenges and on environmental exigencies. I would like to take this opportunity to express my heartfelt thanks to all those who made it possible. I thank Member States for their tireless work, sleepless nights and firm commitment. They have shouldered a mountain of responsibilities to produce the truly historic 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development for humankind. Now the responsibility is on us, the Member States, to ensure its full implementation. Mongolia’s commitment to international cooperation remains strong. The success of the Sustainable Development Goals will mainly depend on a revitalized global partnership, an active engagement on the part of Governments, as well as the resilience of and synergy with civil society and the private sector. It is widely recognized that each country has a primary responsibility for its own development, but, at the same time, the world community should not forget that there are many countries, including the land-locked developing countries, that are still in need of a helping hand. One thing is certain: every nation State should always strive for good governance, the strict rule of law and a sound human rights policy. In order to put the Sustainable Development Goals into practice, we need to have a robust, inclusive and open mechanism and policies, as outlined in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Addis Ababa Action Agenda on financing for development. We must have reliable implementing, monitoring and accountability regulations and institutions in place. Justice and fairness is the order of the day. Every nation and Government must actively contribute to the global good with its own capabilities and differentiated responsibility. We must also reach a global agreement on climate change later this year in Paris. We need to mobilize our full potential to achieve the primary purpose of the founding of the United Nations, namely, the promotion of peace, respect for human rights, and inclusive economic and social development. I believe that, in the twenty-first century, the United Nations will remain at the heart of our humanity.

I thank the President of Mongolia for his statement.

The Assembly will now hear an address by His Majesty Don Felipe VI, King of the Kingdom of Spain. King Don Felipe VI (spoke in Spanish): It is again a pleasure and a great honour to speak to the United Nations on behalf of Spain. The Heads of Member States of the United Nations have come here to commit — on behalf of our peoples — to transform the world in the next 15 years and to rid it of the extreme poverty and hunger that still afflict a large portion of humankind. We will make a change for everyone, everywhere. That is our conviction and our commitment. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (resolution 70/1), the agenda for change that we adopted today, is the result of a negotiation among equals. It reflects the voices of millions of citizens. They are the ones who told us what they expect from us. They did so on behalf of a new generation of children who will turn 15 in 2030. We are here to solemnly promise those children that each and every one of them will be able to fully develop their abilities without the hindrance of discrimination. Standing before them, we are committed to create sustainable wealth, while giving back to nature what we haven take from her, because we are only her guests and temporary administrators. It is therefore essential that the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to be held in Paris this coming December be a success and achieve results that rise to the challenge we face. His Holiness Pope Francis, who has been so close to us today, teaches us in his encyclical letter Laudato Si’ that the interdependence that is typical of our time requires us to think in terms of a common project. To think of a single world requires us to act as one. In that spirit, we have already taken decisive steps that give us hope, thanks to the Millennium Agenda initiated 15 years ago. However, development is not and has never been a uniform process. Achieving it is not guaranteed. Wars like the ongoing one in Syria, natural disasters such as the earthquake in Nepal and epidemics such as Ebola can undo decades of progress achieved by developing countries, and they demand of us our solidarity and sustained attention. Even in the more developed countries, the experience of the recent global crises has exposed the fragility of many situations that we had thought were more stable. Above all, it has alerted us to the fact that no one is immune to the weaknesses of a growth model that we must now repair and improve, while at the same time preserving its strengths and eliminating its excesses. The globalization of finance, technology and information will have to be accompanied by the globalization of solidarity, knowledge, equity, liberty and human dignity. The Agenda adopted today is therefore a universal one, and we are all responsible for ensuring its successful completion. Spain will contribute to that goal. My country has already vigorously supported the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) through the MDG Development Goals Fund. Our contribution was in fact the largest made by any single country towards achieving the MDGs. At present, we are firmly committed to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and our commitment is illustrated by our actions. Working with the United Nations Development Programme, we have established the first Sustainable Development Goals Fund, which is already promoting projects in over 17 countries. Our cooperation policy is also aligned with the 2030 Agenda, and official development assistance is one of its pillars. Together with the European Union, we are committed to the goal of providing 0.7 per cent of our gross domestic product by 2030  — with an emphasis on the least developed countries. We cannot forget, however, that a great deal of poverty and marginalization occurs in middle-income countries. Accordingly, we will continue to devote part of our attention and resources to them. It is essential to achieve equitable development, genuine and effective enjoyment of rights and equal opportunities for all. That requires creating opportunities both in education — hence the importance of the catalysts of knowledge, innovation and technology — and in job creation, particularly among young people, an area in which Spain is particularly sensitive. We must also ensure equal opportunities for women in parity with men. They deserve the same roles as men in the workplace, in the exercise of their political and social rights and in society in general. The idea that we are all part of a global community ruled by law and oriented towards the common good was put forward by some of the best Spanish minds at the beginning of modern times, including Father Francisco de Vitoria, one of the founders of international law. Seventy years ago, when the Organization was established, the world took a giant step towards fulfilling that dream. Then as now, the goal that unites us is to create a community of citizens conscious of their responsibilities in relation to their neighbours and the planet that they inhabit. We, the people of Spain of twenty-first century, believe in that dream, and we would like to make it a reality. It is our conviction. It is our commitment.

I thank His Majesty Don Felipe VI, King of the Kingdom of Spain, for his statement.

The Assembly will now hear an address by the President of the Swiss Federation. President Sommaruga (spoke in French): In the framework of a unique process, 193 States have come here today and agreed on an ambitious agenda for a sustainable world. They were not, however, alone in putting that process into place. International civil society, the private sector, scientists as well as experts from the United Nations all played an active role. Consultations were held in over 100 countries, and more than 7 million people took part in a survey that gave them an opportunity to voice their needs and priorities. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (resolution 70/1) is therefore an Agenda of the people, by the people and for the people. We all know the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is not a magic wand that will simply wish away all the world’s problems. However, I firmly believe that the Agenda is an extremely promising approach to resolving many of the world’s problems. For Switzerland, the following points became clear from the very beginning of the process. We could no longer remain satisfied with solely promoting development in the southern hemisphere, while what is known as the developed world carried on with business as usual. We could not lose sight of the environment when we think about social and economic development. And development could be sustainable without respect for human rights and the protection of the rule of law. People are at the heart of the Goals enshrined in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. We will not be able to honour that often-cited pledge unless we adhere to our own principle of leaving no one behind, unless we pay special attention to the most marginalized and most vulnerable, unless we counter growing injustices with a culture of equity, unless we preserve our natural resources, and unless we provide young people with future job prospects. Switzerland has accordingly focused its efforts on the following goals. First, we have concentrated on the issue of water. That extends beyond access to drinking water and sanitation infrastructure. Thanks to the Millennium Development Goals, today more than twice the number of people than before  — over 4.2 billion individuals — have access to piped drinking water. Secondly, Switzerland has also advocated, in an ad hoc fashion, in favour of an ambitious goal in the area of gender equality. Over the past 15 years, gender equality has been successfully achieved, to a large extent, among primary-school teachers. We must now achieve gender equality in all areas of society. In most countries, a woman’s salary still represents only 60 to 75 per cent of a man’s average salary; and although the percentage of women members of national Parliaments has almost doubled over the past 20 years, women still represent only 22 per cent of all members of Parliaments in the world. Thirdly, Switzerland has also committed itself to the goal of promoting inclusive societies fully dedicated to peace in order to strengthen the rule of law, access to justice, respect for human rights and the fight against violence and corruption. Fourthly, Switzerland has undertaken a goal specific to health care that addresses non-communicable diseases, sexually transmitted diseases, reproductive health and related rights. Non-communicable diseases are responsible for over 60 per cent of all deaths  — a phenomenon that is particularly present in low- and middle-income countries  — even though a large portion of non-communicable diseases can be prevented. Those goals must be implemented. For that reason, we have strongly advocated for an effective follow- up mechanism and review. We firmly believe that the High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development is well positioned to carry out that function. In Switzerland we have a system of direct democracy, with very wide-ranging rights relating to political self- determination. Our society and our citizens are used to having a say in the political process. Over the past 200 years, more than one third of all referendums held worldwide have taken place in Switzerland. For us, therefore, it was no challenge to include  — from the very beginning — representatives of our civil society, the private sector and the scientific and political fields in the process of defining our priorities for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. In implementing the Sustainable Development Goals, we will proceed with the same approach: while politicians will be left with the responsibility for guiding the process, citizens will be given the opportunity to have their voices heard. As we all know, one of the biggest challenges in this globalized era consists in establishing a closer relationship and greater trust between citizens and the political sphere and its institutions. That is why the participatory process in the development of the 2030 Agenda was so important. Now, let us get to work together and for the common good.

I thank the President of the Swiss Federation for her statement.

The Assembly will now hear an address by the President of the Republic of Honduras. President Hernández Alvarado (spoke in Spanish): Honduras has come to the General Assembly today to commit its political will and efforts to achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (resolution 70/1). One year ago in this very Hall, I spoke of the tragic situation of migrants, and in particular that of unaccompanied minors, from the northern triangle of Central America flowing towards the United States (see A/69/PV.7). They are people driven out by violence and grinding poverty, the result of drug trafficking in the North and the operations of cartels and international organized crime in the region. On that occasion, I proposed a plan, the Alliance for Prosperity in the Northern Triangle, intended to improve security and create opportunities and genuine development along our immigration route. That joint initiative of the Governments of Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras was welcomed by President Obama and his Administration and by many members of the United States House of Representatives and Senate. Currently, a generous proposal in support of that plan for prosperity of Central America is under consideration in the United States Congress. We have made real progress in the areas of public safety and job opportunities. We can also show real improvements in combating drug trafficking and insecurity. That can be clearly seen in the reduction in the murder rate and in drug trafficking- related crimes. We have dramatically reduced drug trafficking throughout our territory. We have destroyed clandestine infrastructure, such as aeroplane landing strips and drug laboratories. We have apprehended and prosecuted many drug traffickers. We have extradited powerful drug lords and seized their ill-gotten gains. Nevertheless, we will not rest until we have completely rooted out the drug scourge from our territory, which has done so much harm to our peoples and region and, indeed, all humankind. On creating opportunities and combating poverty, we have developed the Vida Mejor programme with the goal of improving the living conditions of poorer people. Evidence of the programme’s effectiveness can be seen every day in Honduras. Through the Vida Mejor programme and the legal framework of the social protection system, recently adopted by our National Congress, we are working on the Sustainable Development Goals in the areas of income, education, health, quality of life, family housing and, in particular, in generating productive employment for women. Today, we realize that that is the most effective way of channelling resources and programmes to fight poverty. As we had anticipated, the fewer drugs there are, the more security there is; and the more development there is, the more opportunities there are, leading to a reduction in the migration flowing from Honduras into other countries. It is not just Honduras that holds that view; that fact is also affirmed by the migration authorities of Mexico and the United States. However, despite those gains, we still face challenges. We must do more to reduce poverty, infant mortality and maternal mortality and to maintain disease control, particularly the control of HIV/AIDS. Those challenges constitute a social, economic, political and, above all, moral debt that cannot be ignored and cannot be delayed in its repayment. The progress we have made, on which we place such high hopes, has not been easy. In addition to the fight against drug trafficking and poverty, we must also deal with the challenging effects of climate change in Honduras. Our country is one of the three most vulnerable countries in the world, as noted in a risk index prepared by an organization called German Watch. I repeat: the third most vulnerable country in the world. That vulnerability became evident with the onset of the El Niño phenomenon. For the second consecutive year, drought, the most severe recorded since the middle of the twentieth century, has generated critical risks to food security for the Honduran people and a genuine national emergency. Such an emergency is a serious obstacle in our fight against poverty, and it increases the risk of tragically exacerbating the undesirable migration processes. What does the El Niño climate-change phenomenon represent for Honduras? Most of our harvests have been lost, especially food crops. We are losing our livestock, and in many communities, water is becoming increasingly scarce. More than 250,000 Honduran families have been left in a critical situation. Our Government is assisting the affected families with our own resources and with those that we hope will be generously contributed by organizations and friendly Governments. In a major effort, we are determined to dedicate nearly one third of our territory, or more than 3 million hectares, to be protected areas so as to defend the health of planet Earth and to preserve our environmental heritage. Today, as a result of climate change, a severe plague of bark weevils has led to the loss of 112,000 hectares of pine forests — almost 7 per cent of the total coniferous forests in the country. Because of El Niño, and climate change in general, today we must radically change our production and energy matrices, as we need to immediately implement our national master plan for managing water, soils and forests. We must do that now, not next year or within the next decade, but immediately, right now. From this rostrum, one can look out at the Assembly and see that we all appear alike. Nevertheless, with all due respect, from the climate-change standpoint, we are not all the same. We are not the same with regard to the causes and effects of climate change. Today, it seems that the countries in the worst situation, the poorest countries, the countries most affected, are the ones that have to pay for climate change. We could say that humankind will become mature only if we can accept that there are common and shared responsibilities, albeit different ones, in the generation of climate change, so there must also be shared responsibilities in finding solutions. Therefore, those who have contributed the most to generating the crisis should contribute the most to solving it. We must do that together, of course — together because we are all owners and inhabitants of planet Earth, and not one of us is planning to move anywhere else. On behalf of Honduras, I call upon all nations of the world, especially the most developed countries, to work to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and to deal with the challenges and effects of climate change within the framework of co-responsibility, which all, without exception, should recognize as the principle guiding the actions of the international community. The time has come to assume our joint responsibility as a moral and political imperative. In that firm but respectful belief, I call on the leaders of the world to work together to preserve this nation that we call the Earth.

I thank the President of the Republic of Honduras for his statement.

The Assembly will now hear an address by the President of the Republic of Zimbabwe. President Mugabe: Fifteen years ago, in a setting similar to today’s, we adopted the Millennium Declaration (resolution 55/2), which, through the Millennium Development Goals, mobilized global efforts aimed at meeting the pressing development challenges we faced at the time. On balance, some progress has been made in meeting those goals, but overall it has been unsatisfactory and insufficient. The uneven progress made within and among countries and regions has widened inequalities and in some cases deepened poverty. Our gathering at this Summit therefore confirms our shared conclusion that the battle against poverty, inequality, exclusion and global warming is far from being won. It is also confirmation of our shared resolve to broaden the scope of our actions and launch an all- out war whose ultimate goal is the transformation of the world we live in today. To say that our development agenda for the next 15 years is ambitious does not quite describe the enormity of the transformational vision we have set ourselves. The success of the new 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which we have adopted today (resolution 70/1), will depend on several factors. Key among them are the concrete actions we will take at the national level to domesticate this international Agenda. In Zimbabwe, following a series of multistakeholder participatory consultations, including with development partners, we adopted a national position on how to align the new Agenda with our national development priorities. These are contained in Zimbabwe’s agenda for sustainable socioeconomic transformation, which is based on four pillars  — food security and nutrition, social services and poverty eradication, infrastructure and utilities and, lastly, value addition and beneficiation. Zimbabwe acknowledges that the Sustainable Development Goals are integrated and indivisible. But due to our limited resources, there are severe constraints on our ability to implement all of them at the same time. Inevitably, therefore, we have had to prioritize their implementation. I want to confirm and underline, nevertheless, that Zimbabwe is committed to implementing all the Sustainable Development Goals. As resources become available we will naturally adjust the basket of goals that we are implementing at any one time. In the context of my country’s implementation of the new Agenda, our key priority and critical challenge is to put the economy back on a sustained growth trajectory. The reforms we are undertaking, including measures designed to attract investments, will materialize if the unjustified sanctions that Zimbabwe has been subjected to for the past 15 years are removed. In the spirit of the transformative Agenda we are all about to subscribe to, we call for their unconditional and immediate removal. Freed of the fetters of sanctions, my country stands a better chance of achieving its national vision of sustainable, inclusive growth, human-centred development, structural transformation and poverty eradication. I repeat: remove these sanctions. They are harming our country. In pledging that no one will be left behind as we embark on this collective journey, our Agenda is a truly empowering instrument and mechanism. In Zimbabwe, we have adopted and are implementing several programmes aimed at empowering our previously disadvantaged people. A key component of our empowerment agenda has been a land reform programme that, in contradiction of its detractors, has lifted many families out of poverty. In the spirit of the new Agenda, we are determined to leave no one behind. We will therefore continue to refine and adjust our empowerment programmes so that they reach all the vulnerable and disadvantaged groups in our country. It is critical that adequate financial resources be mobilized and made available if our new Agenda is to be successfully implemented. The focus on domestic public resources as the development Agenda’s major source of funding corresponds to the principle of the primacy of national ownership of it. In order to generate the required levels of resources, national economies must grow. For growth to be achieved, in addition to appropriate domestic policies, our countries need a coherent and supportive international environment. This transformative Agenda must therefore not be limited to a national level but must also extend to the international arena, so that the systemic issues that impede our countries’ development can be addressed. We must reinforce international cooperation aimed at stemming the haemorrhaging of Africa’s resources that results from transfer pricing, tax evasion and other criminal activities. We should redouble our efforts to agree on the Doha Development Agenda and put in place a universal, rules-based, predictable, transparent, inclusive, non-discriminatory and equitable trading system. Reform of the Bretton Woods institutions is long overdue. The issue of debt sustainability calls for urgent, clear-headed resolution. These are not new issues; they have been with us for too long. They constitute a huge part of the baggage that we must shed if the transformative new Agenda is to succeed. We hope that in adopting it, all of us are aware of what it entails. We hope that we are similarly committed to shedding old habits and contributing to ushering in the potentially glorious era that our new Agenda promises. The success of our Agenda calls for more, not less, international cooperation and solidarity. The fact that we are enlarging the circle of our partnerships should not weaken existing ones or the mutual responsibilities we already share. In fact, it should strengthen them. The universality of this Agenda is not just that it applies to all of us but also that it belongs to all of us. It promises a brave new world, a new world that we must consciously construct, a new world that calls for the creation of a new global citizen. I want to believe that we are up to this task that we have voluntarily and collectively committed ourselves to. Our success and, in particular, the promise of a new world that awaits us depend on that commitment.

I thank the President of the Republic of Zimbabwe for his statement.