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Climate agreement to be real test of new Sustainable Development Goals: Kiribati

Xinhua, September 26, 2015 Adjust font size:

The real test of commitment to the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will be the Paris Climate Summit, which is scheduled to be held in December in the French capital, said Anote Tong, the president of Kiribati, here Friday.

"The new development agenda will mean nothing if the Paris summit in December does not come up with a ... meaningful legally-binding agreement that can address this urgent challenge for those of us on the front line of the climate change challenge," Tong said in a speech delivered to in the UN General Assembly after world leaders officially adopted the SDGs.

The SDGs, just adopted here earlier Friday, are a set of 17 economic, social and environmental targets which all 193 member states have committed to achieving by 2030.

World leaders are gathering at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City from Friday to Sunday to discuss the Sustainable Development Goals before the UN General Assembly. They will in December meet in Paris for the UN Climate Change Conference, where it is hoped they will reach an agreement on climate change.

In his speech, Tong highlighted the importance of Sustainable Development Goal 13 -- urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.

"The real test of ... the sustainable development agenda ... is 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," said Tong. "No member nations should be in the position where they have to plan on their own for a time when their people will no longer have a country and a place to call home."

However, overall Tong expressed optimism about the new goals, addressing critics who said they were too broad.

"Some critics are already out with the verdict even before the adoption of this agenda saying there are just too many goals and targets," said Tong, "but the truth of the matter is, these goals reflect the realities and the multitudes of the challenges facing humanity across the globe today."

The 17 goals include ambitious aims such as ending poverty in all its forms everywhere, promoting gender equality and peace, and reducing inequality between and within countries. Endit