PARLIAMENT’S GREEN watchdog warns Government not to reduce number of Sustainable Development Goals to be agreed at UN talks in 2015.
Following a report that David Cameron wants to reduce the number of these Goals from 17 to 10, The Environmental Audit Committee suggested that undermining sustainable development goals could risk current focus on sustainability, as well as poverty reduction and economic and social development.
Chair of the Committee Joan Walley, MP said: “The Government is right to want a simple framework that can be easily communicated. However, a reductionist approach will not lead to the social, economic and environmental transformations we need to see by 2030.
In September 2015 world leaders will meet to agree new global ‘Sustainable Development Goals’ for 2030.
In order to reach global agreement, the Committee says it is important that the UK respects the status of the 17 proposed Goals when the European Union agrees its negotiating position at the upcoming European Council meeting on 18th December.
The Committee also urge the Government to do more to raise awareness in the UK and promote education around sustainable development in schools and universities.
Walley continues: “I hope 2015 will be remembered as the year when Governments took action to change the trajectory of environmental destruction we are currently on, towards one of sustainable development and wellbeing for all. We owe this to people living in extreme poverty and to future generations, but also to ourselves.”
