Millennium Development Goals and Climate Change Action

Millennium Development Goals and Climate Change Action

Published:
Updated: September 27, 2010, 1:58 pm
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 The Millennium Development Goals MDGs

are eight development goals against poverty that all 192 UN Member States have agreed to achieve by the year 2015. Achievement of the MDGs and mitigation of climate change are intertwined, as discussed in this article. The graph on the right shows the huge number of people living on less than $1.25 per day.

 

Introduction and Description of the MDGs

A good description is in Wikipedia. Progress towards reaching the goals has been uneven. Some countries have achieved many of the goals,[14] while others are not on track to realize any.[15]  

From the UN: Given the proliferation of UN Conferences and commitments, it’s important to understand why the Millennium Goals are unique in many powerful ways:

  • They represent a compact between all the world’s major economic players. Poorer countries pledged to improve policies and governance and increase accountability to their own citizens; wealthy countries pledged to provide the resources. Since the commitment to achieve the goals comes from the highest political levels, for the first time, entire governments are committed to their achievement—including the trade and finance ministers who hold the world’s purse strings. And major international financial institutions—the World Bank, the IMF, the regional development banks, and increasingly, the membership of the World Trade Organization—have made explicit that they will be accountable for achieving the Goals too.

  • The Goals are clearly achievable. Some have even argued that they are not in fact millennium, but ‘minimum’ development goals. We believe that to set the bar any lower than this would be morally unacceptable. Individual Goals have already been achieved by many countries in the space of only 10-15 years.

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Here are the eight Millennium Development Goals MDGs  

Goal 1: Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger
Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education
Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women 
Goal 4: Reduce Child Mortality Rate
Goal 5: Improve maternal health
Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases
Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability
Goal 8: Develop a global partnership for development

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MDG and Climate Change

Climate change presents significant threats to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals 

especially those related to eliminating poverty and hunger and promoting environmental sustainability. An increasing body of evidence are pointing to the disproportionate negative impact climate change will have on the poorest countries who, ironically, have contributed least to the problem. 

Climate change is expected to increase the frequency and intensity of severe weather events. Poor countries lack the infrastructure necessary (e.g. storm walls, water storage) to respond adequately to such events. Diseases such as malaria are likely to have wider ranges, impacting more people in the poorest regions of developing nations that are already most affected by such diseases. Changing rainfall patterns could devastate rain-fed agriculture...

See: CLIMATE CHANGE AND THE MDGS from EndPoverty2015.org

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MDG Conference in September 2010

With only five years left until the 2015 deadline to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, UN Secretary-GeneralBan Ki-moon has called on world leaders to attend a summit in New York on 20-22 September to accelerate progress towards the MDGs. See HERE.

The plenary sessions can be watched on the web HERE:
 
You can retrieve the speeches under VIDEO ON-DEMAND HERE.
 
HERE is the video of a side event with an excellent description of practical problems and solutions for realizing the MDGs, including the private sector co-operating with governments and NGOs; a written description is HERE.
 
From the IISD here is a picture of the conference proceedings at the UN:
 
 

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Reference documents for climate and MDGs

IISD bulletins on the MDG Summit 

  • POLICY FORUM ON BIODIVERSITY, ECOSYSTEMS AND CLIMATE CHANGE ... Christina Figueres, Executive Secretary, UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, noted that, if climate change is left unchecked, it threatens to undermine thirty years of advances in development... See HERE.
  • Climate Vulnerability and Its Impact on MDGs, a side event by Bangladesh on Sept 21, is reported HERE.

The MDGs and Climate Change (Germanwatch report)

  • This is a long and excellent report. See especially Exhibit 5: Illustrative list of climate change adversely impacting MDG attainment, page 10.

Climate Change Impacts on the Achievement of the MDGs

  • Global Call Against Poverty (GCAP) and Global Campaign for Climate Action (GCCA) report. The UN's Non-Governmental Liaison Service says of the report: 'Climate change arguably poses the greatest threat to reducing poverty, advancing global development, and realizing human rights the world has ever seen...The report highlights: “in too many contexts, climate change is still a footnote to MDG implementation.” '

Keeping the promise: united to achieve the Millennium Development Goals

  • This UN document says: Addressing climate change will be of key importance in safeguarding and advancing progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals (page 26).

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History - the Millennium UN Declaration (2000)

Historically, the Millenium Development Goals arose from this Millennium UN Declaration 55.2, a resolution adopted in 2000. Here it is.

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Video on the MDG by Gillian Sorensen

Gillian Sorensen is senior advisor at the United Nations Foundation, see HERE.

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