CAN View: Policy Strategy for Post-2015 Process, October 2014
~~The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) refer to an agreement of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development held in Rio de Janeiro in June 2012 (Rio+20), to develop a set of future international development goals. CAN has been engaged in this process since before the Rio+20 meetings in 2012 but has only increased its capacity on this issue since this year.
The current development agenda has been largely centered on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). By the time the MDGs were agreed in 2000 climate change had not been recognized as either cross-cutting or having a potentially negative impact on sustainable development, and so was not acted on. This was an important shortfall, since the MDGs served to attract political and public attention, channel funding and served as a tool for public accountability. The post-2015 Sustainable Development Agenda is therefore an opportunity for CAN to influence the global policy framework that will guide global development efforts during the next 15 years in order to deliver on the ‘triple bottom line’ of economic, social and environmental progress. To be successful in including climate change in the SDGs, we have to show in a more concise way that combatting climate change is a prerequisite for poverty eradication and sustainable development and start working across both the development and climate movements.
In August 2013, we have reached the beginning of a politically critical stage in the post-2015 process. The various consultative processes came to an end, and the more ‘closed’ process of intergovernmental negotiations started. In July 2014 the Open Working Group (OWG) country consultations concluded with the OWG outcome document. It is expected that the formal United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) negotiations will start after a stock taking session in September, and the subsequent report prepared by the UN Secretary General comprising various official inputs to the process (expected for December). The nature and timing of these negotiations will be decided during the 69th UNGA meeting in September 2014, with the anticipation of a new framework agreed upon in September 2015.
The post-2015 agenda will be an enabler for CAN’s work at both the national and international levels, a potential source of funding for climate action, and an opportunity to engage private sector actors as well. If the post-2015 agenda again sidelines climate change, we will be looking at another generation of development approaches that significantly increase threats to sustainable development and poverty eradication. This time we have to ensure that climate change is represented robustly in the post-2015 framework.
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