Germany aims to initiate sustainable development goals “catch-up race” at UN summit – env minister

Germany's environment minister Steffi Lemke wants to ensure that a United Nations (UN) summit in New York this week "initiates a race to catch up" on the global agreement to reach 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Lemke will attend the UN Sustainable Development Summit alongside chancellor Olaf Scholz and development minister Svenja Schulze. "We have no time to lose. In the next seven years, the global community must show that it is serious about the 2015 decision," Lemke said ahead of the summit. In 2015, UN member states adopted the SDGs — which are intended to support global economies to set up sustainable and low-emission environments, including limiting the global temperature increase to 1.5°C — with a goal of achieving these targets by 2030.

Ahead of the summit, foreign minister Annalena Baerbock called for a renewed UN, with "more ambition in curbing the climate crisis, the greatest threat of our time". She said the UN, international financial institutions, and health organisations should be set up in a way that "gives partners in Africa, Latin America, and Asia the voice they deserve." Development minister Schulze also called for reforming the World Bank, to give it more scope for cheap loans. "It is high time for a race to catch up on the road to the Sustainable Development Goals," she said.

Germany is set to present 12 key contributions to the 17 SDGs at the summit. The UN will assess progress at half-time in New York this week, but has warned that, at the current pace, no country would reach the 17 targets by 2030.