United Nations Climate Change Sdg

Sustainable Development Goals

At the end of September 2015, 173 leaders from across the globe gathered in New York City at the United Nations Summit to adopt the sustainable development goals. Generally, the concept of sustainable development goals was birthed at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in 2012. The main objective of the conference was to generate a series of universally applicable objectives that balances economic, social, and environmental dimensions (United Nations Development Programme, n.d.). The September 2015 meeting was fueled by increased concerns, calls, and demands for leadership on climate change, inequality, and poverty. As a result, the UN Summit focused on transforming these demands, concerns, and calls into actions that were ratified as part of 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

The conclusion of the UN Summit in September 2015 involved the formal adoption of new development goals that would direct the development agenda of the world for the next 15 years. The 17 SDGs (sustainable development goals) adopted at the Summit focus on dealing with inequality, climate change, and poverty that have become major issues for many populations throughout the world (Wetlands International, 2015). These issues can be classified into three categories that act as the basis for the world's development agenda i.e. sustainable economic development and growth, environmental sustainability, and human health.

One of the important sustainable development goals adopted by the United Nations Summit in September 2015 is to take urgent measures towards dealing with climate change and its effects (United Nations, 2015). The adoption of this goal was characterized by recognizing that the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change is the basic global, intergovernmental forum for formulating international response to the problem of global climate change. In light of the devastating impacts of global climate change, the United Nations seeks to foster toughness and adaptive capacity to natural hazards and climate-related harms.

This sustainable development goal is important to me because climate change has continued to affect many countries across the globe while many nations are reluctant to adopt effective strategic measures towards combating it. Despite increased awareness of the problem of global warming, climate change has developed in the recent years to an extent that it is now affecting every country across the globe. This problem is increasingly disrupting national economies through its impacts on people's lives and the health and well-being of communities (United Nations, n.d.). Therefore, if suitable measures are not adopted and implemented to combat climate change, there will be significant disruption of national economies because some parts of the world are expected to warm even more. There is significant need to take urgent actions towards addressing climate change because of these effects, particularly on the poorest and vulnerable populations that continue to be affected and suffer the most.