Summary

The new global Sustainable Development Agenda (Agenda 2030), officially adopted on 25 September 2015 by all United Nations (UN) Member States, has for the first time produced a stand-alone and universal climate goal. This explicitly recognises that the solutions to climate change and sustainable development are inherently interconnected and calls for coordinated efforts to address both simultaneously. From ending poverty and hunger, to addressing health, water and energy insecurity, to protecting oceans, forests and other ecosystems and preventing conflict, addressing climate change is critical to our collective ability to deliver on the SDGs.

The 2015 Paris climate negotiations provide a key opportunity to build on momentum from the Agenda 2030 and to provide a complementary framework to tackle interlinked global challenges. The success of both processes will heavily rely on how the goals of two are integrated and how the Paris agreement enhances co-benefits related to emissions reductions, sustainable development, poverty eradication, climate adaption, and resilience building.

The proposed preamble to the draft decision in the November UNFCCC negotiating text welcomes the outcome of the 2030 Agenda. The proposed preambular text to the draft agreement also recognizes the intrinsic relationship between climate change, poverty eradication and sustainable development and emphasises the importance of aligning action to address climate change with other SDGs in accordance with nationally defined development priorities and strategies.

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