Fifth Open Working Group session on SDGs
Adapting and balancing the three dimensions of sustainable development
As the fifth session of the Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals closes, greater focus is placed on a more progressive greening of familiar development activities.
UN member states are seeking greener industries and energy to develop their economies, according to discussions at the fifth Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals recently held in New York.
The group slated to devise a set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by September 2014 met again to tackle the issues of economic development, industrialization and energy. In the opening session, H.E. Mr Macharia Kamau spoke about “a sense of urgency” to address unacceptable levels of poverty and slow the current rate of climate change.
"Poverty eradication must be the overriding objective," said Mr. Kamau, while recalling broad support from the group’s previous meeting for a set of goals that are ambitious and few, but also universal.
Dr. Jagdish Bhagwati, professor at Columbia University, delivered the keynote address, and challenged the group to clearly distinguish between desirable ends and the means to achieve them. He talked about the necessity of prioritizing economic growth in the development agenda for the purpose of generating the revenues needed for states to pursue other policy areas, including the environmental and social.
Director-General of UNIDO, Mr. Li Yong then spoke of the importance of building the industrial capacity of developing and lesser developed states, and stated, “No country that is rich today has not gone through the process of industrialization.” In the statements from member states that followed, most delegates agreed that industrialization was a necessary and prerequisite process for development.
Many delegations emphasized the supremacy of the economic pillar, saying that a healthy economy would ultimately facilitate the pursuit of the economic and social pillars that, when all three are put together, lay the foundations of sustainable development. However, the utility of economic growth as an objective was questioned, and many delegates pointed out that employment and decent work are ultimately objectives that policies in support of industrialization or economic growth are designed to achieve.
Professor Jeffrey Sachs of Columbia University’s Earth Institute spoke on a panel in the afternoon, alongside Mr. Mukhisa Kituyi, Secretary-General of UNCTAD, Mr. Amadou Sy of the Brookings Institution and Mr. Amar Bhattacharya, Director of G-24. Professor Sachs’ keynote speech outlined a proposed set of SDGs that included targets on youth employment and productive employment, and stressed that “to tackle the social deprivation highlighted by the MDGs, we must give accent to promoting livelihoods and building productive capacities.”
Mr. Bhattacharya then drew attention to jobless growth and recovery hindered by structural unemployment. He reminded the group that growth does not equate to job creation and pointed out that women’s and youth employment problems in particular are acute in both developing and developed world. He called for social protection in countries rich and poor, to be provided sustainably through improved tax performance and resource allocation and an end to bad subsidies. He encouraged the use of targeted subsidies and transfers and progressive tax systems.
The following discussion on energy for sustainable development included two tracks. The first regarded the need to expand access to electricity and cooking fuels, regardless of their type, while the second was the replacement of fossil fuels with greener, renewable substitutes.
There was some debate about the extent to which subsidies of both fossil and renewable fuels exert distortionary effects on the market, on prices, and ultimately on the prospects for the adoption of more sustainable energy consumption.
Mr. Adnan Amin, Director-General, International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), delivered the keynote address presented the IRENA’s a study on the employment impact of renewable energy. He painted a promising picture of the future price competitiveness of renewable fuels in an energy market dominated by entrenched fossil fuel interest.
Nearly six million people worldwide, according to Mr. Amin, are employed in the renewable energy industry, and it is one of the fastest growing industries with considerable prospects for jobs in the future. He offered renewable energy as a means to dynamize investment and the economies of countries experiencing structures that no longer generate sufficient employment.
Professor Vijay Modi, from Columbia University called for what he coined a “complicated symphony” of energy options for developing countries, and stressed that decarbonization must not be done “on the backs of the poor.” He was cautious about the extent to which low and middle-income countries could continue to develop their electric grids without at least some role for traditional energy sources.
The next OWG session, the sixth of eight such sessions planned so far, will begin 9 December and focus on the means of implementation, the needs of the poorest and most vulnerable countries, as well as the role of human rights in an eventual sustainable development framework. Discussions will take place at UN headquarters in New York, and continue throughout the week.
The group slated to devise a set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by September 2014 met again to tackle the issues of economic development, industrialization and energy. In the opening session, H.E. Mr Macharia Kamau spoke about “a sense of urgency” to address unacceptable levels of poverty and slow the current rate of climate change.
"Poverty eradication must be the overriding objective," said Mr. Kamau, while recalling broad support from the group’s previous meeting for a set of goals that are ambitious and few, but also universal.
Dr. Jagdish Bhagwati, professor at Columbia University, delivered the keynote address, and challenged the group to clearly distinguish between desirable ends and the means to achieve them. He talked about the necessity of prioritizing economic growth in the development agenda for the purpose of generating the revenues needed for states to pursue other policy areas, including the environmental and social.
Director-General of UNIDO, Mr. Li Yong then spoke of the importance of building the industrial capacity of developing and lesser developed states, and stated, “No country that is rich today has not gone through the process of industrialization.” In the statements from member states that followed, most delegates agreed that industrialization was a necessary and prerequisite process for development.
Many delegations emphasized the supremacy of the economic pillar, saying that a healthy economy would ultimately facilitate the pursuit of the economic and social pillars that, when all three are put together, lay the foundations of sustainable development. However, the utility of economic growth as an objective was questioned, and many delegates pointed out that employment and decent work are ultimately objectives that policies in support of industrialization or economic growth are designed to achieve.
Professor Jeffrey Sachs of Columbia University’s Earth Institute spoke on a panel in the afternoon, alongside Mr. Mukhisa Kituyi, Secretary-General of UNCTAD, Mr. Amadou Sy of the Brookings Institution and Mr. Amar Bhattacharya, Director of G-24. Professor Sachs’ keynote speech outlined a proposed set of SDGs that included targets on youth employment and productive employment, and stressed that “to tackle the social deprivation highlighted by the MDGs, we must give accent to promoting livelihoods and building productive capacities.”
Mr. Bhattacharya then drew attention to jobless growth and recovery hindered by structural unemployment. He reminded the group that growth does not equate to job creation and pointed out that women’s and youth employment problems in particular are acute in both developing and developed world. He called for social protection in countries rich and poor, to be provided sustainably through improved tax performance and resource allocation and an end to bad subsidies. He encouraged the use of targeted subsidies and transfers and progressive tax systems.
The following discussion on energy for sustainable development included two tracks. The first regarded the need to expand access to electricity and cooking fuels, regardless of their type, while the second was the replacement of fossil fuels with greener, renewable substitutes.
There was some debate about the extent to which subsidies of both fossil and renewable fuels exert distortionary effects on the market, on prices, and ultimately on the prospects for the adoption of more sustainable energy consumption.
Mr. Adnan Amin, Director-General, International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), delivered the keynote address presented the IRENA’s a study on the employment impact of renewable energy. He painted a promising picture of the future price competitiveness of renewable fuels in an energy market dominated by entrenched fossil fuel interest.
Nearly six million people worldwide, according to Mr. Amin, are employed in the renewable energy industry, and it is one of the fastest growing industries with considerable prospects for jobs in the future. He offered renewable energy as a means to dynamize investment and the economies of countries experiencing structures that no longer generate sufficient employment.
Professor Vijay Modi, from Columbia University called for what he coined a “complicated symphony” of energy options for developing countries, and stressed that decarbonization must not be done “on the backs of the poor.” He was cautious about the extent to which low and middle-income countries could continue to develop their electric grids without at least some role for traditional energy sources.
The next OWG session, the sixth of eight such sessions planned so far, will begin 9 December and focus on the means of implementation, the needs of the poorest and most vulnerable countries, as well as the role of human rights in an eventual sustainable development framework. Discussions will take place at UN headquarters in New York, and continue throughout the week.