Today in New York representatives from across the world will come together to finalise their proposals for global development for the next 15 years.
The event represents a real opportunity to help eradicate extreme poverty, boost education, tackle disease and fight climate change – but only if we get it right.
Ahead of that meeting Labour’s Shadow International Development Secretary, Jim Murphy is calling on the UK to do much more in three key areas to ensure that the 2015 SDG agreement is ambitious as well as achievable.
On Climate Change: The UK should lead calls to place the battle against Climate Change front and centre of a new agreement. They should argue for a commitment to keep the global rise in temperature below 2 degrees to be given top priority ‘goal-level’ status, as well as retaining commitments on environmental sustainability throughout the agreement.
On Health: The UK should use its status as the home of the NHS and a world leader in public health to argue for a headline commitment on Universal Health Coverage for all
On Poverty: The UK should go further than a simple plan to eliminate the risk of a life on $1.25 a day by raising the bar, and calling for an ambitious new target on $2 a day as well.
Unveiling his plan for the final meeting of the Open Working Group, Labour’s Shadow Development Secretary Jim Murphy said:
“We have a real opportunity to change our planet for the better – but only if we get it right. There is no time to lose, and millions of lives to save.
“With the right set of goals, we are the generation that has the power to wipe out extreme poverty, secure health coverage at all ages and finally begin to reverse the terrible tide of climate change. That is a thrilling opportunity.
“That’s why these negotiations need an urgent injection of radical ambition – led by the UK, but at the moment the British government just isn’t doing enough to push things forward.
“We should be leading calls for more - just as the last Labour government did when we helped establish the Millennium Development Goals and brought the world together to drop the debt.”