Peter Thomson, Fijian Ambassador and UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for the Ocean, asserts that it is essential to build awareness of the SDGs amongst children and youth to build momentum for action and achieve the global goals.
“The Commonwealth provides many excellent examples of how governments, educational institutions, teachers and students are raising awareness of the SDGs and building momentum for action and change.”
These days, I preface most of my public remarks by assuring people that we have a plan to secure humanity’s place on planet earth. Taken together with the Paris Climate Agreement, that plan is the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, with its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) providing for people and planet. After many years of careful negotiation, the plan was agreed in 2015 by the leaders of every UN member state. Faced with climate change, ocean change and a burgeoning human population approaching the boundaries of the planet’s finite resources, fidelity to this plan is vital for us all.
The fourth of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 4) requires us to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and to promote lifelong learning opportunities for all. Meeting SDG 4 is central to the achievement of the entire 2030 Agenda, for it links to and underlies all of the other SDGs…
Peter Thomson
Fijian Ambassador and UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for the Ocean
