A/RES/66/288
respective principles and provisions, as well as to take effective and concrete
actions and measures at all levels and enhance international cooperation.
18. We are determined to reinvigorate political will and to raise the level of
commitment by the international community to move the sustainable development
agenda forward, through the achievement of the internationally agreed development
goals, including the Millennium Development Goals. We further reaffirm our
respective commitments to other relevant internationally agreed goals in the
economic, social and environmental fields since 1992. We therefore resolve to take
concrete measures that accelerate implementation of sustainable development
commitments.
B.
Advancing integration, implementation and coherence: assessing the
progress to date and the remaining gaps in the implementation of the
outcomes of the major summits on sustainable development and
addressing new and emerging challenges
19. We recognize that the twenty years since the United Nations Conference on
Environment and Development in 1992 have seen uneven progress, including in
sustainable development and poverty eradication. We emphasize the need to make
progress in implementing previous commitments. We also recognize the need to
accelerate progress in closing development gaps between developed and developing
countries, and to seize and create opportunities to achieve sustainable development
through economic growth and diversification, social development and
environmental protection. To this end, we underscore the continued need for an
enabling environment at the national and international levels, as well as continued
and strengthened international cooperation, particularly in the areas of finance, debt,
trade and technology transfer, as mutually agreed, and innovation, entrepreneurship,
capacity-building, transparency and accountability. We recognize the diversification
of actors and stakeholders engaged in the pursuit of sustainable development. In this
context, we affirm the continued need for the full and effective participation of all
countries, in particular developing countries, in global decision-making.
20. We acknowledge that, since 1992, there have been areas of insufficient
progress and setbacks in the integration of the three dimensions of sustainable
development, aggravated by multiple financial, economic, food and energy crises,
which have threatened the ability of all countries, in particular developing countries,
to achieve sustainable development. In this regard, it is critical that we do not
backtrack from our commitment to the outcome of the United Nations Conference
on Environment and Development. We also recognize that one of the current major
challenges for all countries, particularly for developing countries, is the impact from
the multiple crises affecting the world today.
21. We are deeply concerned that one in five people on this planet, or over 1 billion
people, still live in extreme poverty, and that one in seven — or 14 per cent — is
undernourished, while public health challenges, including pandemics and epidemics,
remain omnipresent threats. In this context, we note the ongoing discussions in the
General Assembly on human security. We acknowledge that with the world’s
population projected to exceed 9 billion by 2050, with an estimated two thirds living
in cities, we need to increase our efforts to achieve sustainable development and, in
particular, the eradication of poverty, hunger and preventable diseases.
22. We recognize examples of progress in sustainable development at the regional,
national, subnational and local levels. We note that efforts to achieve sustainable
development have been reflected in regional, national and subnational policies and
plans, and that governments have strengthened their commitment to sustainable
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