Guterres: World 'failing' to meet development goals

(Patria) - War and lack of funding have hampered progress towards the United Nations' flagship development goals, which include action to combat climate change, warned on Friday the organization's Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, AFP reported.

In 2015, UN member states adopted the Sustainable Development Goals, 17 goals to transform the world by 2030, including the complete end of extreme poverty and the elimination of hunger. But Guterres said on Friday that “the world is getting a failing grade”.

“Our failure to secure peace, to tackle climate change and to scale up international finance is undermining development,” he told a briefing in New York, releasing the latest progress check on the goals.

“We must accelerate action for the Sustainable Development Goals and we have no time to lose -- only 17 percent of the goals (are) on track.”

Efforts to channel money and attention to the goals have been repeatedly slowed, including by the Covid-19 pandemic, wars in Ukraine, Gaza and Sudan, worsening climate disasters and a surge in the cost of living.