Sustainable Development Goals include the right to drinking

[Oscar]

WIN! Sustainable Development Goals include the right to drinking water and sanitation

[ http://canadians.org/blog/win-sustainab ... sanitation ]

September 25, 2015 - 4:40pm

The Guardian reports, "To cheers, applause and probably a tinge of relief, the 17 global goals that will provide the blueprint for the world’s development over the next 15 years were ratified by UN member states in New York on Friday. ...The ambitious agenda – which aims to tackle poverty, climate change and inequality for all people in all countries – was signed off by 193 countries at the start of a three-day UN summit on sustainable development." [ http://www.theguardian.com/global-devel ... -yousafzai ]

Significantly, the Sustainable Development Goals agenda includes the universal access to water and sanitation. The United Nations member states pledged in paragraph 7 of the adopted text, "A world where we reaffirm our commitments regarding the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation".

The recognition of the human right to water and sanitation in the post-2015 development agenda is the result of sustained efforts by the Blue Planet Project and numerous allies.

In April 2014, a letter signed by 87 civil society organizations was sent to key UN member states stating, "It is crucial that the SDG process guarantee the progressive realization of the human right to water and sanitation now and for future generations. Furthermore, given the central role of water within a number of different SDG areas, it is vital that the human right to water be seen as a central component of other focus areas including energy, food, gender and climate change." In June 2014, a letter was sent by nearly 300 NGOs calling for the SDG process to reinsert the human right to water and sanitation into the SDG text.

In April 2015, Council of Canadians chairperson Maude Barlow spoke to the United Nations General Assembly. She highlighted, "For the post -2015 development agenda to reach its objective of being just, people-centred and sustainable, the goals must prioritize - for present and future generations – the human right to water for health, life, food and culture over other demands on water resources, especially industrial consumption. The goal must promote a hierarchy of water use the prioritizes basic human needs, local consumption, and healthy ecosystems, setting a zero target on freshwater extraction beyond sustainable supply and protecting and restoring aquifers and watersheds."

Blue Planet Project campaigner Meera Karunananthan has been regularly meeting with UN member state representatives on this issue, including interventions in May, June and July 2014 and in March, May and July 2015.

The Guardian article adds, "The UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, said the true test of commitment to the new global goals will be implementation."

As we have noted in a media release, "Despite this important reaffirmation of the human right to water and sanitation, we remain deeply concerned about some elements of the broader agenda. Specifically in relation to the realization of the human right to water and sanitation through sustainable development initiatives, we are troubled by the lack of clarity regarding the role of the private sector and the call in SDG 7 to expand 'modern energy'. Investments in 'modern energy' through this agenda would threaten global efforts to stop the spread of hydraulic fracturing and big dam development projects that have been detrimental to watersheds." [ http://canadians.org/media/human-right- ... ent-agenda ]

The Blue Planet Project and allies will continue to work to ensure that privatization is not part of the implementation of the post-­2015 development agenda essential services, including water and sanitation. Karunananthan will be travelling to the United Nations this coming Monday and Tuesday for a 'Dialogues for Justice' follow-up forum with allies.

Further reading

Human right to water and sanitation named and reaffirmed in post-2015 development agenda (August 2015 media release)
[ http://canadians.org/media/human-right- ... ent-agenda ]

Defending the human right to water and sanitation at the United Nations (July 2015 blog by Meera Karunananthan)
[ http://canadians.org/blog/defending-hum ... ed-nations ]

Blue Planet Project calls for explicit recognition of right to water in UN development agenda (May 2015 blog)
[ http://canadians.org/blog/blue-planet-p ... ent-agenda ]

Blue Planet Project calls for right to water to be named in Post-2015 Development Agenda (May 2015 blog)
[ http://canadians.org/blog/blue-planet-p ... ent-agenda ]

Blue Planet Project says privatising public services is no way to fund sustainable development (May 2015 blog)
[ http://canadians.org/blog/blue-planet-p ... evelopment ]

Tags:

Blue Planet Project (BPP): [ http://canadians.org/tags/bpp ]

Brent Patterson's blog
Political Director for the Council of Canadians
[ http://canadians.org/blogs/brent-patterson ]

[Oscar]

Sustainable Development Goals Could Learn From Indigenous Peoples

[ http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/3 ... us-peoples ]

Wednesday, 30 September 2015 00:00
By Fionuala Cregan, Common Dreams | Op-Ed

- - -
QUOTE: “The SDGs only response to our polycrisis is for more of the same: more economic growth, everywhere; more industrial production and consumption; and more of the same basic thinking that has brought us to this point.”
- - -

This weekend, world leaders gather at the United Nations in New York to endorse, to much fanfare, celebrity endorsement and self-congratulation, the new global plan for poverty: "Transforming Our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development." [ https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/p ... ngourworld ] Otherwise known as The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Meanwhile, far from the glitz and limelight, the Guarani Indigenous Peoples in Bolivia are suffering violent repression as they demonstrate against oil extraction on their land. Thousands of Shuar and Achuar Indigenous have taken to the streets of Ecuador demanding an end to large scale extractive projects in the Amazon, and a group of Qom and Wichi Indigenous begin their sixth month camped on a main avenue in Argentina's capital Buenos Aires to demand a meeting with the government about the loss of their ancestral lands to mass soy cultivation.

Across the world, Indigenous Peoples are at the forefront of struggles to defend the Earth's remaining habitats from the relentless advance of extractive industries, from open air mining, to oil driling to and single crop industrial agriculture.

Unfortunately, the new SDGs offer them little by way of support.

The SDGs are drenched in feel good phrases like: "peaceful and inclusive societies"; "effective and accountable institutions"; "healthy lives and well-being for all"; and "harmony with nature." In reality, however, this self-proclaimed "transformative agenda" is little more than a fig-leaf for business-as-usual. [ https://medium.com/insurge-intelligence ... 91c106bb03 ]

Once you strip away all the feel good rhetoric, it becomes clear that at the centre of the SDGs is a single idea: perpetual economic growth. In the real world, this means ever-increasing levels of extraction, production and consumption, including a 7 percent annual GDP growth for the world's least-developed countries (LDCs). This, according to the UN and their big NGO and big business collaborators, is the key to solving poverty and inequality.

Alberto Aguirre, a Qom Indigenous activist from Argentina, sees the effects of this obsession with endless growth. "In the last 30 years we have seen an unprecedented pillaging of the Earth's natural resources. This has brought with it hunger and environmental devastation," he says. "Market economies have caused pollution, hunger and death. In the past, communities lived in harmony with Nature, the rivers were not contaminated, people did not go hungry and species were intact."

MORE:

[ http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/3 ... us-peoples ]

[Oscar]

Secret Trade Negotiations Threaten Sustainable Development Goals

[ http://www.ipsnews.net/2015/09/opinion- ... ent-goals/ ]

By Sam Cossar-Gilbert
Sam Cossar-Gilbert is Economic Justice and Resisting Neoliberalism coordinator at Friends of the Earth International

AMSTERDAM, Sep 25 2015 (IPS) - World leaders and Pope Francis met in New York Friday to announce ‘a plan to transform our world’, the Sustainable Development Goals.

Yet as the United Nations announce goals to be achieved by 2030, a crucial but secret trade meeting is taking place to advance the Trans Pacific Partnership, which will set the economic rules for 40 percent of the world economy, and threatens to undermine the U.N. goals before they have even begun.

The Sustainable Development Goals, or SDGs, are made up of 17 general goals with 169 targets, including an end to extreme poverty and hunger, providing universal access to clean water and protecting the world’s oceans. The initiative is supported by 193 countries, the United Nations, the World Bank and countless non-profits, and establishes the international development agenda for the next 15 years.

The SDGs replace the 2000-2015 Millennium Development Goals, which aimed to half extreme poverty globally. The SDGs set similarly broad targets, with little policy prescription about how to get there. While this makes a consensus easier to reach, it fails to address some of the key drivers of poverty and climate change – corporate power, the fossil fuel industry and unjust trade agreements.

The Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal being negotiated in Atlanta September 26-30 by 12 countries in the Pacific will undermine a number of key SDGs, highlighting a distinct lack of policy coherence.

While President Obama is shaking hands with world leaders, announcing plans to end all curable diseases, U.S. trade negotiators continue to force developing countries to extend patents on important pharmaceuticals and accept higher medicine prices.

No right to regulate for sustainability

The 12th Sustainable Development Goal aims to “ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns” by 2030. This is a bold and ambitious goal given that the current corporate-driven global trade system is responsible for massively wasteful consumption and production patterns.

Current trade rules put profits before the planet, limiting government’s ability to support local sustainability initiatives and regulate dangerous chemicals.

The TPP would drive a race to the bottom in environmental protection. The TPP chapters on technical barriers to trade will threaten regulators’ access to the tools needed to effectively regulate the roughly 85,000 chemicals in commerce needed to protect human health and our environment.

Even very simple consumer sustainability measures like efficiency rating and food labelling on imported goods could be impossible under TPP, because labelling regulation can be deemed a “barrier to trade”.

No right to health under TPP

The third Sustainable Development Goal aims to “Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages”, with a focus on achieving universal health coverage, access to affordable medicines and vaccines for all. Yet new Intellectual Property rules included in the TPP would restrict access to life-saving medicines for millions of people.

These Intellectual Property rules would increase patent and data protections for pharmaceutical companies and dismantle public health safeguard enshrined in national and international law.

U.S. Trade Representatives, lobbied by multinational companies, have sought to impose a lengthy 12-year “exclusivity period” over biologic clinical data, which could greatly undermine global efforts to end major epidemics like AIDS. The shorter the period of exclusivity, the quicker cheaper generic drugs can reach the people in need.

The New Zealand Prime Minister John Key admitted that the TPP would increase the price of medicine. For every extra year added to a medical patent is another year that big pharmaceutical companies can continue to charge artificially high prices for the drug, free from generic competition. In many developing countries this means a choice between life and death for their citizens. If similar rules were introduced globally it would be impossible for countries to achieve the third SDG goal.

Climate goals traded away

The 11th Sustainable Development Goal calls for “urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.” Yet the Investor State Dispute Settlement mechanism (ISDS) included in the TPP – and other trade agreements – grants foreign investors access to a secret tribunal if they believe actions taken by a government will affect their future profits.

This provision is a ticking time-bomb for climate policy, because almost any government policies needed to address global warming could be challenged by such undemocratic tribunals.

In 2009 Vattenfall, the Swedish energy giant, launched a USD1.9 billion ISDS case against Germany for its decision to delay a coal fired power station and impose stricter environmental standards. To avoid the potentially massive fine looming under ISDS, the government reached a settlement that involved removing additional environmental requirements, enabling the coal plant to begin operating in 2014. Coal contains more carbon than other fossil fuels and is the single greatest threat to the climate.

At a time when the world pledges to the Sustainable Development Goals, calling for a transition to clean energy, the TPP’s energy chapter does the opposite: it aims at liberalising oil and gas exports, and increasing the trade in dirty fossil fuels.

If world leaders are serious about creating a sustainable future, they need to allow a new trade system that helps, not hinders, local economies, environmental standards, better social protection and clean energy.

If the word ‘Sustainable’ is not there just to boost public relations appeal, it requires meaningful action. One concrete way to make our future more sustainable would be to walk away from bad trade deals like the TPP and ensure a fairer trade system.