Speech by President of the Republic Of Finland Tarja Halonen at the Interactive Dialogue of the United Nations General Assembly in New York on 16 March 2011

I want to begin by expressing my deepest sympathies and condolences to the people and Government of Japan, and in particular to those who lost family and friends in the natural disasters last week. The on-going crisis is on all our minds.

It is a great pleasure to be invited to this interactive dialogue on the Secretary-General’s Global Sustainability Panel. I would like to thank you, Mr. President, for organizing this event. The interest of the General Assembly is important and encouraging.

The Panel has been mandated by the Secretary-General “to formulate a new blueprint for sustainable growth and low-carbon prosperity for all on a planet under increasing strain”. The Panel is expected to report back to the Secretary-General in the end of this year.

The task of the Panel is to look in a holistic way at global challenges such as climate change and eradication of poverty. We try to build the bridges between those challenges and development.

The Panel is working to reach balance between economic, environmental and social pillars of sustainable development, so-called modern trinity. This means giving more emphasis to the social pillar in order to reduce inequality and enhance social justice. Empowerment of women is also crucial in order to build sustainable development in a balanced way.

In addition to the horizontal coherence across the three pillars, we have to pursue vertical coherence from the local level to the global.

We are aware that that progress has been made on addressing many global environmental concerns, for instance, on biodiversity. Commitments like Millennium Development Goals to eradicate poverty and promote social justice are remarkable achievements and must be kept. The UN has also made many efforts to make global economy more sustainable.

Yet, the Panel cannot be expected to give an answer to every global challenge. But the Panel is strongly committed to meet the high level of ambition of our mandate as well as the challenging timetable.

The Panel’s recommendations can contribute to the intergovernmental decision-making processes such as the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development. Whatever recommendations on sustainability we will make, it is finally up to the Member States to adopt them. And, I suppose, a more efficient United Nations will be needed to carry them out.
Mr. President,

The Panel has held two meetings so far. Between these meetings background work has been done in working groups, as well as at Sherpa meetings and by the Secretariat. The Panel is also reaching out to major stakeholders and regional intergovernmental institutions.

The Panel is willing, even enthusiastic to fulfill its task, to offer a positive vision of sustainable future. But the biggest part of the work lies still ahead, and the Panel is fully conscious about that.

At our first meeting here in New York last September we had a general discussion on the mandate of the Panel and on the vision of the Panel. The discussion proved that the Panelists agreed on many fundamental issues.

There is no need to redefine sustainable development. The concept, launched about twenty years ago, has evolved but is still valid, but implementation is lacking. That is where the difficulties are.

There was also a general consensus that the Panel should produce as practical outcome as possible, preferably based on best practices.

At our second meeting three weeks ago in Cape Town the Panel concentrated on organizing its future work.

We decided that our future work should be guided by the following question: “How to eradicate poverty and reduce inequality, make growth inclusive, and production and consumption more sustainable while combating climate change and respecting the range of other planetary boundaries?”

It was discussed that the solution is global sustainability, understood as a resilient planet that supports its people’s needs.

The core challenges mentioned included planetary boundaries and climate change, environmental degradation, population growth and other demographic developments as well as poverty and inequality. It was also highlighted that we have to pay attention to our general vulnerability to environmental, social and economic shocks. We have noticed this vulnerability once again in Japan.

In Cape Town, we also debated the goals to reach sustainability. Four wide goals or group of goals were proposed at this stage of our work.

First, we have to eradicate poverty, reduce inequality and enhance social justice. Second, we have to shift to sustainable production and consumption as well as to inclusive growth which will generate welfare to all. Third, we must be able to manage scarcity, common goods, and ecosystems with respect to planetary boundaries. Fourth, security in a wide sense has to be enhanced.

We discussed that to get to these goals a wide range of means have to be deployed. At this stage we agreed that we should look for appropriate means, in particular, on four cross-cutting areas: markets and finance, governance, technology and gender equality and empowerment of women.
In this framework the work of the Panel continues, and the work plan will certainly be elaborated as we proceed.

The next meeting will be held in Helsinki in mid-May. Two more meetings are planned for this year, first, during the opening week of the General Assembly in September, and then in the end of the year.

The Panel will maintain its openness towards the outside world. Our outreach will continue, and contribution will be welcomed from governments, stakeholder groups as well as non-governmental organizations.

We will also be available to you, Mr. President, and the General Assembly, as well as the Preparatory Process for the Rio+20 Conference.