UN rep: TT will struggle to meet sustainable development goals

It will be extremely difficult for TT to achieve the sustainable development agenda of 2030 set out by the UN, especially because there is only a little over ten years remaining to do so.

So said UN representative Marina Walter at the Marriott hotel at the launch of the Environmental Commission's stakeholder outreach series on Tuesday.

"The commitment is to achieve sustainable development and to not leave anyone behind by the year 2030. That is a tall order in the not-so-much time that is left," Walter said.

TT signed onto the UN envision 2030 agenda in 2015, becoming the twelfth country in Latin America and the Caribbean to do so.

The agenda has 17 "sustainable development goals" (SDGs) that Walter says are all underlined and held together by environmental sustainability, which is precisely what concerns the Environmental Commission. These goals include extinguishing poverty and hunger while improving gender equality, good health and well-being, access to clean water and energy, as well as taking advanced climate action to preserve both life above and below the water.

Achieving the goals will be hard not only for TT but for all nations which have signed the agenda, since even the richest countries in the world possess some degree of poverty. As for goals such as good health and well-being, they are very subjective and could mean different things for different nations as well as the various people within them.

Walter said she hopes the Environmental Commission can help achieve these goals according to the constitution and laws of TT.

"We hope these new programmes help to highlight also the coalition work. In our eyes, where we stand at the UN is directly linked to what the country TT is doing in regard to development envisioned for 2030."

Walter is the UN resident co-ordinator to TT, Suriname, Aruba, Curacao and St Martin. She took up her appointment in 2018.