G20 New Delhi Declaration seeks to accelerate progress on SDGs: EAM Jaishankar

New Delhi [India], September 9 : External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar on Saturday said the New Delhi Declaration adopted by G20 leaders focuses on promoting strong sustainable, balanced and inclusive growth and seeks to accelerate progress on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The Leaders of the member countries committed to enhancing G20 cooperation and partnerships to address challenges being faced in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda.
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development was launched by a UN Summit in New York on 25-27 September 2015 and is aimed at ending poverty in all its forms. The UN 2030 Agenda envisages “a world of universal respect for human rights and human dignity, the rule of law, justice, equality and non-discrimination”.
The Agenda’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), and their 169 targets, aim at eradicating poverty in all forms and “seek to realize the human rights of all and achieve gender equality”.
“The declaration the leaders have agreed on today focuses on promoting strong sustainable, balanced and inclusive growth. It seeks to accelerate progress on SDGs and has come up with an action plan accordingly,” the EAM said during a press briefing by the G20 Presidency on Saturday.
At the start of the G20 second session, the Summit adopted the G20 New Delhi Leaders' Declaration.
The EAM said the declaration “envisages a green development pact for a sustainable future, it  endorses high-level principles on lifestyle for sustainable development, voluntary principles of hydrogen, the Chennai principles for a sustainable resilient blue economy  and the Deccan principles on food security and nutrition among others...”
The EAM emphasized that the G20 has recognized the need for a post-pandemic world order that differs from the one before it. He highlighted that the G20 has played a significant role in preparing India to engage with the world effectively.
Meanwhile, G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant said: "The key achievements include, we have achieved a green development pact...every single country has come together to focus on green development pact which has financing, which has a focus on global greenhouse gas emission by 43 per cent by 2030, which has a doubling provision of adapting finance by 2025, which has a global biofuel alliance..."
The G20 New Delhi Leaders' Declaration agreed to leverage the G20’s convening power and its collective resolve to fully and effectively implement the 2030 Agenda and accelerate progress toward the SDGs, in a timely manner, to shape the world we want to see for our future generations.
The G20 leaders through the declaration, committed to accelerate progress on SDGs by taking collective action for effective and timely implementation of the G20 2023 Action Plan to Accelerate Progress on the SDGs, including its High-Level Principles.
“We will ensure that no one is left behind. We commend the efforts of the Indian Presidency to accelerate the implementation of the 2030 Agenda. To this end, we recognise the role of digital transformation, AI, data advances, and the need to address digital divides. We endorse the G20 Principles on Harnessing Data for Development (D4D) and welcome the decision to launch Data for Development Capacity Building Initiative, and other existing initiatives,” the declaration read.
“We reaffirm our commitment towards the mobilisation of affordable, adequate and accessible financing from all sources to support developing countries in their domestic efforts to address bottlenecks for implementation of the 2030 Agenda and the Addis Ababa Action Agenda. We call upon developed countries to fully deliver on their respective ODA commitments that complement and encourage development financing from all other sources, including public and private, domestic and international, in a timely manner, and contribute to addressing the financing needs of developing countries.”
The declaration highlighted the crucial role of tourism and culture as a means for sustainable socio-economic development and economic prosperity and took note of the Goa Roadmap for Tourism as one of the vehicles for achieving the SDGs.
The G20 leaders committed to enhancing G20 cooperation and partnerships to address challenges being faced in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda. "We welcome ongoing efforts at the UN, including the Secretary General’s efforts to address the SDG financing gap through an SDG stimulus, and will provide full support to the United Nations 2023 SDG Summit, the United Nations Summit of the Future, and other relevant processes," the declaration read.
The G20 leaders reiterated their commitment to take action to scale up sustainable finance. In line with the G20 Sustainable Finance Roadmap, "we welcome the analytical framework for SDG-aligned finance and voluntary recommendations for scaling up adoption of social impact investment instruments and improving nature-related data and reporting, informed by the stocktaking analyses, considering country circumstances."
Earlier on Saturday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said consensus has been built on the New Delhi G20 Leaders' Summit Declaration and announced its adoption.
The Prime Minister, who is chairing the G20 sessions, congratulated the Sherpas and ministers who had worked towards forging the consensus.
"I have received good news. Due to the hard work of our team, consensus has been built on New Delhi G20 Leaders' Summit Declaration. My proposal is to adopt this leadership declaration. I announce to adopt this declaration. On this occasion, I congratulate my Sherpa, ministers, who worked hard for it and made it possible,” he said.
India is hosting the two-day-long G20 Leaders Summit at the newly inaugurated Bharat Mandapam Convention Centre at Pragati Maidan in the national capital.
This is the first time that the G20 Summit is taking place under India’s presidency. Formed in 1999, the G20 was setup to maintain global financial stability by incorporating middle-income countries.
India assumed the G20 presidency on December 1 last year and about 200 meetings related to G20 were organized in 60 cities across the country. The 18th G20 Summit in New Delhi will be a culmination of all the G20 processes and meetings held throughout the year among ministers, senior officials, and civil societies.