Heads of State from around the world gathered at the United Nations headquarters in New York for the Sustainable Development Summit beginning Friday, 25 September. At the Summit, world leaders adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which includes 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The Summit was the culmination of nearly three years of consultations with civil society and intergovernmental negotiations. This Agenda will guide the international community’s course for pursuing development over the next 15 years. Following consistent human-rights-based advocacy throughout the negotiation processes, the Mercy Global Action team, including Director Denise Boyle fmdm, was present during the Summit and was able to attend several of the plenary sessions and interactive dialogues.

Mercy Global Action Resident Angela Reed rsm attended one of the six interactive dialogues at the UN Summit entitled, “Protecting our planet and combating climate change.” At this gathering many world leaders stressed the fact that there is urgent action needed in regards to global warming. A number of leaders from the Global South spoke about the fact that they had made the least imprint on global warming, with very little carbon emissions, yet they were being impacted greatly by the change in weather conditions. Many leaders called for a robust legally binding agreement cutting carbon emissions to be adopted by world leaders at the COP 21 climate meeting in Paris, which will take place in December 2015.

L-r:Denise Boyle, fmdm, Director, MGA and Aine O'Connor rsm, MGA Coordinator at the UN	L-r:Avery Kelly, Fellow, MGA at the UN and Angela Reed rsm, Resident, MGA at the UN

Pope Francis addressed the United Nations General Assembly before the opening of the Sustainable Development Summit. He spoke about the urgent needs to address climate change, environmental destruction, widespread poverty, drug trafficking, the nuclear arms race, and other global issues. On the occasion of the Pope’s address before the General Assembly, Mercy Global Action and the NGO Mining Working Group wrote an open letter to Pope Francis. The letter connects transformative messages of climate justice in Laudato si’ to the need for a critical, careful implementation of the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs.

In his encyclical Laudato si’, Pope Francis also stressed the importance of collaboration by world leaders to take urgent and immediate action on climate change. In public addresses, the Pope has called for world leaders to adopt a visionary legally binding climate treaty at COP 21. He urges leaders to seize the moment as there is a real danger that our world as we know it is tragically heading towards catastrophe that will devastate our environment and plunge many more people into abject poverty if we do not act now. Mercy Global Action will be present at the COP 21 climate summit, with a particular focus on raising human rights and environmental concerns regarding hydraulic fracturing (fracking). Mercy will co-host two side events during the climate summit highlighting the International Movement to Ban Fracking.

In light of the UN Sustainable Development Summit, Mercy and the NGO Mining Working Group co-organized and took part in an all-day event entitled, “Dialogues for Justice, the Public Interest, and the Common Good: From the Margins and the Frontlines". The event brought together grassroots and faith-based groups, social and environmental justice activists, and advocates from around the world. It focused on uplifting voices from the margins and the frontlines from those who are worst affected by the current unjust and unsustainable mode of development in the world and connecting their experiences to the new global agenda.

Alongside these events, the Mercy Global Action team at the UN was present at a forum held by the organization 350.orghighlighting the urgent need to act in regard to the issue of climate change. A key message throughout the forum was that the use of fossil fuels as an energy source is totally unsustainable and is destructive to our earth. We currently have five times more carbon on our earth than can be burnt. Scientists state that 350 carbon dioxide parts per million is the most we can safely have in the atmosphere. We are now at 400 parts per million with an increase of 2 parts per million, per year. This is why we have to stop every new fossil fuel project now! Calling for climate justice, the forum underscored the need to invest in renewable energies such as solar and wind energy. With a social movement calling for climate justice and with political will we can make a just transition to renewable energies.

Messages to
Avery Kelly - Fellow MGA at the UN 
Angela Reed rsm - Resident MGA at the UN
Áine O’Connor rsm - MGA Coordinator at the UN
Denise Boyle fmdm - Director Mercy Global Action