Statement by the Under Secretary of State at the Ministry of Ecological Transition, Hon. Ilaria Fontana, at the General Debate of the 2021 UN High Level Political Forum For Sustainable Development. —
Honorable President,
Excellencies,
Distinguished delegates,
2020 is the year that will be remembered for the greatest crisis humanity has faced since World War II. The consequences of Covid-19 on the achievement of the 2030 Agenda are dramatic and will be affecting our work and progress for years to come.
We are clearly in a deep economic, social, health and environmental crisis whose root causes can be found well beyond the outbreak of Covid-19.
We, as a global community, stand at this crossroad in which transformational changes at all levels are not an option anymore. In this endeavor, we should be guided by increased planning capacities rooted around the key aspects such as resilience, adaptability, foresight, programming, participation, and integration.
Notwithstanding the current situation, today, we are better equipped. The universality and indivisibility of the 2030 Agenda have allowed us to strengthen our capability of working together at different levels and towards common objectives, canalizing our efforts towards sustainable development.
Italy is committed towards this transition, through a participatory and multilevel approach in declaiming the objectives of 2030 Agenda in economic, social and environmental planning processes. At national, regional and local level we are implementing our national sustainable development strategy.
In this context, the role of stakeholders has been crucial. In 2019 we have created a national forum for sustainable development to give voice and ensure an active participation of non-institutional actors in decision making processes on the implementation of the NSDS and the 2030 Agenda.
Through the forum, stakeholders have the opportunity to interact among themselves and with decision makers and prepare recommendations at the various levels of government to evaluate the work done and address efficient choices.
Today our challenges towards the implementation of the 2030 Agenda are coupled and supported by the efforts to ‘build back better’ from the consequences of Covid 19. The Next Generation EU has allowed us to define a plan that stimulates economic recovery to a forward-looking, challenging approach in which interdependencies among and within nations and sustainable development leaderships are key aspects.
At the national level, we have declaimed these tools to a national recovery and resilience plan that envisages ecological transition as a driving force towards our actions. In order to unlock the potential of our actions, coherent and effective governance mechanisms, strengthened policy integration and effective desynchronized programs in cycles will be all crucial.
By the end of this year, we are called to arise the national sustainable development strategy and building on the outcomes of the project founded by the European Commission, to develop an action plan on policy occurrence for sustainable development to be annexed to the revised strategy.
The ongoing revision process represents an opportunity to further contribute to our efforts towards building back better from Covid-19 by strengthening tools and mechanisms, to align decision making processes with the national sustainable development strategy and to better assess the compatibility of policies across sectors and with long term objectives.
We, therefore, look forward to share our efforts with you all through our second national voluntary review which is planned for the HLPF next year.
I conclude: Italy’s commitment is to support initiatives that foster green, inclusive, and sustainable recovery from the Covid-19 crisis. Italy is working together with UK to prepare the United Nations Climate Change Conference of the parties. COP 26, will be anticipated by Youth for Climate and Pre-COP in Milan.
This is the contribution that Italy’s providing for climate action.
