Obama commits US to new development goals at UN summit

NewsGram Staff Writer

United Nations: Pledging to slash inequality and create opportunities globally, US President Barack Obama committed the US to achieving global development goals at a United Nations summit.

"In doing so, we recognise that our most basic bond of humanity compels us to act," Obama said at the three-day Sustainable Development Summit that ended at the UN Headquarters in New York on Sunday, reported Xinhua news agency.

Earlier on Friday, world leaders adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development at the summit. The agenda includes a set of 17 Sustainable Development Goals to eradicate poverty, fight inequality and injustice, and tackle climate change by 2030.

Obama said the world suffers no illusions of the challenges ahead in achieving the goals, but "we understand this is something that we must commit ourselves to".

In his defence of the 15-year plan, Obama mentioned, around 800 million people are scraping by on less than $1.25 a day and billions of people are at risk of dying from preventable diseases. In his address, the US president also warned against bad governance and inequality, among others, which threaten the achievement of the ambitious goals.

Obama also urged some countries to dump old attitudes, especially those that deny rights and opportunity to women.

(With inputs from IANS)