Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 24 July 2018
2065. Deputy Catherine Connolly asked the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if he will report on his visit to New York; the persons who travelled with him from his Department; the meetings he attended; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33895/18]
Amharc ar fhreagraI participated in the High Level Segment of the 2018 session of the United Nations High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF), which took place in New York from Monday 16 July to Wednesday 18 July 2018.
I was accompanied by my private secretary, my press and policy advisors, and the assistant secretary with responsibility for climate action and environment within my Department.
Three officials from the Sustainable Development, Environment Co-ordination and Governance Division within my Department had previously travelled to New York to attend the non-Ministerial segment of the HLPF, which took place from 9-13 July 2018. These three officials remained in New York during my participation in the High Level Segment.
The HLPF is the global UN platform for the follow-up and review of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development including the Sustainable Development Goals, SDGs. The aim of the HLPF in this regard is to identify best practice, exchange knowledge, highlight common challenges, and improve cooperation in relation to the implementation SDGs, which were agreed in 2015 by UN member states.
At the HLPF this year, I delivered Ireland's first Voluntary National Review (VNR), thus fulfilling one of the actions committed to under Ireland's SDG National Implementation Plan 2018-2020. The VNR provides domestic and international audiences with a comprehensive overview of Ireland’s progress towards meeting the SDGs and of how Ireland is supporting the SDGs’ global achievement.
In addition to the VNR, I also delivered Ireland's National Statement to the HLPF.
Supplementary to attending formal meetings of the HLPF, while in New York I also met with:
Senior management at Facebook, further to the recent Channel 4 "Dispatches" programme "Inside Facebook: Secrets of the Social Network".
Representatives of the Office of the Major of New York City, in relation to Ireland's climate action policy
Representatives of Enet, in relation to the National Broadband Plan
Representatives of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), in relation to Ireland's support for the Convention's work
Representatives of Bloomberg, in relation to climate action
Members of the Irish Business Organisation of New York, in relation to business and the environment
Representatives of Irish civil society organisations attending the HLPF, in relation to Ireland's implementation of the SDGs
The UN Secretary-General's Special Representative for International Migration, in relation to migration issues
Representatives of a wide range of other countries attending the HLPF
I also attended an SDG Business Forum High Level Lunch, hosted for Heads of Delegations at the UN Headquarters, and delivered opening remarks at a meeting, hosted by Permanent Mission of Ireland to the UN on the margins of the HLPF, on the work of the Central Statistics Office in relation to the SDGs.
I also announced that Ireland would be giving up to €1.2 million to the UNCCD to support the further development of the Great Green Wall initiative in Africa and €800,000 to support the UN Climate Change Convention in delivering its capacity building programmes, with a particular focus on the gender impacts of climate change.
