The Diplomat
The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, received yesterday at the Moncloa Palace the Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations and President of the UN Panel for Sustainable Development, Amina J. Mohammed, who later travelled to Bilbao to preside over the inauguration of the global headquarters of the Secretariat of the Local2030 Coalition, the UN platform for the fulfillment at the local level of the 2030 Agenda.
During the meeting, as reported by Moncloa, Sánchez and Mohammed reviewed “the situation created by the overlapping crises facing the international community”: the energy, food security and climate emergency. The Deputy Secretary General, according to the same source, expressed her confidence that the Government’s commitment to multilateralism will allow Spain to play a relevant role in the EU in the search for answers to these crises.
Later, Amina Mohammed held a working lunch with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares. “Fruitful meeting with the UN deputy secretary general” to address “the main multilateral issues and Spain’s support for the fulfillment of the SDGs,” the minister stated via his Twitter account. “Spain’s support to the UN is a priority of our foreign policy,” he added. The deputy secretary general was also received by the president of the Congress of Deputies, Meritxell Batet.
Mohammed’s visit to Spain coincided with the opening of the global headquarters of the Local2030 Coalition Secretariat at the Basque Historical Archive in Bilbao. The Basque city was designated in mid-September to host the headquarters of this body, a United Nations platform in charge of promoting compliance at the local level with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). “With this one, there are now six UN agencies in Spain,” Moncloa assured yesterday. Bilbao’s candidacy was presented by the Government vaso last July and had the backing of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Amina Mohammed herself attended yesterday afternoon the inauguration of the headquarters in Bilbao, along with Minister Albares, the lehendakari, Iñigo Urkullu, and the mayor of Bilbao, Juan Mari Aburto. During the event, Mohammed congratulated the central government of Spain and the autonomous government of Euskadi for their commitment, at a time when “we need people with a voice to say how they want to transform their communities.” “I hope that the Bilbao headquarters will become a voice with authority,” she said.
She also urged the implementation of transformative actions from the local level to create a more sustainable world and stressed the importance of “the participation of civil society in the territories for the success of the 2030 Agenda” and the role of cities in achieving the SDGs. “We need to improve urban planning, public services, the transition to renewable energies, because cities emit 70% of carbon,” he said.
For his part, José Manuel Albares stated that the presence of the UN deputy secretary general in Bilbao “evidences the importance of our cities and our regions to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, and also underlines the role of Spain as a leading country in these initiatives.” Likewise, Lehendakari Urkullu affirmed that “the 2030 Agenda is a necessity and an opportunity” in these “times of crisis”.
Amina J. Mohammed is the current Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations and the Chair of the United Nations Panel for Sustainable Development. Prior to her appointment, she was Nigeria’s Minister of Environment. She first joined the United Nations in 2012 as special advisor to then Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and as development planner since 2015. She also led the process that led to the global agreement on the 2030 Agenda.
