By Cecilia Caio (Development Initiatives) and Nerea Craviotto (Eurodad). Originally published on Devex

2020 starts the ten-year countdown for the successful implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals. It is also a critical period for a just response to climate change, ensuring that those who are the least responsible do not pay the greatest price.

On 22 January, Eurodad Director Jean Saldanha spoke as part of the public hearing on aid effectiveness held by the European Parliament Committee on Development. 

On January 12 2010 an earthquake of magnitude 7.3 on the Richter scale ripped through Port-au-Prince metropolitan area and other parts of Haiti. More than 1.5 million people, representing 15 per cent of the country's population, were directly affected by the earthquake. According to the Haitian government, 316,000 people lost their lives. An estimated US$ 7.8 billion dollars of damage was caused - equivalent to more than 120 per cent of the GDP of 2009. Everyone in Haiti has a story that begins or ends on 12 January and many wounds remain open. Everyone lost someone. Everyone remembers where they were that day.

The new European Commission is sending a clear signal by tabling a “Green New Deal” within a month of its inception. But to be a true statement of intent rather than a mere public relations manoeuvre, it must speak to the urgency for action.  

The Bretton Woods Institutions were built on the ruins of an old world-order, at the end of World War II, and the dawn of a new world order, marked by the birth of many new nation-states and the onset of the cold-war. 

This is the second of two blogs on PPPs in the UK. Read the first part here.

This is the first of two blogs looking at PPPs in the UK. Read the second part here

The debate about a Green New Deal has recently been reinvigorated in both sides of the Atlantic. In Europe, the Green New Deal is part of the priorities of the European Commission’s President-elect Ursula von der Leyen. And at the UN in New York last month, sustainable development was featured in a series of global Summits, including the Climate Action Summit. In response, UNCTAD used the momentum to  launch the 2019 edition of the Trade and Development Report (TDR) which analyses the new deal from a financing perspective, identifies constraints and outlines innovative financing options. 

Earlier this week, Members of the European Parliament had the opportunity to hear the Commissioner-designate for ‘International Partnerships’, a crucial step before she can be formally appointed by the Council later this month. In her statement to MEPs, former Finnish finance minister Jutta Urpilainen committed to focus on meeting the SDGs, reducing inequalities and eradicating poverty.