Your Excellency, President Xi Jinping.Thank you very much for your kind invitation and your warm hospitality in the wonderful city of Shanghai.Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,Artificial intelligence can be humanity’s greatest opportunity in the 21st century.It could also become one of its greatest risks.As the Conference theme reminds us, a brighter future depends on partnerships. And I thank China for bringing us together in that spirit.The launch by President Xi in 2023 of the Global AI Governance Initiative was a very strong message of Chinese commitment and leadership, and WAICO is its natural development.Partnership is also at the centre of the Global Digital Compact adopted by the UN General Assembly – with the full support of China.The Compact made it clear: Technology that will shape the future of humanity must be shaped by all humanity. It cannot be governed by a handful of countries or a handful of companies.Every nation needs a seat at the table. And the table has now been built through the Global Dialogue on AI Governance – as called in by the Compact.The first such Dialogue, held this month in Geneva – and informed by the Independent International Scientific Panel – carried an overriding message: Technology must serve people – not the other way around.Excellencies,Few areas hold greater promise for our common future than the application of AI to sustainable development.AI can accelerate medical breakthroughs.Transform education. Strengthen food systems and agricultural productivity. Spur new industries and create decent jobs.In short, AI can help usher in a quantum leap across the Sustainable Development Goals.But it won’t happen if the historical injustices of the past are repeated in the technologies of the future.And yet one-third of humanity is still offline.Many countries continue to face gaps in connectivity, infrastructure and energy access.Computing power, data resources and technical expertise remain concentrated.Hundreds of billions of dollars of private investment flood into artificial intelligence – while many developing countries receive just a trickle.AI risks pushing the world towards even greater inequalities … greater divides in income, in opportunity, in security … greater gaps between North and South.We cannot let that happen. The challenge before us is to ensure that artificial intelligence becomes a force for greater inclusion and shared progress.China has an essential role to play – and so do all of us.I am encouraged that over 20 countries -- including China -- have already responded to my invitation and nominated centres to a UN-supported Global Network for Exchange and Cooperation on AI Capacity Building at the service of developing countries.And I will also soon put forward recommendations for a Global Fund for AI with the same purpose.I ask for your full support for both initiatives.As we look ahead, let me highlight three priorities to help ensure all countries can benefit from the AI revolution.First – capacity.Developing countries bring enormous assets to the age of AI.Talent.  Ideas.  Young, dynamic populations.Every country should be able to shape this technology to its own needs: with its own skills, its own data, in its own languages.At the United Nations, China helped advance the first General Assembly resolution on AI capacity-building, adopted by consensus.And developing countries deserve support to build that capacity.The platforms and tools discussed here in Shanghai show what partnership can deliver.Technology built with developing countries, for developing countries.And that means open models countries can adapt.The open source strategy of China is an enormous global success.Computing power they can afford must be provided.And training for the people who will use them.Second – safety.Systems that cross borders need standards that cross borders.We need common approaches to testing, risk assessment, and responsibility.We need governance that is inclusive, networked, and anchored in international law.Human rights must be protected.Humans must keep control over every life-and-death decision.And no AI system should be put in a child’s hands before it has been proven safe.And third – sustainability.AI can help speed the energy transition – managing grids, integrating renewables, cutting waste.But its growing demands for energy, water and land must be brought into the open.I call on every major AI company to disclose the full environmental footprint of their systems – and power them with renewables by 2030.Several countries – and mainly China – already require data centres to use more renewable power every year.I ask all governments to follow this example – and make clean power for AI part of their national energy plans.Excellencies,The defining question is not whether artificial intelligence will transform the world. It will.The defining question is whether that transformation will reduce inequalities or reinforce them.Whether it will concentrate power or expand opportunity.Whether it will bring the promise of progress for every country – or only to those already at the front of the pack.This is a test of technology – and a test of solidarity. Let us pass the test as partners for a brighter future – and make AI a force for dignity, opportunity, and sustainable development for all.And I thank you.*****[source]

H.E. Mr. Lok Bahadur Thapa, President of ECOSOC, 
Under Secretary-General Melissa Fleming, 
Excellencies, distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen,
Thank you, President Thapa, for bringing us together this morning to discuss the final years to 2030 and beyond. The 2030 Agenda remains the most comprehensive, universally agreed roadmap the world has ever given itself. The SDGs have been transformational.At the same time less than five years left, progress is off track as we have learned through the conversations of the HLPF.The first decade of the Goals taught us profound lessons about how change happens when we invest right, and that learning is a critical element on which sustainable development beyond 2030 must be built. We have learned that transformation is not a switch one flicks to see instant change. Where I come from, we say: sannu ba ta hana zuwa – ‘going slowly does not stop the arriving’. And that’s true for the Goals.We have set foundations, and foundations take time to firm up before you can build on them. I believe the first eleven years of the SDGs have served exactly that purpose.I would like to speak about those lessons now. First, our assumptions about what progress would look like were quickly undone. Beginning with the assumption that the concept of sustainable development would be embraced by all as the new development paradigm.It hasn’t. It is still a work in progress for many.  Back in 2015 we also expected that progress towards 2030 would be linear. In eleven years that has rarely been the case. Progress has come the hard way – dynamics pushing against one another, shocks breaking our momentum, forcing us to adjust, to innovate, to course-correct again and again.This decade has thrown a pandemic at us. A climate crisis moving much faster than we feared. When the Goals were gaveled, no one imagined we would speak of overshoot a decade later. The rights of women and girls have been rolled back in many countries.More than sixty active conflicts today and humanitarian needs outpacing resources. Military spending at record highs amidst a shift towards national self-interest. Universality has taken a hit; so has confidence in multilateralism.SDG16 has faced one of the hardest tests. Democracy is under pressure, civic space has narrowed in many countries, and people's trust in their institutions has weakened.But as we pushed back against every one of these challenges, we have been building resilience – and resilience is itself a development outcome. It can be hard to perceive, but it is there. The crisis in the Middle East and the Strait of Hormuz is impacting people across the globe.With fertiliser affordability at its weakest in years, farmers are cutting back, some missing entire planting seasons. Families are losing out on remittances that have fallen dramatically. That said, this crisis would have been far more devastating ten years ago had the resilience not been built.And it was built because systems became the focus. When COVID hit, we set about strengthening health systems. We also learned hard lessons about production. People in the Global South were left waiting for vaccines.Now countries are building the capacity to make their own, adding value and diversifying supply chains in the process.Transforming education has become a whole-system effort, including students, families, teachers, technology. Food systems too – not an issue about agriculture and food security alone, but the recognition of the importance of social protection for small farmers, attention to women and girls, climate, and water.Crisis by crisis, sustainable development demanded that policymakers think outside their silos and in a more integrated way - across sectors, across borders and across the UN system itself. This is exactly what the Goals asked of us on the day they were gaveled: that we see them as mutually reinforcing pathways. We have learned that centralised governments alone won't cut it – science, academia, young people, civil society, local leaders and communities and the media are all necessary to the 2030 agenda. We have also learned that transformation, once it takes hold, is unstoppable. We see it in the social norms that have shifted.Leave no one behind was once a slogan, now it’s echoed everywhere, and intrinsically linked to having strong, disaggregated data.Consumer behaviour is also shifting, plastic-free and circularity now carry an appeal for many, that fossil fuels cannot match. Every single one of these learnings and shifts is a success of the SDGs, and must be put to work the final push to 2030.Ladies and gentlemen,The conversation on beyond 2030 must begin with taking this learning seriously – planning for a future that, we now know, will inevitably have uncertainty and headwinds. Some crises will be sudden and unexpected, some will be years in the making, but either way we know they will occur. We have to accelerate progress, yes – but we also need progress that can withstand shocks and protect hard won gains. Accelerating takes implementation: delivery at scale, accountability, partnerships that let us move, new players such as the private sector that we have only begun to draw in. It takes financing – and that begins with reforming a global financial architecture that is outdated and inadequate for today's realities.As ODA is falling, debt vulnerabilities are deepening, and the handshake that has long underpinned financing for development is failing.Reform will help us create fiscal space, build financing for when shocks hit and mobilise resources closer to the scale the Goals demand. The Pact for the Future gives us the blueprint, and the Sevilla Commitment the impetus to mobilise public, private, domestic and international resources. We need to lean into emerging technologies which are rewriting the development equation. The debate is no longer whether technology will transform development, but how it will serve inclusion, sustainability and equality. The Pact for the Future and the Global Digital Compact are guiding this work. Underpinning everything we do – towards 2030 and beyond – is a multilateralism built on solidarity and universality. 
Ladies and gentlemen,We cannot forget that the 2030 Agenda was a promise made to people – to the 1.9 billion young people who will have turned fifteen across the lifespan of these Goals, and to every person still waiting to be counted. Looking ahead to the SDG Summit in 2027, the conversations on both the final years to 2030 and the road beyond are parallel and intertwined.It will require all of us, and particularly young people.   We are not searching for a successor to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, but continuing this journey with ambition, resolve and responsibility. The foundations of this past decade were hard-won. The next five years are for delivering on the promise of the SDGs and building the foundations of the future. Thank you.***[source]

Her Excellency Selma Malika Haddadi, Deputy Chairperson of the African Union Commission His Excellency Fabrice David, Junior Minister of Agro-Industry, Food Security, Blue Economy and Fisheries of Mauritius   His Excellency Mohamed Edrees, Permanent Observer of the African Union to the United Nations Ministers and Heads of Delegation,  Excellencies, Distinguished guests,  Brothers and sisters, It is a pleasure to be back in this room, and I thank the African Union Observer Mission, the Office of the Special Adviser on Africa, ECA, UNDP and the African Development Bank for convening us once again.Africa Day is where the HLPF hears the continent speak for itself.This year that voice is stronger than ever: nineteen African countries are presenting Voluntary National Reviews - from every subregion, at every stage of development, each one opening its books to the world.I want to congratulate all nineteen for their submissions.A Voluntary National Review is an act of leadership, and I want to commend Egypt for presenting its fourth VNR, and Togo its fifth.This morning we also launch the 2026 Africa Sustainable Development Report, produced jointly by the African Union, the African Development Bank, UNDP and ECA - the ninth in its series, and focused on the five Goals under review at this year's Forum: water and sanitation, energy, industry and infrastructure, cities, and partnerships.I have looked at the reviews, the Union's own assessments under Agenda 2063, and this report side by side. Three messages come through all of them, and I would like to share them to frame our discussion today.The first message: access is spreading, but quality is the promise we have yet to keep.The gains Africa has made are significant, and we should say so.Progress is recorded in twelve of the seventeen Goals.Basic drinking water now reaches 81 per cent of Africans, up from 56 per cent in 2013.Electricity access has risen from 46 to 53 per cent since 2015.Mobile networks now cover almost 93 per cent of our population, and connectivity is opening doors for digital services across the continent.But quantity and quality do not equate, and if we hold ourselves to that standard, as we should, a different story emerges.For water that is safe to drink, coverage reaches 36 per cent of the continent, against a global average above 70.Only three in ten Africans have safely managed sanitation, and 650 million lack even basic facilities.Some 970 million Africans still cook with polluting fuels, and the smoke takes around four hundred thousand lives every year, most of them women and children.The disparities compound the challenge. More than eight in ten urban Africans have electricity; in rural areas, four in ten. Nearly half our urban population lives in informal settlements - twice the global average. Continental averages can hide all of this, and gains in one subregion can mask reversal in another.So the VNRs convey real progress, and the Report confirms it. But access to services is not enough until we see quality of services.The second message: the gap we need to fill is in implementation - specifically financing and capable institutions.This report says it clearly: Africa's challenge is not a lack of frameworks.The 2030 Agenda and Agenda 2063 give us the vision, and they reinforce each other.What stands between the plans and the people is fragmented implementation, limited financing and constrained institutional capacity.Consider what the report tells us about money.Government revenue averages 23 per cent of GDP, against a global average of 32.Tax revenue stands at about 16 per cent.More than twenty countries are at high risk of debt distress or already in it, and borrowing costs remain out of line with the fundamentals.Official development assistance to Africa continues to fall.Annual investment in energy access runs at around 4 billion dollars, far below target.And all of this against a global environment delivering shock after shock. The instability in the Middle East has amplified food, energy, and fertiliser price volatility, with direct spillovers into African economies.But implementation cannot be separated from peace. There will be no sustainable development without peace, and the African Union's goal of Silencing the Guns has never been more urgent - particularly in regions facing conflict, violent extremism and political fragmentation.The international community must stand behind African and subregional leadership, offering support in the form requested by those closest to the crisis - not imposing solutions from outside.And peace must be matched by an economy that gives young people a stake in stability. Without jobs, opportunity and hope, communities emerging from conflict remain vulnerable to relapse.The response has two parts, and both are within reach.The report tells us what we need to do - at home, and abroad.At home, the report points to what works: broaden the tax base, digitalise revenue collection, curb illicit flows.Zambia's Government Service Bus, for example, more than doubled non-tax revenue in two years from half a billion dollars to over 1.2 billion.Remittances, at more than 104 billion dollars, have proven the most stable external flow we have; reducing their transaction costs is money on the table.Africa must also retain more value from its own resources - including critical minerals - by investing in processing, regional value chains and infrastructure that serve the continent's development rather than exporting opportunity along with raw materials.Abroad, the international financial architecture must change. Sevilla gave us the reform agenda, and Member States have launched the Borrowers Platform - a way to negotiate from shared strength rather than alone.It is there to be used, so let's use it.Beyond this, there needs to be expanded concessional finance, debt relief that restores fiscal space, and Member States meeting their promises on climate finance: the report calls these prerequisites, not extras.The African Development Bank and other African institutions must be backed to help shape an African financial architecture capable of mobilising capital at scale, advancing the AfCFTA and financing Agenda 2063 alongside the 2030 Agenda.The third message: Africa's accelerators are African.The report names regional cooperation as a powerful accelerator, and it is right.A continent trading with itself through the African Continental Free Trade Area, pooling energy across borders, building shared infrastructure and regional value chains, is a more competitive and more resilient continent.The Union's membership of the G20 gives Africa new leverage in the rooms where the rules on debt, climate finance and trade are written, and the report is clear that turning that seat into results depends on coordinated African priorities, consistently advanced.That same principle applies across the multilateral system. Africa's place in the global geopolitical landscape must be defined by Africa. The continent should use and strengthen its own institutions to consolidate its narrative, align its positions and speak with greater coherence in the United Nations, the G20, the international financial institutions and the Security Council.This calls for African leaders to own African institutions not only as administrative bodies, but as platforms for collective agency - on debt and tax, on peace and security, on trade, and on the reform of global governance.Forty-one African countries now have statistical legislation meeting international standards, and thirty-nine are implementing national statistical plans. The nineteen reviews before this Forum are supported by these systems.That was made clear in Addis, and I am glad we will hear more from the Deputy Chairperson this morning.There is also a deeper question of governance. The values of democracy, human rights and accountable institutions remain essential. But Africa should be confident in drawing on its own traditions, principles and social compacts to build democracies that deliver for people, protect rights and strengthen trust.Ladies and gentlemen,Taken together, the three messages point one way.Africa has the vision.Africa is building the tools.The United Nations is ready to support you: with Resident Coordinators aligning country teams to national plans, technical support where and when you ask for it, and disaggregated data where it is missing.But international cooperation must be judged by what it delivers. It must support African priorities, amplify African leadership and help convert the continent's voice into decisions and resources.The world has begun discussing what comes after 2030.Africa should not be a chapter in someone else's draft. Africa must hold the pen.My hope for today is that we leave with decisions - on peace, financing, partnerships and delivery - for the future of all Africans.Thank you.*****[source]

  Excellencies,Ladies and Gentlemen,Thank you to the Ministers and distinguished participants for joining this first UN High-Level Meeting on critical energy transition minerals.I also want to thank our co-organizers – UNCTAD, UNDP and UNEP – who are driving work on this vital agenda forward across the UN system together with our Climate Action Team and Sustainable Development Unit.Advancing the energy transition – at speed and scale - has never been more urgent or vital.The climate crisis is driving us deeper into planetary overshoot with rising temperatures pushing us closer to irreversible catastrophic tipping points.At the same time, a global energy crisis is exposing the folly of a world still hooked on hydrocarbons, with limited access to cleaner fuels for the poor, and accelerated destruction of our natural systems, pushing ecosystems to the brink.These crises have one common cause: fossil fuels.And they demand the same answer: a fast, fair and inclusive transition to clean energy, along with shared benefits from decarbonization,  and a surge in adaptation finance, resilient infrastructure and climate justice for those already facing climate harm. Renewable energy is now the cheapest source of new electricity in most parts of the world.Wind and solar are now leading all new electricity demand growth worldwide.The clean energy transition is now unstoppable – but it still needs to move much faster.And it must be fair to the people on the frontlines – the communities whose land, labour, and lives will carry this transition forward, and who must feel its rewards first.At the heart of this transformation are the critical minerals - copper, lithium, nickel, cobalt, graphite, silicon, and rare earths – - the building blocks for electric vehicles, wind turbines, solar panels and grid-scale batteries that will power the clean energy future. Their strategic importance expands from digital and high-tech sectors, to manufacturing, health and defense.Global demand for these minerals is expected to more than double by 2040, and with artificial intelligence and data centres expansion growing at breakneck speed, this real demand is expected to be much higher.For resource-rich developing countries, these minerals represent a once-in-a-generation opportunity: to diversify economies, creating supply chain resilience, create decent jobs, boost revenues, and accelerate progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.But today’s reality tells a different story:Developing countries which should be at the center of the clean energy economy, remain trapped at its margins, relegated to exporters of raw materials while others reap the profits.Mining communities which should be the first to benefit from extraction, processing and exporting, continue to face environmental harm, unsafe labour conditions, and limited economic development.Take Africa. The continent holds around 30 per cent of global critical mineral reserves. Yet it receives just 2 per cent of global clean energy investment, compromising infrastructure, skilled labor, environmental compliance, and market access.Increased competition for Africa’s precious mineral resources is also fueling instability, displacement and deadly conflict.Excellencies,We cannot allow the clean energy transition to reproduce the injustices of the past. But the reality is that as demand for critical minerals surges, so does the risk of exploitation.To secure a truly just energy transition, we must act urgently on three fronts.First, we must ensure the extraction of these minerals delivers fair, equitable, and sustainable outcomes for producing countries and communities.The UN SG’s Panel on Critical Energy Transition Minerals told us how.Its Guiding Principles and Actionable Recommendations are a blueprint for strengthening investment, protecting human rights and workforce transitions, enforcing environmental safeguards, and ensuring value is created - and retained at source - in developing countries.I welcome the growing commitment from governments, industry, international institutions, and civil society to take forward the Panel’s work.The priority must be strengthening governments’ capacity to negotiate equitable mining agreements, while expanding domestic processing and refining that drive local economies, and develop resilient global supply chains.A UN Task Force is now coordinating system-wide action and supporting delivery on the ground in a number of countries.Second, we must strengthen international collaboration and ensure equitable partnerships between producers and consumers.To build resilient, transparent, and diversified value chains that work for all countries, we need much stronger cooperation.Bilateral deals that trade access for security, or resources for infrastructure, can risk exploitation, increase competition, and undermine sovereignty.So, we must adopt a rules-based approach, establishing frameworks that support developing countries through technology transfer, infrastructure investment, and adherence to transparent due diligence and social and environmental standards.We are committed to ensuring the United Nations continues to provide a platform for inclusive multilateral action – with the full participation of Indigenous Peoples, civil society, producing countries, workers, women, and youth.Third, full and unquestioned respect for human rights and environmental integrity at every stage.Human rights must be protected, respected and fulfilled, including those of Indigenous Peoples, workers, children, youth, women, local communities, and environmental and human rights defenders.The environment and biodiversity must be safeguarded.I call on all actors to strengthen governance by implementing robust transparency, traceability and anti-corruption measures across supply chains that protect the environment, human rights and Indigenous Peoples’ rights.This is not only a moral imperative, but essential to meeting legal obligations.Excellencies,As demand for critical energy transition minerals surges, so must equitable governance, supply security, diversification, sustainability, and investment in recycling and technology.I look forward to hearing from you today on your plans to implement the UN SG Panel’s findings and strengthen international cooperation.Together, let us turn the clean energy transition towards justice, resilience and equity.Thank you.*****[source]