The government should embed sustainability in all aspects of its policies to achieve the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a forum told.
In a forum titled “The New Chapter of SDGs”, organised on Sunday at the Sustainability Expo 2023 at the Queen Sirikit National Convention Centre, Chol Bunnag, director of SDG Move, said SDGs contains 17 goals, and each are viewed by the government as separate.
In fact, the effect of each goal relates to other goals, he said, highlighting the relationship between abundant property, hunger, good health and well-being, clean water and sanitation.
He suggested the government view all 17 goals as connected to find suitable solutions for each problem.
In addition, it is necessary to find financial support to achieve the goals including providing incentives for people to help drive sustainable goals. Science and technology are also needed to drive the goals.
“The government should embed SDGs in all policies, not only in terms of the environment but also legal enforcement, national security and human rights. It is now time for the government to be a facilitator to help people achieve sustainability goals,” he added.
Suvit Maesincee, a former Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation Minister, said world leaders should forces and drive sustainability together with other nations.
“In Thailand, the new government should embed sustainability in every aspect of its policy,” he said.
He said Thailand already has a national strategy based on the sufficiency economic philosophy, and also applies the Bio-Circular-Green economic model, part of the SDGs.
“Thailand can use these as its strong points and export its knowledge as soft power. Thailand can become a prime example of how we drive sustainability through its philosophy on the sufficiency economy,” he added.
The SDGs were announced at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro in 2012.
The aim was to produce a set of universal goals that meet the environmental, political and economic challenges facing our world, according to the UN Development Programme (UNDP).
The 17 SDGs were adopted at the UN Sustainable Development Summit in New York in 2015 as a universal call to action to ensure that by 2030 all people enjoy peace and prosperity.