Jeffrey Sachs wins the Sustainable Development Leadership Award

On January 29, Jeffrey Sachs was awarded the Sustainable Development Leadership Award at the World Sustainable Development Summit (WSDS) 2020 at the India Habitat Centre, Lodhi Road, New Delhi. This Award felicitates global leaders for their contributions in the field of sustainable development and environmental protection. Past honorees are Dr José Manuel Barroso, Former President of European Commission and Former Prime Minister of Portugal (2015) and HE Mr Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations (2009).

The Sustainable Development Leadership Award 2020 recognized Professor Sachs efforts for championing the cause of sustainable development, with a special focus on the most vulnerable, and for enabling the integration of sustainable development and climate change issues in policies and actions.

At the World Sustainable Development Summit, Professor Sachs delivered a strong wake-up call for urgent and ambitious climate action: “Terrifying typhoons, cycles of flooding and drought, forest fires scorching millions of hectares of land, rising water floods that wipe out entire cities are all par for the course – and we’re doing nothing to stop this rapid escalation of climate change.”

Professor Sachs warned the audience that the needed reduction of CO2 emissions to net zero by 2050 is likely to fail if leaders continue on the business-as-usual trajectory. However, he recognized the European Green Deal as “the most important breakthrough in the global scene now, and Europe is the only major region bringing its policy in line with the 1.50 Celsius limit.”

The World Sustainable Development Summit is the flagship event of The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI). The three-day event addressed the theme “Towards 2030 Goals: Making the Decade Count”.