Unit­ed Na­tions Sec­re­tary-Gen­er­al An­tónio Guter­res has an­nounced that Prime Min­is­ter Mia Amor Mot­t­ley of Bar­ba­dos and Prime Min­is­ter Justin Trudeau of Cana­da will be the new Co-Chairs of the Sus­tain­able De­vel­op­ment Goals Ad­vo­cates group

“The Sus­tain­able De­vel­op­ment Goals are the world’s blue­print to build a health­i­er, green­er and sus­tain­able fu­ture by 2030.  With the clock tick­ing and mul­ti­ple crises dri­ving us fur­ther off track, we must do every­thing in our pow­er to de­liv­er the SDGs,” said UN Sec­re­tary-Gen­er­al, An­tónio Guter­res.

“I’m pleased that Prime Min­is­ter Mot­t­ley and Prime Min­is­ter Trudeau will help lead ad­vo­ca­cy to do just that,” he added.

“Let us seize the mo­ment to move for­ward, to­geth­er, to en­sure the full im­ple­men­ta­tion of the 2030 Agen­da for Sus­tain­able De­vel­op­ment by the end of the Decade of Ac­tion and De­liv­ery on the Sus­tain­able De­vel­op­ment Goals,” said Mia Mot­t­ley, Prime Min­is­ter of Bar­ba­dos.

Prime Min­is­ter Mot­t­ley has cam­paigned ex­ten­sive­ly for cli­mate ac­tion and debt sus­tain­abil­i­ty in mid­dle-in­come coun­tries and small states. In 2021, she was award­ed the Cham­pi­ons of the Earth Award for her lead­er­ship.

“To build a bet­ter fu­ture for peo­ple and the plan­et, we must all place the val­ues of in­clu­sion and sus­tain­abil­i­ty at the heart of every­thing we do. The 17 Sus­tain­able De­vel­op­ment Goals aim to cre­ate a world that is fair, equal, and peace­ful, with clean air and clean wa­ter for every­one. As Co-Chair of the SDG Ad­vo­cates group, I look for­ward to ral­ly­ing coun­tries, gov­ern­ments, the pri­vate sec­tor, and oth­ers, to come to­geth­er to ac­cel­er­ate our progress and con­tin­ue to raise our voic­es - and our am­bi­tion - on the path to 2030,” said Justin Trudeau, Prime Min­is­ter of Cana­da.

Prime Min­is­ter Trudeau has been a strong ad­vo­cate for cli­mate ac­tion and na­ture pro­tec­tion, the em­pow­er­ment of women and girls around the world, and en­sur­ing an in­clu­sive and re­silient re­cov­ery from the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic. 

The SDG Ad­vo­cates are in­flu­en­tial lead­ers who sup­port the Sec­re­tary-Gen­er­al in rais­ing glob­al am­bi­tion and ac­tion to keep the promise of the SDGs. 

The pre­vi­ous Co-Chairs—Pres­i­dent Nana Ad­do Dankwa Aku­fo-Ad­do of Ghana, and for­mer Nor­we­gian Prime Min­is­ter Er­na Sol­berg—have led the group since 2016 and 2014, re­spec­tive­ly. The Sec­re­tary-Gen­er­al has thanked them for putting the SDGs on the glob­al po­lit­i­cal agen­da. 

Pres­i­dent Nana Ad­do Dankwa Aku­fo-Ad­do and for­mer Prime Min­is­ter Er­na Sol­berg will con­tin­ue to stay en­gaged as Co-Chairs of the SDG Ad­vo­cates Emer­i­tus Group, a group of alum­ni Ad­vo­cates who con­tin­ue to sup­port the achieve­ment of the SDGs. — (UN)

SDG Ad­vo­cates

Her Majesty Queen Mathilde of the Bel­gians

His Roy­al High­ness Muham­madu Sanusi II, 14th Emir of Kano

Her High­ness Sheikha Moza bint Nass­er of Qatar

BLACK­PINK, K-pop Girl Group

Richard Cur­tis, Screen­writer, Pro­duc­er and Film Di­rec­tor

Hin­dou Ibrahim, Ac­tivist for Cli­mate Ac­tion and In­dige­nous Rights

Graça Machel, Founder and Chair of the Board, Graça Machel Trust 

Dia Mirza, Ac­tor, UN En­vi­ron­ment Pro­gramme Good­will Am­bas­sador

Valenti­na Muñoz Ra­banal, STEM Ac­tivist 

Ed­ward Ndopu, Pub­lic In­tel­lec­tu­al, Hu­man­i­tar­i­an and Founder of A BIL­LION REA­SONS 

Jef­frey Sachs, Di­rec­tor, Earth In­sti­tute at Colom­bia Uni­ver­si­ty

Kailash Sat­yarthi, No­bel Peace Lau­re­ate, Founder of Kailash Sat­yarthi Chil­dren’s Foun­da­tion

Brad Smith, Pres­i­dent, Mi­crosoft Cor­po­ra­tion 

For­est Whitak­er, Founder and CEO, Whitak­er Peace & De­vel­op­ment Ini­tia­tive, UN­ESCO Spe­cial En­voy for Peace and Rec­on­cil­i­a­tion