UN Sustainable Development Goals

Lord Callanan Excerpts

Thursday 17th October 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Callanan (Con)]

My Lords, I am delighted to see the House taking note of the UN’s sustainable development goals, alongside noting the impact of conflict, extreme poverty and climate-related emergencies globally. Like others, I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord McConnell, for bringing forward this debate on this important topic. We have had some excellent contributions, as one would expect given the considerable expertise that exists on this subject in the House.

My noble friend Lady Sugg made some particularly excellent points about the impact of poverty and conflict on women and girls. She highlighted some of the excellent work that took place under the previous Government and welcomed the continuation of that work under our new Government—I look forward to hearing what the noble Lord, Lord Collins, has to say about that.

One hundred countries have been at least partially involved in some form of external conflict in the past five years, and that number has, sadly, doubled since 2008. Between 2022 and 2023, according to the Institute for Economics and Peace, some 97 countries recorded a deterioration in peace. For many of us, the terrible conflicts in Ukraine, Sudan and the Middle East have brought this unsurprising reality to the forefront; we undoubtedly live in extremely dangerous times.

Although in recent years we have made considerable efforts to reduce global poverty, some 700 million people are still living on less than $2 per day. Despite that, I am still optimistic for the future and want to emphasise the importance of holistic action led not just by government but by those in industry and the private sector. Much has been said about this being a time of understandable constraints on public expenditure. Therefore, I favour a Government who also help to facilitate a private sector-led approach that allows society to take the lead and does not just leave everything to government. I want to advocate for a policy that supports corporate philanthropy and global responsibility and is more fiscally prudent and efficient than a solely government-led approach. We can see the contribution of many private sector partners here in the UK to improving our efforts to meet the UN development goals, from Tesco combating poverty and hunger both within our shores and overseas to Unilever improving its environmental and social working practices internationally.

We all have a part to play in helping to build a better world. I particularly welcome debate on this issue and thank the many noble Lords who have made some very thoughtful contributions. The previous Government did some excellent work in this area, and in particular were an ally to Ukraine. We must continue to stand with our many allies as the world becomes more dangerous.

I look forward to the response from the noble Lord, Lord Collins, on the many issues that have been raised, particularly, as the noble Lord, Lord Purvis, just mentioned, on the 0.7% target—his colleague, the noble Baroness, Lady Northover, posed some interesting questions. I will not embarrass the Minister by quoting all his and the Prime Minister’s previous trenchant criticisms of the reductions implemented by the previous Government, but I know him to be a man of his word. I am sure that we are all eagerly anticipating him repeating some of his numerous promises today. I am sure it is just another example of the tough choices that the Government are fond of telling us they are keen on making.