In 2015, then-President Barack Obama committed the United States to achieving newly adopted U.N. global goals by 2030, including ending poverty, achieving gender equality and urgently tackling climate change. The Trump administration now says it “rejects and denounces” the goals.
The U.S. renunciation was one of the first — if not the first — by any country of the 17 goals that were adopted unanimously by all 193 U.N. member nations, with the aim of eliminating global hunger, protecting the planet, ensuring prosperity for all people, and promoting peace.
The Sustainable Development Goals, or SDGs, also include providing clean water and sanitation for all people and quality education for every child, while promoting good health and decent work and economic growth for everyone.
The Trump administration’s announcement was buried in remarks on a General Assembly resolution on the International Day of Peaceful Coexistence this week by Edward Heartney, a minister-counselor …