The thirteenth in an ongoing series of informal breakfast dialogue at the Baha’i International Community focused on the links between climate change and the post-2015 development agenda. The meeting was co-convened with International Movement ATD Fourth World, and it featured an opening speech by Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). She was joined by Bernadette Fischler, a policy analyst for the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CAFOD).

Ms. Figueres said that in her mind the climate change negotiations currently going on at the United Nations and the discussions to create a post-2015 development agenda were firmly interlinked. “They are one and the same,” she said. “There is no way you can look at the SDG [Sustainable Development Goals] process in the absence of climate, because in order to move forward on most SDG thematic topics, we have to address climate change. And the other side is true. If we address climate, we are actually contributing to many of the issues identified under the SDGs.” For more on her remarks, click here. 

Ms. Fischler also pointed to the interrelationship between the issues of poverty eradication, which is the focus of the MDG track of discussions, and concerns over the environment, which are being discussed both by the UNFCCC process and the SDG process. “It is true that environmental protection does not automatically lead to poverty eradication, but as has been said many times before, poverty eradication will not be achieved without environmental protection.”

The meeting, which resulted in an extensive interchange with the speakers, was held on Friday, 20 September 2013.

For notes from the meeting and its program, click here.