Expressing his wish that the 78th General Assembly, which convenes with a focus on the themes of trust and solidarity, will be beneficial to all humanity, President Erdoğan said: “Unfortunately, it is not possible to draw a more optimistic picture of the future of our world, in comparison with the assessments we made here last year. The snapshot before us reveals that we are facing more and more complex and dangerous challenges on a global scale. There are many conflicts, wars, humanitarian crises, political strife and social tensions occurring to the south, north, east and west of my own country. It becomes more and more difficult to deal with these ever-growing challenges compounded with global economic problems.”
“I SIGNED THE DECLARATION OF GOODWILL FOR GLOBAL COMMITMENT TO ZERO WASTE”
“We call upon all countries to display a strong will for the realization of the Sustainable Development Goals,” President Erdoğan said, and added: “As one of the most generous countries in the world in terms of development aid, we believe that Türkiye has every right to issue this call. It is becoming increasingly difficult to limit the climate change-related global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius. One of the requirements for this is to provide financial and technological support to the efforts of developing countries. ‘Food security’ is one of the main areas affected by climate change. We must develop and implement right policies and investments for the sustainable use of water and land resources. We cannot let our children inherit a world polluted by irresponsible consumption, and with depleted natural resources. In line with this understanding, we have elevated the Zero Waste Initiative that we have launched in our country under the auspices of my wife Emine Erdoğan with a vision of a more livable and fairer world, to a global dimension through the resolution co-sponsored by 105 countries and adopted at the United Nations. Yesterday, I signed the Declaration of Goodwill for ‘Global Commitment to Zero Waste’ at the Turkish House. We believe that our Zero Waste goals will also contribute to combating climate change and achieving sustainable development goals. I hereby call on all the countries, international organizations and nongovernmental organizations to support the Zero Waste movement.”
