EXPLAINER: What Is UN’s ‘Pact for the Future’ Championed by Canadian Gov’t?

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is championing a new United Nations-led blueprint for addressing global challenges called the “Pact for the Future” as world leaders gather at the U.N. for its annual assembly.
In making his points about the importance of the pact, Trudeau said in an address at the United Nations in New York on Sept. 22 that the world is at an “inflection point.” He said the foundations of the international order are being undermined by climate change, rising inequality, record levels of displacement, and “the erosion of women’s rights, LGBT+ rights, and indigenous rights.”
“We can bury our heads in the sand, eschewing multilateralism in favour of short-sighted self-interest, or we can recognize that, collectively, we have a responsibility to set our differences aside to confront the serious global challenges and to deliver on a Pact for the Future that builds a more peaceful world, but also one where everyone, every generation, has a real and fair shot,” he said.
The Summit of the Future, held from Sept. 22 to 23 ahead of the 78th meeting of the United Nations General Assembly, has the stated goal of reinvigorating multilateralism and ensuring the world is able to deal with current challenges. It also aims to “turbocharge” the completion of the pact’s sustainable development goals (SDGs), bridge the financing gap, and address the “threats and opportunities” of digital technologies.
Canada is committed to achieving the sustainable development goals across the globe, Trudeau said while virtually co-chairing a meeting of the U.N. SDGs Advocates group with Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley.
The document outlines the pact’s numerous priorities, which include the eradication of poverty as part of the 2030 Agenda, achieving gender equality, strengthening actions to address climate change, promoting cooperation between member states to resolve conflicts, investing in the social and economic development of children, seizing the opportunities presented by science and technology “for the benefit of people and planet,” and advancing the goal of “a world free from nuclear weapons.”
The pact also outlines several steps to “transform global governance,” and ensure that progress across the three pillars of sustainable development, peace and security, and human rights are not threatened.
“We must renew trust in global institutions by making them more representative of and responsive to today’s world and more effective at delivering on the commitments that we have made to one another and our people,” the document says.
It also calls for the Security Council to be enlarged “in order to be more representative of the current United Nations membership and reflective of the realities of the contemporary world” and for the Security Council to better collaborate with the General Assembly.
The 17 goals are also associated with 169 “integrated and indivisible” targets, with each government setting its own national targets that are “guided by the global level of ambition” but take into account their own circumstances. Each country decided how the targets should be incorporated into their national planning processes.
The Pact for the Future presents itself as a way to “urgently accelerate progress towards” achieving the Agenda 2030 goals, including by mobilizing additional financing for sustainable development. “We reaffirm that the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is our overarching road map for achieving sustainable development” the document says.