Media Home
UN Web TV
UN Audiovisual Library
UN PhotoUnifeed
UN / SDGS JEFFREY SACHS
STORY: UN / SDGS JEFFREY SACHS
TRT: 03:08
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: APRIL 2018, NEW YORK CITY
RECENT - NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, UNHQ exterior
APRIL 2018, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot,
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Jeffrey Sachs, Director of Sustainable Development Solutions Network, United Nations and Director of The Earth Institute, Columbia University:
“The total cost of the SDGs are around five percent of our annual output. In other words, it’s crazy if we don’t get this done. It just means that we have such a profound misdirection of resources to war or to the richest people who are building 300-metre yachts or whatever they are doing with their money; who have more homes than they could conceivably know what to do with.”
4. Wide shot, Trusteeship Council
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Jeffrey Sachs, Director of Sustainable Development Solutions Network, United Nations and Director of The Earth Institute, Columbia University:
“We have the best technology. It is improving at an astounding rate. But what are we going to use it for? Is the social media to connect us or is it to subvert democracy? A good question for Mark Zuckerberg as he testifies today. What did Zuckerberg really care about? Making money; commercializing our data; selling it to trolls; not about using the media to connect people as he claimed.”
6. Wide shot, Sachs speaking
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Jeffrey Sachs, Director of Sustainable Development Solutions Network, United Nations and Director of The Earth Institute, Columbia University:
“Not only is it not easy to win, it is a disaster to contemplate. The two largest economies in the world in the sand box, like one has to get out of the sand box. We have to be grown-ups in this, and that is a big challenge it seems.”
8. Wide shot, Trusteeship Council
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Jeffrey Sachs, Director of Sustainable Development Solutions Network, United Nations and Director of The Earth Institute, Columbia University:
“Every day, I’m sorry to tell you, terrifies me. Because there is so much talk of war; because there are so many warmongers around; because it is treated as a kind of normal thing. Even the announcement: ‘we’ll be bombing you in two days.’ Are you kidding? Get a grip. Stop. We need peace. We have had a proxy war in Syria for seven years it started when some countries wanted to overthrow the government there. Well, that’s against the UN Charter, and that war would have never taken place had international law been obeyed.”
10. Wide shot, Trusteeship Council
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Jeffrey Sachs, Director of Sustainable Development Solutions Network, United Nations and Director of The Earth Institute, Columbia University:
“This is a well-designed agenda. It is what we need. That challenge is making it really happen. The biggest problem is actually our mentality of war because we are wasting our time taking lives and spending trillions of dollars on war and weapons and then being told: ‘oh, we have no money for this.’”
12. Wide shot, Trusteeship Council
World-renowned economist Jeffrey Sachs said the total cost to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) was so little that it would be “crazy if we don’t get this done” adding that such a failure would mean that the world had “a profound misdirection of resources to war or to the richest people.”
Speaking at UN headquarters in New York today (11 Apr), Sachs said achieving the SDGs is not hard because of the magnitude of the task, rather because of the amount of money and time the world wastes. He said the total cost of the SDGs is around five percent of the world’s annual output.
Sachs said science and technology which made the world rich on average was capable of everything but was not solving problems.
SOUNDBITE (English) Jeffrey Sachs, Director of Sustainable Development Solutions Network, United Nations and Director of The Earth Institute, Columbia University:
“We have the best technology. It is improving at an astounding rate. But what are we going to use it for? Is the social media to connect us or is it to subvert democracy? A good question for Mark Zuckerberg as he testifies today. What did Zuckerberg really care about? Making money; commercializing our data; selling it to trolls; not about using the media to connect people as he claimed.”
Sachs said the world in which western powers ruled was coming to an end and it was basically good news because this meant that parts of the world that were poorer have caught up rapidly. He said the answer of the United States to the rise of China is now apparently trade wars.
SOUNDBITE (English) Jeffrey Sachs, Director of Sustainable Development Solutions Network, United Nations and Director of The Earth Institute, Columbia University:
“Not only is it not easy to win, it is a disaster to contemplate. The two largest economies in the world in the sand box, like one has to get out of the sand box. We have to be grown-ups in this, and that is a big challenge it seems.”
Sachs said the only way forward was through cooperation as we live today in an interconnected world adding that the world could not survive a third world war.
SOUNDBITE (English) Jeffrey Sachs, Director of Sustainable Development Solutions Network, United Nations and Director of The Earth Institute, Columbia University:
“Every day, I’m sorry to tell you, terrifies me. Because there is so much talk of war; because there are so many warmongers around; because it is treated as a kind of normal thing. Even the announcement: ‘we’ll be bombing you in two days.’ Are you kidding? Get a grip. Stop. We need peace. We have had a proxy war in Syria for seven years it started when some countries wanted to overthrow the government there. Well, that’s against the UN Charter, and that war would have never taken place had international law been obeyed.”
Sachs said the SGDs define the existential situation in the world addressing economy need, social justice, environmental issues, and peaceful cooperation. He stressed that humans were wrecking the environment, and facing devastating consequences in the form of natural disasters, but the discussions are not being open in countries, including the US, due to greediness and corruption.
SOUNDBITE (English) Jeffrey Sachs, Director of Sustainable Development Solutions Network, United Nations and Director of The Earth Institute, Columbia University:
“This is a well-designed agenda. It is what we need. That challenge is making it really happen. The biggest problem is actually our mentality of war because we are wasting our time taking lives and spending trillions of dollars on war and weapons and then being told: ‘oh, we have no money for this.’”
Sachs said the world needs to stop using fossil fuels and end carbon emissions by 2050. He said there must also be responsibility in the global supply chain by both the suppliers and demanders. Sachs also called for responsible use of technology and universal access to health and basic services.
The Director of The Earth Institute said the combined net-worth of the 2,208 people on the Forbes billionaires’ list was 9.1 trillion USD. He said one percent of that annually could ensure school and healthcare to every child in the world.
Download
There is no media available to download.
