U.N. Adopts Ambitious Global Goals After Years of Negotiations

The New York Times has published an article on the passing of the United Nation’s Global Goals.  The article reports on the success of the passage after years of negotiations but also makes reference to the many concerns over the ambitiousness of the 17 goals, highlighting quotes from Bjorn Lomborg.

A lot of effort has gone into publicizing the initiative, including enlisting young bloggers to get the word out and projecting graphic icons for each goal on the facade of the United Nations headquarters this week. “You can’t fight for your rights if you don’t know what they are,” said the filmmaker Richard Curtis, who has helped with the effort.

To their champions, including Ms. Mohammed, the 17 goals are aspirational. To critics, they are unrealistic, even wasteful. “Having 169 priorities is the same as having none,” said Bjorn Lomborg, who is a visiting professor at Copenhagen Business School and runs the Copenhagen Consensus Center, a think tank based in Denmark. He tried to persuade the United Nations to pare the list of targets. “This laundry list of aspirations tries to please everyone, and yet will end up doing much less for the most vulnerable people,” Mr. Lomborg said."

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