. Pope Francis

By PERPETUAL SICHIKWENKWE  in New York –
PRESIDENT Edgar Lungu has implored the United Nations (UN) to heed calls by Pope Francis to seriously address issues of climate change that are negatively affecting many nations across the globe.
President Lungu thanked the Pontiff for his candid and inspiring remarks on the need for nations to take seriously the question of climate change.
The President was speaking here during an address to the 70th UN General Assembly on the Post-2015 Development Agenda on Saturday.
Mr Lungu said there was need for the UN to protect the environment to help countries achieve sustainable development.
He was happy that Zambia in its Seventh National Development Plan (SNDP) had ranked climate change issues as priority thereby giving the country greater latitude to effectively domesticate the various provisions of the global initiative, among others.
“Coincidentally for Zambia, the SDGs and the Post-2015 Development Agenda have come at a time when the country is developing its Seventh National Development Plan,” Mr Lungu said.
He was also happy that the SDGs had brought out a number of development issues such as maternal health, poverty, gender equality, water and sanitation, land degradation and climate change, among others that Zambia was determined to confront in the post-2015 era.
Mr Lungu said that Zambia was looking forward to starting a new development era in 2016 within the spirit of “leaving no-one behind” with renewed vigour and focus.
He said that the UN gathering would go in the annals of history as the world witnessed the end of implementing Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) while ushering in the Sustainable Development Goals and the Post-2015 Development Agenda.
The President reaffirmed Zambia’s commitment to embracing a common development agenda which would help enhance development partnerships among UN member countries.
He appreciated the input from important development processes that contributed to the success of the new growth agenda, notable was the third International Conference on Financing for Development.
President Lungu reiterated Zambia’s commitment to ensuring the use of evidence-based priority setting and targeted mechanisms with a view to achieving inclusive socio-economic development.
Zambia, being in the least developed and landlocked developing country bracket, required  support in completing unfinished business  in the MDGs, especially in the area of education, health, water and
sanitation, gender equality, agriculture and science and technology.
Zambia underscored the need to forge the South-South technology transfer cooperation as an essential component to accelerate the implementation of the SDGs and the Post-2015 Development Agenda.
Mr Lungu said that being a pilot country, Zambia was ready to participate in the initiative and institute strategies that would promote environmentally sustainable socio-economic development aimed at proactively addressing employment creation opportunities for the youth and women  to reduce poverty.