WSF5_2015 - The 5th World Sustainability Forum
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Photo credit: WSF2015 Original Photos, (c) by Matthias Burkhalter.
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Welcome to the 5th World Sustainability Forum

I warmly welcome you to the 5th World Sustainability Forum. This Forum takes place at a promising moment from a sustainability perspective. The intergovernmental negotiations on both Financing for Development and the 2030-Agenda for Sustainable Development have just been concluded successfully. This opens the way for the official adoption of the 2030-Agenda for Sustainable Development by heads of state and government on the margins of theUN General Assembly later this month. Switzerland welcomes this universal framework for sustainable development, which guides our efforts between now and 2030.
Switzerland has played an active and substantive role in the elaboration of the 2030-Agenda. The 2030-Agenda acknowledges that global challenges such as extreme poverty, environmental degradation and climate change can only be solved if all countries and stakeholders contribute jointly to implement the so-called Sustainable Development Goals, while taking into account the interactions between the social, economic and environmental dimensions of sustainable development. Now that the framework is defined, let us set our sights on its implementation. Switzerland intends to implement it through activities at home and abroad, independently and with partners. The whole government supports the 2030-Agenda in a number of ways.
For instance, the economic cooperation and development of my ministry provides technical assistance to support developing countries in creating better tax systems. As a result, these countries can better raise domestic resources to finance sustainable development. This support is fully aligned with the 2030-Agenda, which underlines that domestic resources are central to the pursuit of sustainable development. Another example involves various ministries: 
REPIC (Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Promotion in International Cooperation) is a platform to support renewable energy and energy efficiency projects by offering seed money and capacity development for promising initiatives run in collaboration with local entrepreneurs in developing countries. In Tajikistan, for example, REPIC is supporting a small hydropower initiative in a remote village, by providing technology and know-how transfer. These examples illustrate how we can contribute to implementing the 2030-Agenda.
As all of us prepare to implement the Agenda for Sustainable Development, I commend you for choosing sustainability as the focus of your work and wish you well in exploring how your efforts can contribute to sustainable development.

Johann N. Schneider-Ammann
Federal Councillor
Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research EAER
Basel, 7 September 2015

The 5th World Sustainability Forum - ZLF, University of Basel - 7.-9.September 2015

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Accessed 24 August 2015