Meeting Report - Sustainable Development Goals and the European Environment and Health Process

The WHO Regional Office for Europe organized a meeting on 30 September 2014 with the goal of aligning the post-2015 development agenda on Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and the European Environment and Health Process. The aim of this meeting was to inform about the current status of negotiations on the SDGs, targets and indicators; and provide a platform where Member States can discuss the relevance, accuracy, and viability of health-related goals, targets and indicators for the WHO European Region. The global ambition and required transformative change for sustainable development was discussed, whilst Member States also highlighted key environment and health priorities in their countries, notably water and sanitation, climate change mitigation and adaptation, air quality, waste management, chemical pollution and contaminated sites, renewable energy, and sustainable and active transport. In September 2015, a summit of Heads of State will adopt the SDGs at the United Nations in New York; Member States and international organizations need to prepare for their implementation now.