The UN Secretary-General said this year’s SDG Moment arrived at a moment of “great peril” for our world and encouraged leaders to avoid the temptation of leaving development priorities for a sunnier day. The 90-minute event highlighted a few SDGs as particularly critical to achieving the world's ambitions for a better future, such as climate action (SDG 13) and equality (SDGs 5 and 10).

Meeting at the intersection of interconnected crises—the COVID-19 pandemic; climate change; wars, including in Ukraine—many delegates raised the resulting challenges faced by local and regional governments while also pointing to innovative solutions they carry, including how to implement the Sustainable Development Goals.