The United Nations General Assembly discussed and approved the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) during the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit held in New York on September 25-27.

The Sustainable Development Agenda adopted by the Assembly defines 17 goals with 169 targets with the aim of ending extreme poverty, reducing inequality, promoting education worldwide, improving health conditions, and dealing with climate change over the next 15 years.

The new SDGs will become applicable in January 2016, with a deadline of 2030, as they will replace the 8 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), adopted in 2000 and set to expire at the end of 2015. Indicators to measure the goals will be finalized in March 2016.

In his address during the opening ceremony of the summit the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said: "The true test of commitment to Agenda 2030 will be implementation. We need action from everyone, everywhere. Seventeen Sustainable Development Goals are our guide. They are a to-do list for people and planet, and a blueprint for success".

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