"A season of goal-setting begins this month as the United Nations launches a new 15-year plan to fight grinding world poverty, improve health and education and quell climate change.
The Sustainable Development Goals are set for adoption by the 193 U.N. member states shortly after Pope Francis brings his activist message to the world body on Friday — a message sure to include calls to pull back from the abyss of a heating world and to spread global wealth among the neediest.
More than 150 world leaders, including President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping, are expected to speak at a three-day summit dedicated to adopting the goals. That meeting precedes the annual gathering of world leaders at the U.N. beginning Sept. 28.
The new goals land on the global agenda in advance of December's world meeting in Paris aimed at a comprehensive agreement on curbing accelerating global warming."
Steven R. Hurst reports for the Associated Press September 21, 2015.
SEE ALSO:
"Here Are the 17 New UN Development Goals For 2030" (AP)
"No Poverty, Hunger in 15 Years? UN Sets Sweeping New Goals"
Source: AP, 09/22/2015