The Canary archipelago has consolidated itself in the last three years as one of the Spanish autonomous communities that has made the most progress in planning and developing methodologies and governance systems to begin implementing the sustainable development goals of its 2030 Agenda, according to the general director of Research and Coordination of Sustainable Development of the Canary Islands, David Padrón.
Padrón explained that when the Government of Spain, in 2020, presented the progress report on the 2030 Agenda at the United Nations high-level forum, the archipelago “did not even appear.”
Since then, the general director continued, and always thanks to the collective work that has been deployed in this legislature, the Canary Islands has gone from not being in the report to having a presence within the group of the most advanced regions.
At the first Sustainable Canary Islands meeting, held this week, Padrón stated that a year after the signing in Jameos del Agua, the regional executive has already begun to link its projects to the challenges, priorities for action and global and Canarian goals that make up the sustainable development goals (17 SDGs) contextualized to the reality of the archipelago.
“It has been identified on which SDGs and on which goals and priorities each government project has a direct and indirect impact, as well as the budgetary allocation associated with each one,” said Padrón.
He adds that this allows the different management units of the Government to know where they are within sustainable development in the Canary Islands, he added.
This is a first point, “essential”, to continue advancing in the Government's action plan, which has as its next challenge to have the Canary Islands 2030 Agenda at the center of its actions. “It should not be something that is added to make tweaks to the projects,” said the general director, but rather the Canary Islands Sustainable Development Agenda has to serve “to plan them from the beginning with a purpose.
