Alyn Ware is the influential Global Coordinator of Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament (PNND). His take on the importance of nuclear disarmament for achieving the UN SDGs is right on! Here is an excerpt from his Move the Nuclear Weapons Money:
The achievement of the SDGs and the implementation of the COP 21 will depend on political will and the allocation of sufficient resources. Progress on nuclear disarmament would assist in achieving these goals in four key ways:
1. Through the re-allocation of financial, scientific, intellectual, political and personnel resources from nuclear weapons to SDG implementation;
2. Reducing tensions and conflicts currently perpetuated by nuclear threat
postures, and the increased cooperation that would occur from joint verification of nuclear disarmament agreements, would enhance the cooperation and trust required for SDG implementation;
3. Ending the production and testing of nuclear weapons which create catastrophic impacts on the environment for current and future generations;
4. Preventing the use of nuclear weapons in an armed conflict, which would cause even greater human and environmental consequences, and would likely trigger a global nuclear holocaust from which there would be zero chance of achieving the SDGs.
Despite this clear connection between the SDGs and nuclear disarmament, I have the feeling that SDG supporters tend to steer clear of the nuclear disarmament issue. Why? Because the major nuclear armed nations are so intransigent about disarmament. To accept the link between development and disarmament seems on the surface to doom the SDGs. We nuclear disarmament enthusiasts have our work cut out to persuade the SDG supporters to embrace disarmament as well.
The other way around, ND supporters have every reason to support SDG efforts. Success towards achieving the SDGs should help build momentum for nuclear disarmament. Why? Because growth of cooperation and trust between nations fueled by SDG work is exactly what we need to make nuclear disarmament possible.
I would like to explore the relationship between the SDGs and nuclear disarmament more thoroughly. I beg the reader here on Voices of Humanity to make thoughtful comments and/or start new discussions on the relationship between SDGs and ND. I plan to write a series of articles discussing the link between ND and each of the 17 SDGs one by one. If you are reading this and are not a VoH participant you can sign up here: //intermix.org/smile4nd.
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