In 2015, the United Nations member states adopted the Sustainable Development Goals, 17 wide-ranging development targets that are supposed to be achieved by 2030.

Yet at the midpoint of the Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development, the world is "woefully off track" to achieve the SDGs, as progress has been slow and, in some cases, things are even worse now than they were eight years ago. The UN has already admitted the development goals "are in peril".

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath, as well as the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the world has returned to levels of hunger not seen since 2005. And at the current rate, 575 million people will still be living in extreme poverty in 2030. Moreover, more than 2 billion people still do not have access to drinking water, while 1.1 billion urban residents are still living in slums.

Other development goals, such as ensuring quality education for all children, achieving gender equality, and the environmental targets, are also not going to be achieved at the current rates of progress.

The dire situation in the developing world prompted UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to lament at the Summit of the Group of 77 and China, held in Cuba last week, that "the world is failing developing countries". He called for a "fairer future" for the Global South.

The two-day SDG Summit, which opened on Monday under the auspices of the UN General Assembly, offers a good opportunity for world leaders to give fresh impetus to efforts to realize the development goals.

It is imperative that all countries set aside their differences and work together to seek a "global rescue plan" for the SDGs because such goals are "about righting historic wrongs, healing global divisions and putting our world on a path to lasting peace", as Guterrres said.

World leaders must make the best use of the UN meeting to make meaningful commitments that can be followed up with concrete and faster actions. They must focus on such key issues as development finance, the climate crisis and building a more just and equitable global governance system, rather than let rising geopolitical tensions hijack the summit. China, as the world's largest developing country and a leading advocate for the Global South, will play its due part in seeking to ensure that no country is left behind in the push to realize sustainable development.

Based on the three pillars of people and prosperity, the planet, and partnerships, China is doing everything possible to make the country a best-in-class exemplar in pursuit of the SDGs.

As part of its efforts, China has put forward the Global Development Initiative in a bid to encourage the input of greater resources into global development collaboration and provide a road map to accelerate progress to attain the SDGs while leaving no country and no one behind. The country will continue to seek to realize the full potential of its own role and contribution through expanding and strengthening its international engagements.