14 January 2011: UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon identified his priorities for 2011 during an address to the UN General Assembly on 14 January 2011. He highlighted action on inclusive and sustainable development as the first of eight priorities, and climate change mitigation and mitigation as the second priority.

On sustainable development, Ban called for the further development of a vision, and for using the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD, or Rio+20) in 2012 to put sustainable development at the center of policy making for a new generation.

On climate change, Ban noted that advances made at the 10th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP 10) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and at the Cancun Climate Change Conference provided a foundation to build upon, including at the 2011 Climate Change Conference in Durban, South Africa. He called for States to support the fulfillment of mitigation commitments at the country level.

On both priorities, Ban said efforts made in 2011 could yield “an outsized return.” For all of his 2011 priorities, he laid out four principles, prevention, preparedness, proactiveness and persistence, which he called the “4 Ps,” and said they should operate within a framework that is transparent and accountable. [The Speech] [Transcript of Press Conference]