TEHRAN — Iran will play host to the 19th General Assembly of the Asia-Pacific Parliamentarians’ Conference on Environment and Development (APPCED), Mehr news agency reported on Friday.

Over the 18th General Assembly of the APPCED which was held in Seoul, South Korea, on Thursday and Friday with parliamentary delegations in attendance, Iran was selected to host the next assembly in 2018.

Iran has already acted as the host to the 17th General Assembly of APPCED in 2014.

Accordingly, Mohammad-Reza Tabesh, director for the environment faction of the Majlis (Iranian parliament), was elected as the next assembly’s secretary general.

Tabesh who also headed the Iranian delegation to the assembly stated that Iran has given high priority to the sustainable development goals and managed to achieve some of the goals earlier than planned.

He further pointed out that the general policies approved by the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei also emphasize on developing green economy and low-emission industries as well as fighting climate change, desertification, and sand storms, protecting biodiversity and forests, and employing eco-friendly technologies in the country.

Additionally, he said, Majlis is also hammering the sixth five-year development plan which has created a good opportunity for the ministries and organizations to take measures in line with sustainable development goals.

On 19 July 2014, the UN General Assembly's Open Working Group (OWG) on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) forwarded a proposal for the SDGs to the Assembly. The proposal contained 17 goals with 169 targets covering a broad range of sustainable development issues. These included ending poverty and hunger, improving health and education, making cities more sustainable, combating climate change, and protecting oceans and forests.

The Intergovernmental Negotiations on the Post 2015 Development Agenda (IGN) began in January 2015 and ended in August 2015. Following the negotiations, a final document was adopted at the UN Sustainable Development Summit September 25–27, 2015 in New York, U.S.

MQ/MG