UN General Assembly
2012

based on modern, post-Westphalian States — to embrace those other actors and to involve them in finding solutions and decision-making. Allow me to continue by sharing some thoughts related to development and responsibility. Sustainable development is not a clichéd utopia; nor is it something forced on us from above. True development can be nothing other than sustainable. Yet we have seen unsustainability masked as development, despite the contradiction in terms. Consider the global financial crisis. Burdening our children and grandchildren with mountains of debt is immoral, as is living at the expense of others. Growth without responsibility is illusory. We have learned that the hard way. Let us not make the same mistake again. We are another year closer to the deadline we set ourselves for achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Were they too ambitious? I do not think so. Aiming high is the least we can do. There is no point in setting targets that we can be confident of achieving effortlessly. Yet we must resist the temptation to sell