EghtesadOnline: Energy Minister Reza Ardakanian stressed the need to focus on adopting pragmatic approaches for judicious water consumption so as to achieve sustainable development. "Water [shortage], inflicted on many countries in the past few years, has become a major challenge to sustainable development … Governments need to pay closer attention to solve the problem," Ardakanian was also quoted as saying by ILNA on Thursday.

EghtesadOnline: The United Nations Under-Secretary General Dr. Shamshad Akhtar commented on how severely natural disasters affect sustainable development, said a report by the UN Information Center in Tehran (UNIC) on Wednesday.

EghtesadOnline: Banners promoting Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are now on display at Tehran Railway Station sending the message about SDGs for millions of passengers who travel to different parts of Iran.

EghtesadOnline: Minister of Science, Research and Technology Mohammad Farhadi said that in addition to immigration challenges, the world requires preventing brain drain and urbanization to reach sustainable development.

EghtesadOnline: Iran’s Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United nations Gholamali Khoshroo said extremism and terrorism would bar sustainable development of world countries.

EghtesadOnline: Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Friday stressed that peace and stability are essential for realizing the genuine goals of sustainable development.

EghtesadOnline: United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said sustainable development is essential for lasting peace, and both depend on respect for human rights.

EghtesadOnline: Sustainable development has hardly been a priority in Iran as it is almost always sacrificed at the altar of concerns like creating jobs and boosting industries at any price, not to mention anachronistic concerns, says head of the Department of Environment.

EghtesadOnline: During a conference held in Tehran, representatives from Indonesia and Russia along with Iran's ICT Ministry, while bringing gender justice to the fore, underscored their commitment to utilize women's potential as an indispensable economic and scientific force to promote sustainable development.