From Biden to Beyoncé, #GlobalCitizen Festival kicks off another international effort to fix everything

Brett T. | 8:02 PM on September 26, 2015

Anyone concerned that Pope Francis wasn’t giving climate change and economic inequality enough attention likely skipped his speech in Philadelphia this afternoon and instead headed to New York’s Central Park for the Global Citizen Festival.

What is Global Citizen? It’s part of the Global Poverty Project’s mission to end extreme poverty by 2030. (If you can remember which channel on your TV is MSNBC, you can watch a live simulcast there.) You might remember in 2000 when a U.N. task force developed a set of eight Millennium Development Goals, which were supposed to have been met by 2015. Obviously they weren’t, so we’re hitting the reset button and unveiling a new set of 17 global goals for sustainable development.

Here they are in handy graphic format:

17 #GlobalGoals.
17 songs.
4 #GlobalCitizen artists.
1 ultimate @Spotify list.#TellEveryone
http://t.co/NztCr2GcDg pic.twitter.com/ie55ktSYEH

— UK at the UN ?? (@UKUN_NewYork) September 26, 2015

Fish, usually overlooked by the social justice crowd, will appreciate that “Life below water” has its own separate but equal block next to “Life on land.”

By the way, the four #GlobalCitizen artists are Pearl Jam, Beyoncé, Ed Sheeran, and Coldplay, all of whom are playing in Central Park today and tonight.

Here’s a sneak peek behind the scenes at the fight against global poverty and hunger.