Good afternoon. We’re pleased to announce that, in continuing the movement to end extreme poverty by 2030, Global Citizen and Chris Martin, today announced Global Citizen 2015, a new 15-year campaign to ensure the upcoming United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are achieved.

Building on the success of the annual Global Citizen Festival in New York City’s Central Park, Global Citizen and Chris will stage the Global Citizen Festival in different countries around the world for the next 15 years. These Festivals will bring together global leaders, world-renowned artists and socially-conscious global citizens to track the progress and success of the SDGs. Chris will act as the Festival’s curator over the full 15 years. The headliners for this year’s Festival will be announced later this year.

2015 is a pivotal year for the movement to end extreme poverty by 2030. This year marks the expiration of the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the creation of the SDGs, the world’s ‘to do’ list to address poverty, inequality and environmental sustainability. To ensure these new goals are successful, Global Citizen will work to bring millions of new people into the fight to end extreme poverty, giving them information and avenues for action.

In the lead-up to the United Nations General Assembly this September, Global Citizen 2015 events will include:

    •    Global Citizen 2015 Earth Day, National Mall, Washington D.C., USA, April 18, 2015, in partnership with Earth Day Network
    •    Global Citizen G7 Summit Event, Bavaria, Germany, June 7, 2015
    •    2015 Global Citizen Festival, Central Park, New York, USA, Sept 26, 2015, produced by  Emmy Award-winning producer Ken Ehrlich.

Said Hugh Evans, CEO of The Global Poverty Project, “2015 is a pivotal year to change the future of our people and our planet. In the last 15 years, the world has cut the rate of extreme poverty in half, reached an additional 50 million children with an education, and halved child deaths. But there is still a lot of work to be done. Beginning this year, global citizens will hold our world leaders accountable to the SDGs so that we can see an end to extreme poverty in the next 15 years.”

On the partnership, Chris said, "I, and we as a band, are so excited to be working with Global Citizen. They are passionate about putting equality, fairness and compassion into the world, and improving the quality of life for millions of people around the world whose needs are sometimes overlooked. We are joining their cause because we believe in it, and in them, very much."

For more information about Global Citizen and the campaign to make the Sustainable Development Goals famous, please visit GlobalCitizen.org.

Anchorman