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Currently in and out of the New York office even as the city remains among the worst-affected by Covid-19, Satya Tripathi has been Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations and the Head of the New York office of UN's Environmental Programme (UNEP) since 2018. Born in Odisha and a qualified lawyer, Tripathi has served at various offices of the UN since 1998, in Europe, Asia and Africa; these include the UN Office for REDD+ Coordination in Indonesia, and serving as the UN Recovery Coordinator for the $7 billion post-tsunami and post-conflict efforts in Indonesia. His assignments include sustainable development, human rights democratic governance and legal affairs. “This health crisis has shown that people with comorbidities and lower immunity and nutrition levels are paying a much heavier price. The divide is a stark reminder of what happens in a crisis—people at the lower end of the economic pyramid suffer far more disproportionately,” he says, stressing the importance of the United Nations’ sustainable development goals (SDGs), a blueprint to build a better and more sustainable future for all people. The SDGs were intended to target achievement by 2030; has Covid-19 put a spanner in the works? Edited excerpts from an interview with Tripathi: Q. Is there a worry at the United Nations that the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals Agenda is going to suffer the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic?