As world leaders and finance moguls land in Paris for the Summit for a New Global Financing Pact, it’s time to take concrete steps for sustainable finance and not let this be another international summit without substance. French President Emmanuel Macron says the agenda is to increase “financial solidarity with the [Global] South”. India, the president of the G20 this year, is co-chairing the steering committee of the summit with France and can be counted on to be that voice of the Global South.
Promises and payment
Every day, the cost of climate change and inaction becomes dearer, particularly for low- and middle-income countries that face the brunt of it. According to One Planet Lab’s white papers released for the Summit, the scale of investment needed to meet the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals, climate COP21 and Biodiversity COP15 objectives set at the global and national levels is to the tune of an additional $4 trillion every year. If you break down the maths, that’s over $2 trillion a year to meet the Paris Agreement objectives and $2 trillion required to achieve the UN SDGs. But the hard truth is that only $204 billion of official development assistance came last year – a record in itself.
