Amid growing food and energy crises, an uncertain global economic outlook, and the escalating impacts of climate change, the UN today said that a sustainable industrial transformation is needed to close the widening development gap between countries, meet climate targets and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The 2023 Financing for Sustainable Development Report: Financing Sustainable Transformations is advising that urgent, massive investments are needed to accelerate transformations including in electricity supply, industry, farming, transportation, and buildings.
“Without the means to invest in sustainable development and transform their energy and food systems, developing countries are falling even further behind.
“A two-track world of haves and have-nots holds clear and obvious dangers for every country. We urgently need to rebuild global cooperation and find the solutions to our current crises in multilateral action,” United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said in the foreword to the report.
According to the report some of the necessary changes are already taking place.
It noted the energy crisis caused by the war in Ukraine has spurred investment in the global energy transition, which skyrocketed in 2022 to a record $1.1 trillion.
The report also added that energy transition investments surpassed fossil fuel system investments for the first time in 2022, but these are almost all in China and developed countries.
The 2023 Financing for Sustainable Development Report finds that most developing countries do not have the resources for investment, unlike their developed counterparts. Climate change, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the COVID-19 pandemic, and debt payments up to two times higher than in 2019 have combined to put massive fiscal pressures on most developing countries.
This limits their ability to invest in sustainable transformation.
In developed countries in 2020 and 2021, for example, post-pandemic recovery spending was $12,200 per capita. This was 30 times higher than for developing countries ($410), and 610 times higher than for least developed countries ($20).
“Without delivering a reformed international financial system while scaling up investments in the SDGs, we will not deliver on our shared commitment to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
“The good news is that we know what to do and how to do it. From launching critical transformations in energy, food and education to ushering in a new green industrial and digital age—we all must quicken the pace and leave no one behind,” United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed said.
The 2023 Financing for Sustainable Development Report notes that industrialization has historically been a vehicle of progress, leading to economic growth, job creation, technological advancement, and poverty reduction.
The report calls for a new generation of sustainable industrial policies, underpinned by integrated national planning, to scale up investments and lay the foundation for the needed transformations.
Many opportunities for inclusive growth exist in agroindustry, green energy, and manufacturing.
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