DEVELOPMENT AND DEBT RELIEF
Interview with Achim Steiner, Administrator, United Nations Development Programme
Bold new approaches to transcend borders Italy’s G7 agenda takes a macro approach, exemplifying the direction the G7 may pursue to reset the global agenda – and it is coming at a crucial moment, with much of the world still off course to meet the Sustainable Development Goals How far and fast is the world progressing to meet the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030? In many parts of the world, we are still off course and we are chronically underinvesting in the Sustainable Development Goals. The United Nations Development Programme’s Human Development Report 2023/2024 found that a significant recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic is largely confined to high-income countries. It is not yet a recovery for low-income and least developed countries. Many developing countries simply don’t have the fiscal space to advance their development priorities including investing in job creation, education, health or their digital public infrastructure, because they’re paying back interest on their debts. Yet there are many positive signs. Investments in clean energy and net-zero transition strategies are now in the hundreds of billions of dollars. Last year, total investment in renewable clean energy infrastructure was some $1.8 trillion. And today around 5.5 billion people have internet access, compared to just one billion people in 2005. Digital is central to the energy transition, economic recovery, jobs and economic opportunities, so these are shining lights. Several countries will achieve many SDG targets and indicators by 2030. But as a global community, we have lost time and it is difficult to recover in such a short period.
How is UNDP working to reinforce progress? Working alongside over 90 countries, UNDP produced SDG Insights Reports to pinpoint where their priorities coincide with, and differ from, the SDGs’ targets and indicators, and how to finance those priorities. With our partners, UNDP is also supporting over 80 countries in advancing Integrated National Financing Frameworks, which help them to see and leverage the full spectrum of available financing – domestic, international, concessional, public and private – to finance the SDGs. As part of our Climate Promise initiative, UNDP is scaling up its support to over 125 countries to develop their third-generation climate pledges known as nationally determined contributions to be submitted in 2025 in advance of the UN climate change conference in Brazil. It is not only an unprecedented opportunity for all countries to play their part in limiting the global temperature rise to 1.5°C. NDCs are also a vital means to drive other national development objectives including job creation and poverty reduction. Problems such as climate change must be redefined as opportunities for investment for economic growth, as countries must meet their citizens’ aspirations while decarbonising their economies. To this end, many developing countries turn to UNDP as an implementing partner, including examining policy reforms, fossil fuel subsidies, regulatory frameworks for renewable energy investments and adaptation planning. How is the Summit of the Future being designed? Against the backdrop of a world more inclined towards confrontation than cooperation, trying
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G7 ITALY: THE APULIA SUMMIT — 2024
globalgovernanceproject.org
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