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STORY: UN / FINANCING SDGS
TRT: 1:45
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 04 APRIL 2019, NEW YORK CITY
RECENT – NEW YORK CITY
1.Wide shot, exterior, United Nations
04 APRIL 2019, NEW YORK CITY
2.Various shots, press briefing room
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Amina Mohammed, Deputy Secretary-General, United Nations:
“Rather than retreating from multilateral cooperation, we must strengthen collective action to address global challenges in support of sustainable development.”
4. Med shot, reporters
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Amina Mohammed, Deputy Secretary-General, United Nations:
“Remaking the global financial architecture – for example revamping the arrangements for sovereign debt, international tax norms and, especially, the multilateral trading system – is a huge task, but not beyond our means.”
6.Wide shot, press briefing room
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Amina Mohammed, Deputy Secretary-General, United Nations:
“Global approaches need to be complemented by national action. We have put forward building blocks for countries to operationalize integrated national financing frameworks so their development strategies can access the needed resources. National financing frameworks were introduced in the Addis Ababa Action Agenda, and it is time to start using them for sustainable financing on the ground.”
8. Wide shot, press briefing room
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Amina Mohammed, Deputy Secretary-General, United Nations:
“Achieving sustainable development and combatting climate change require a long-term perspective. Public and private incentives need to be aligned with long-term sustainable development. This calls for building long-term indices, encouraging longer-term credit ratings, accounting for external costs -- through carbon taxes or similar instruments -- and requiring more meaningful disclosure by businesses on social and environmental issues.”
10. Wide shot, press briefing room
A new UN report warned that unless national and international financial systems are revamped, the world’s governments will fail to keep their promises on such critical issues as combatting climate change and eradicating poverty by 2030.
Speaking to reporters today (04 Apr) in New York, UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed said, “rather than retreating from multilateral cooperation, we must strengthen collective action to address global challenges in support of sustainable development.”
The deputy chief noted that the multilateral system is under strain in a rapidly changing global environment. While this is forcing the global community to revisit existing multilateral arrangements, it also opens the door to make multilateral institutions fit for purpose.
She said that the international community must recommit to action, adding that “remaking the global financial architecture – for example revamping the arrangements for sovereign debt, international tax norms and, especially, the multilateral trading system – is a huge task, but not beyond our means.”
Mohammed also reiterated, “global approaches need to be complemented by national action.”
She said, “we have put forward building blocks for countries to operationalize integrated national financing frameworks so their development strategies can access the needed resources. National financing frameworks were introduced in the Addis Ababa Action Agenda, and it is time to start using them for sustainable financing on the ground.”
On achieving sustainable development and combatting climate change, the deputy chief said, it requires a “long-term perspective.”
She said, “public and private incentives need to be aligned with long-term sustainable development,” adding that “this calls for building long-term indices, encouraging longer-term credit ratings, accounting for external costs -- through carbon taxes or similar instruments -- and requiring more meaningful disclosure by businesses on social and environmental issues.”
The 2019 Financing for Sustainable Development Report is the result of collaboration among 60 entities from the United Nations system and beyond, including the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.
In the report, the international organizations find some good news: investment has gained strength in some countries and interest in sustainable investing is growing, with 75 per cent of individual investors showing interest in how their investments affect the world.
And yet, greenhouse gas emissions grew 1.3 per cent in 2017; investment in many countries is falling; and 30 developing countries are now at high risk or already in debt distress. At the same time, global growth is expected to have peaked at around 3 per cent.
Changing the current trajectory in financing sustainable development is not just about raising additional investment, says the report. Achieving global goals depends on supportive financial systems, and conducive global and national policy environments.
Yet the report warns that creating favorable conditions is becoming more challenging. Rapid changes in technology, geopolitics, and climate are remaking our economies and societies, and existing national and multilateral institutions -- which had helped lift billions out of poverty -- are now struggling to adapt. Confidence in the multilateral system has been undermined, in part because it has failed to deliver returns equitably, with most people in the world living in countries with increasing inequality.
The international agencies recommend concrete steps to overhaul the global institutional architecture and make the global economy and global finance more sustainable, including: supporting a shift towards long-term investment horizons with sustainability risks central to investment decisions; revisiting mechanisms for sovereign debt restructuring to respond to more complex debt instruments and a more diverse creditor landscape; revamping the multilateral trading system; addressing challenges to tax systems that inhibit countries from mobilizing adequate resources in an increasingly digitalized world economy; and addressing growing market concentration that extends across borders, with impacts on inequality.
At the national level, the report puts forward a roadmap for countries to revamp their public and private financial systems to mobilize resources for sustainable investment. It introduces tools for countries to align financing policies with national sustainable development strategies and priorities.
One example of the opportunities and challenges the report discusses is in new technologies and fintech (digitally enabled innovation in the financial sector). With more than half a billion people gaining access to financial services in recent years, the appeal of fintech is clear. But as new players enter and rapidly change the financing marketplace, regulators struggle to keep pace. As fintech grows in importance, activities outside the regulatory framework, if left unsupervised, may put financial stability at risk.
Fintech’s promise can pay off with regulatory approaches that address these concerns, but these need to be implemented without stifling innovation. To this end, the report emphasizes the importance of discussions between fintech companies, financial institutions and regulators. It finds that regulatory attention will need to shift to financial activities and their underlying risks, no matter the entity that engages in them, rather than by institutional type.
