UN faces $100 trln shortfall in fight against climate change, inequality

London, Sept. 17 (BNA): Global goals tackling poverty, inequality, injustice and climate change face a $100 trillion underfunding and are likely to be missed unless 10% of global economic output is directed to the UN targets each year through 2030 .Friday’s report said.

Reuters said the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals set goals on everything from the environment to health and equality and have the support of all member states, but that funding from governments, investors, banks and companies to help achieve them has always fallen short.

Due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, the annual deficit is now running at $10 trillion annually, according to a landmark report by the Force for Good Initiative, in collaboration with the United Nations and the finance sector, and shared with Reuters.

“Humanity is at a crossroads. More than ever, all stakeholders must be partners to ensure that this crisis is the beginning of a new sustainable development economy with prosperity for all,” said Chantal Line Carpentier, President of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development in the Middle East. New York Office of the Secretary-General.

The report added that adding the costs of financing the global transition to a low-carbon economy to reduce global warming, and the total financing until 2050 will reach between 200 and 220 trillion dollars.

The Sustainable Development Goals are a global “to do” list that addresses issues such as war, hunger, land degradation, gender and climate.

They said that while more than 1.1 billion people have been lifted out of extreme poverty since 1990, failure to accelerate efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals threatens to fuel conflict and crisis.

After a slow start, the world’s finance industry is starting to do more, with $9.5 trillion committed by 2030 and a record $2.1 trillion published in 2020. However, the report said there are imbalances in the way money is invested .

The report said that while goals related to climate change account for 20% of the financing gap, the topic is currently attracting 44% of committed capital. By contrast, human, economic and social objectives accounted for more than half of the funding gap but took only 32% of current funding.

“The financial sector is playing a rapid role in the expansion of financing the Sustainable Development Goals and the transition to a sustainable digital future,” said Ketan Patel, President of Force for Good and CEO and Co-Founder of Greater Pacific Capital.

“However, with less than ten years to go, there is an urgent need to explore solutions larger and more radical than those being deployed today.”

Other leading financial firms involved in the initiative include BlackRock (BLK.N), JPMorgan (JPM.N) and Bridgewater Associates and Schroders (SDR.L), according to the report.

NS