UN urges trillions in investments to salvage global goals

UNITED NATIONS, April 9 (Xinhua) -- A UN report released Tuesday underscores the urgent need for a financial lifeline to rescue the faltering Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), spotlighting the dire financing gap in the face of mounting crises.

The 2024 Financing for Sustainable Development Report: Financing for Development at a Crossroads (FSDR 2024) says urgent steps are needed to mobilize financing at scale to close the development financing gap, now estimated at 4.2 trillion U.S. dollars annually, up from 2.5 trillion dollars before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Meanwhile, rising geopolitical tensions, climate disasters and a global cost-of-living crisis have hit billions of people, battering progress on healthcare, education, and other development targets.

"This report is yet another proof of how far we still need to go and how fast we need to act to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development," said UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed. "We are truly at a crossroads and time is running out. Leaders must go beyond mere rhetoric and deliver on their promises. Without adequate financing, the 2030 targets cannot be met."

With only six years remaining to achieve the SDGs, hard-won development gains are being reversed, particularly in the poorest countries. If current trends continue, the UN estimates that almost 600 million people will continue to live in extreme poverty in 2030 and beyond, more than half of them women.

"We're experiencing a sustainable development crisis, to which inequalities, inflation, debt, conflicts and climate disasters have all contributed," said UN Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs Li Junhua. "Resources are needed to address this, and the money is there. Billions of dollars are lost annually from tax avoidance and evasion, and fossil fuel subsidies are in the trillions. Globally, there is no shortage of money; rather, a shortage of will and commitment."

The report highlights that significant factors exacerbating the crisis include escalating debt burdens and soaring borrowing costs.

It's projected that debt service in the least developed nations will reach an annual sum of 40 billion dollars from 2023 to 2025, marking an increase of over 50 percent from the 26 billion dollars recorded in 2022.

Additionally, the report attributes more than half of this surge in debt to intensified and more frequent climate-related disasters impacting vulnerable countries.

The poorest countries now spend 12 percent of their revenues on interest payments - four times more than they spent a decade ago.

Roughly 40 percent of the global population live in countries where governments spend more on interest payments than on education or health.

While investment in SDG sectors had grown steadily in the early 2000s, major sources of development funding are now slowing down.

For instance, the growth of domestic revenues has hit a standstill since 2010, notably in Least Developed Countries and other low-income nations, largely due to issues like tax evasion and avoidance. Additionally, corporate income tax rates have been on a decline, with the global average plummeting from 28.2 percent in 2000 to 21.1 percent in 2023, attributed to the impacts of globalization and competitive tax practices.

The report concludes that the international financial system, which was set up at the 1944 Bretton Woods Conference, is no longer fit for purpose. It proposes a new coherent system that is better equipped to respond to crises, scales up investment in the SDGs especially through stronger multilateral development banks, and improves the global safety net for all countries.

The report points to the UN Summit of the Future in September 2024 as a crucial opportunity to change course. It highlights the June 2025 Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4) as the critical moment for countries to commit to closing the development financing gap and invest in achieving the SDGs.

"Without global cooperation, targeted financing, and, crucially, the political will, the world will not achieve the SDGs," said Deputy Secretary-General Mohammed. "The clock is ticking. Between now and next year's FfD4 Conference, we have a once-in-80-year opportunity to comprehensively reform the financial architecture, and a last chance to correct course before 2030. History will not be kind to those with the power to act who fail to do so, while the clock winds down on the planet and its people." ■