Poorer nations face $4 trillion sustainable development investment gap: UNCTAD
A lack of investment in less wealthy nations is a major obstacle to sustainable development, the UN’s trade and development body, UNCTAD, said on Wednesday.
Presenting the latest global trends in foreign direct investment, UNCTAD’s Secretary-General Rebeca Grynspan said that developing countries faced a $4 trillion gap in investments in a number of sectors related to sustainable development, and that investments in the clean energy transition accounted for about half of this gap.
Ms. Grynspan reported that while investment in renewable energy has nearly tripled since the adoption of the Paris Agreement almost eight years ago, “we know that it's going to the developed countries and to the emerging economies”, and poorer states have largely been left out.
She said that more than 30 developing countries have not registered a single international investment in utility-size renewable energy generation since the landmark climate change treaty was adopted in 2015.
The UN official also stressed how much the global South needed two key agreements - the Black Sea Initiative for the exports of grain from Ukraine to global markets and the Memorandum of Understanding signed between the Russian Federation and the UN to foster the exports of Russian food and fertilizers - to “continue bringing prices down” and stabilizing food and fertilizer markets around the world.
Launched in July 2022 in Istanbul, the Black Sea Initiative is up for renewal later this month.
UNCTAD also called for a series of policies and financing mechanisms to be put in place to help developing countries attract investment. Ms. Grynspan said that multilateral development banks can help scale up international investment by partnering with governments and the private sector – a measure that can reduce the spread on borrowing costs for energy investment projects in developing countries by up to 40 per cent.
The UNCTAD chief also insisted that investment played a “huge part” in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals which, she said, were “too big to fail”, calling them “the only game in town” whose success depended on collective action and global solidarity.
-ends-
TRT: 2’12”
SOURCE: UNTV CH
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH, NATS
ASPECT RATIO: 16:9
DATE SHOT: 5 July 2023
FORMAT: HYBRID PRESS BRIEFING
LOCATION: GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
SHOTLIST
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk is gravely concerned by the escalating violence in and around El-Fasher city, North Darfur, where dozens of people have been killed in the past two weeks as hostilities between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have intensified., UN Human Rights spokesperson Seif Magango told the biweekly press briefing in Geneva.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
At the bi-weekly press conference in Geneva Jeremy Laurence, Spokesperson for the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) briefed the journalist on the latest development in Iran.
1
1
1
Edited News | WHO
"WHO warns of widespread misuse of antibiotics during COVID-19 pandemic, fueling antimicrobial resistance."
1
1
1
Press Conferences
Rolando Gomez, Chief, Press and External Relations Section at the UN Information Service in Geneva, chaired a hybrid briefing, which was attended by the spokespersons and representatives of the UN Human Rights Office, the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the UN Mine Action Service and the World Health Organization.
2
1
2
Press Conferences , Edited News | FAO , UNHCR , UNICEF , WFP
Launch of the Global Report on Food Crises 2024
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR
Summary: OHCHR - Ravina Shamdasani addresses the Israel-Occupied Palestinian Territory situation.