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António Guterres calls on key business leaders to step up to the challenge of financing the SDGs
The United Nations announced 30 influential leaders from the corporate world will work together over the next two years in a bid to free up trillions of dollars from the private sector to finance the Sustainable Development Goals.
The group of influencers named the Global Investors for Sustainable Development (GISD) Alliance convened by Secretary-General António Guterres.
“We face widening inequality, increased devastation from conflicts and disasters and a rapidly warming Earth. These leaders have seized our sense of urgency, recognizing that our pace must be at a run, not a crawl,” Guterres said. “They are committing to cooperate across borders, across financial sectors and even with their competitors, because it is both ethical and good business sense to invest in sustainable development for all people on a healthy planet.”
The GISD Alliance is part of the UN’s strategy on financing for sustainable development, informed by the Addis Ababa Action Agenda. The Action Agenda provides a global framework for financing sustainable development by aligning all financing flows and policies with economic, social and environmental priorities. It includes a set of policy actions, with measures that draw upon all sources of finance, technology, innovation, trade, debt and data, in order to support achievement of the Sustainable Development.
During the recent UN General Assembly, urgent attention for increased government spending on crucial sectors such as health, education, in“Given the current state of the world in terms of growing inequalities; rising carbon emissions; growing global hunger; rising unemployment and social discontent, business leaders must play a larger role in ensuring their companies take the lead in societal transformation through business processes and services and not just through philanthropy. We are honored to be joining this alliance that will help scale up investment for sustainable development”, said Michael Joseph, CEO, Safaricom.
Over the next two years, the alliance aims to use their expertise, influence and business to stimulate long term investment in development and speed up progress towards achieving the SDGs, this will include:
- Delivering solutions for long-term finance and investment in sustainable development
- Generate additional resources for countries and sectors most in need
- Increase the positive impact of business activities
- Align business practices with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
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Members of the alliance include: Allianz SE, APG, Aviva Banco Santander, Bancolombia, Bank of America, Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS), CIMB, Citigroup, Consejo Mexicano de Negocios, Les Eaux Minérales d’Oulmès, Emirates Environmental Group, Enel S.p.A, First State Super, Government Pension Investment Fund, ICBC, Infosys, Investec Group, Johannesburg Stock Exchange, Nuveen, Pal Pensions, PIMCO, Safaricom, Sintesa Group, Standard Chartered, SulAmerica, Swedish Investors for Sustainable Development, TDC Group A/S and UBS Group AG.frastructure, and climate change was highlighted.
