UN – UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon has urged developed countries to redeem their 2009 pledge to provide 100 billion U.S. dollars per year by 2020 to help developing countries cope with climate change.
Ban made the call on Monday while declaring open the inaugural Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) Forum on Financing for Development in New York.
He said that all concerned must be part of a consultative, politically credible process for defining the 100 billion U.S. dollars.
The UN chief also said that delivering on the new Paris Agreement would require countries to implement their national climate plans, as well as increase their ambitions over time.
He added that achieving both of these goals required a key item, finance.
Ban said that more than 2.4 billion people lack clean water and sanitation while 57 million of the world’s children are not enrolled in school.
He added that more than half the world’s population lacks any social security coverage.
“We must follow through on the new social compact enshrined in the Addis Ababa Agenda to provide social protection and essential public services for all.
“Billions of lives depend on it.
“Investments in sustainable and resilient infrastructure are a prerequisite to achieve many of our global goals.
“The new Global Infrastructure Forum, led by the multilateral development banks, which I attended last weekend in Washington D.C., is an important step towards bridging this gap.
“We need to step up our efforts to implement the Addis Ababa Action Agenda in its entirety,’’ he said.
The private sector, he added, must be an active partner, in particular in areas such as the provision of urgently-needed social goods.
He also said that the growing importance of South-South cooperation must also be recognised.
This, he said, is now driving innovation and demonstrating its effectiveness in many developing countries.
The UN, he said, must be the forum where leadership and strategic collaboration among very different actors can transform our development model.
“Developing countries hosting large numbers of refugees should have access to concessional loans – and I am glad to see progress on that front.
“We also call for stronger commitment to humanitarian financing, which will be one focus of the first-ever World Humanitarian Summit that I am convening in Istanbul on May 23 and May 24.
“Development aid plays a critical role in addressing the root causes of conflict.
“That is one reason why we make sure that efforts to increase the share of ODA to Least Developed Countries should continue.
“Implementation will be the test of our commitment,’’ he said.
He explained further that the Addis Ababa Action Agenda, together with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris agreement on climate change, he said, are triumphs of multilateralism.
According to Ban, these are historic agreements to eradicate poverty, build resilient societies, address climate change and put the world on a sustainable development path.
“We have the collective responsibility to turn these landmark agreements into tangible actions.
“The time for implementation is now.
“Following-up on the Addis Ababa Agenda is the right starting point.’’
He also said that the financing requirements to achieve the SDGs are estimated to be in the order of trillions of dollars annually.
Mobilising these resources, he said, will be a significant challenge, particularly at a time of continued economic uncertainty and financial constraints.
The Addis Ababa Agenda, he said, provides a full range of actions to realign financial flows and policies with economic, social and environmental priorities.
He said it contains over 100 concrete policy commitments that draw upon all sources of finance, technology, innovation, trade, debt and data to support the 2030 Agenda.
“We must sustain our political momentum and build on the unprecedented collaboration of recent years.
“The global response to the 2030 Agenda must match the scope of the challenge, which means tapping into the potential of all actors to achieve the large-scale transformation we need.
“Now is the time for smart investments in people and the planet, where they are needed, when they are needed and at the scale they are needed,’’ he said.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that in Copenhagen in 2009 and in Cancún in 2010, developed countries committed to jointly raising 100 billion U.S. dollars per year by 2020 to help developing countries cope with climate change.
NAN also recalls that in Addis Ababa in July 2015, UN member states and Heads of governments affirmed their strong political commitment to address the challenge of financing and creating an enabling environment at all levels for sustainable development in the spirit of global partnership and solidarity. (NAN)
Ban urges developed countries to redeem $100bn pledge for developing countries
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