Powering the Investment Push for Sustainable Development through International Financial Architecture Reform

Achieving the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Agreement depends on a global investment push. The 2024 Financing for Sustainable Development Report estimated the SDG finance gap to be between $2.5-4 trillion per year, while the Independent High Level Expert Group on Climate Finance finds that emerging market and developing countries other than China will need $1 trillion annually in external finance by 2030.

Private finance has been slow to materialize and carbon pricing is unlikely to achieve the necessary scale or distribution of revenue. This finance also needs to be mobilized in a context of escalated borrowing costs and tight fiscal constraints. As a result public institutions must play a central role in generating this investment push, but they will also have to carefully manage profound fiscal and financial sustainability challenges. International financial institutions will be key actors in these efforts through their financing, analytical, and leadership roles and they feature prominently in the agenda of the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FFD4) in Seville, Spain.

Building on the work of the Task Force on Climate, Development and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), this panel will explore key questions on the international financial architecture and financing for development and climate action: Why is an investment push necessary, and how can climate action be oriented in a development-friendly manner? What role can international financial institutions like the IMF, World Bank, and regional financial arrangements and development banks play?

On Wednesday, July 2 from 8:30-10:00AM CEST, join the Task Force on Climate, Development and the IMF for an Official FFD4 Side Event exploring how FFD4 can help spur a systemic transformation necessary for the investment push to achieve the SDGs.

Speakers:

- Amar Bhattacharya, International High-Level Expert Group on Climate Finance; Member, Task Force on Climate, Development and the IMF

- H.E. Minister Rania Al-Mashat, Minister for Planning, Economic Development and International Cooperation, Egypt

- H.E. Ryan Straughn, Minister of Finance, Barbados

- Daniel Titelman, Non-Resident Senior Fellow, Boston University Global Development Policy Center; Member, Task Force on Climate, Development and the IMF

- Marilou Uy (Moderator), Non-Resident Senior Fellow, Boston University Global Development Policy Center; Member, Task Force on Climate, Development and the IMF