Efforts to advance SDG financing "valuable investments" in collective future: UNDP officials

BEIJING, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Financing is one of the most significant challenges in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), an official with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) said on Sunday, calling on the world to take decisive action to ensure a sustainable future.

Beate Trankmann, UNDP resident representative in China, made the remarks at a forum held on the sidelines of the 2022 China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS), which concluded Monday.

Highlighting the trillions of U.S. dollars in global business opportunities that achieving the SDGs could unlock, she emphasized that efforts to advance SDG financing are "valuable investments in our collective future, not costs."

She also praised China's important steps taken in this regard, including its rapid rise to be among the top issuers in green bonds globally.

Marcos Neto, director of the UNDP Sustainable Finance Hub, said in a video speech that China's total labelled green bonds in domestic and international markets in 2021 grew 2.4 times to 109.5 billion U.S. dollars from a year earlier, representing the fastest growing and the second largest green bond market in the world. He cited data from the Climate Bond Initiative and China Central Depository &Clearing Co., Ltd.

"Since 2016, China has established a comprehensive policy framework for greening its financial system. Its efforts in redirecting financial resources for environmental objectives are essential to meet the ambitions set out in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development," Neto added.

Noting that COVID-19 has increased the annual financial gap to achieve the SDGs in developing countries with a jump of 40 percent to 4.2 trillion dollars, Trankmann nevertheless stressed that mobilizing the necessary funding is entirely possible.

"Re-allocating just 1.1 percent of global financial assets would be able to cover it," she said.

With only eight years left to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, Trankmann called on all parties to take decisive action to "ensure a sustainable future for generations to come."

The forum on China SDG Finance was co-hosted by the China International Center for Economic and Technical Exchanges (CICETE) and the UNDP. It concluded with the announcement of a collective pledge to work toward accelerating SDG finance in China, issued by the CICETE, UNDP and 12 other institutions.

Themed "cooperate for better development, innovate for a greener future," the 2022 CIFTIS features greater internationalization, with some 400 Global Fortune 500 companies and industry-leading enterprises participating, representing a larger share than its last edition.