According to a report released on Thursday, the cost of achieving global goals to combat problems like hunger, poverty, and climate change increased by 25 per cent to $176 trillion over the previous year and performance on several measures reversed.
According to the report by the Force for Good Initiative (FFGI), the funding gap for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a set of 2030 objectives supported by all member states, increased even more over the period, rising 35 per cent to $135 trillion.
The higher cost was fueled by soaring inflation and the increasing costs related to achieving net-zero carbon emissions, it said, in addition to historical underfunding and the ever-shorter timeframe.
As a result of escalating economic pressures, several SDGs have made less progress, with 210 million more people experiencing food insecurity and 100 million more people living in extreme poverty, according to the report.
Despite the fact that there was an additional $450 trillion in liquid wealth available for use in solving issues, most of it was held in pension and other investments where institutions had a need to prioritize returns over the SDGs.
"Our challenge is the SDGs are seen as a worthy cause but not really as a business case that can give a real return to the clients of those institutions," Ketan Patel, founder of the FFGI, which works with finance groups to help drive sustainable development, told Reuters.
Clients must encourage institutions and the businesses they invest in to focus on the SDGs, but institutions must also recognize the opportunities, he continued.
These include building affordable housing for the estimated 2.4 billion urban dwellers by 2050, investing in the booming education technology industry to assist the 260 million children who are not currently enrolled in school, and implementing digital banking to assist the 67 per cent of the world's population who lack access to formal banking services.
"It can be profitable to serve those customers, and we should do so," Patel said.
(Source:www.usnews.com)
According to the report by the Force for Good Initiative (FFGI), the funding gap for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a set of 2030 objectives supported by all member states, increased even more over the period, rising 35 per cent to $135 trillion.
The higher cost was fueled by soaring inflation and the increasing costs related to achieving net-zero carbon emissions, it said, in addition to historical underfunding and the ever-shorter timeframe.
As a result of escalating economic pressures, several SDGs have made less progress, with 210 million more people experiencing food insecurity and 100 million more people living in extreme poverty, according to the report.
Despite the fact that there was an additional $450 trillion in liquid wealth available for use in solving issues, most of it was held in pension and other investments where institutions had a need to prioritize returns over the SDGs.
"Our challenge is the SDGs are seen as a worthy cause but not really as a business case that can give a real return to the clients of those institutions," Ketan Patel, founder of the FFGI, which works with finance groups to help drive sustainable development, told Reuters.
Clients must encourage institutions and the businesses they invest in to focus on the SDGs, but institutions must also recognize the opportunities, he continued.
These include building affordable housing for the estimated 2.4 billion urban dwellers by 2050, investing in the booming education technology industry to assist the 260 million children who are not currently enrolled in school, and implementing digital banking to assist the 67 per cent of the world's population who lack access to formal banking services.
"It can be profitable to serve those customers, and we should do so," Patel said.
(Source:www.usnews.com)
