UN faces $100-trn shortfall in fight against inequality

What is the news?

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) face a financing gap that has soared to up to US$100 trillion in the wake of COVID-19 and other urgent global challenges.

These are the findings of a new report ‘The Capital as a Force for Good‘ by Force for Good in collaboration with the UN and other organizations.

What are the key findings of the report?

Funding shortfall: Global goals tackling poverty, inequality, injustice and climate change face a $100 trillion funding shortfall and are likely to be missed unless 10% of global economic output is directed to the UN targets every year to 2030.

Funding requirements: Adding the costs of financing the global transition to a low-carbon economy to limit global warming, and total funding out to 2050 comes in at $200-$220 trillion.

Imbalances in investment: After a slow start, the world’s finance industry has begun to do more, with $9.5 trillion committed to 2030 and a record $2.1 trillion deployed in 2020. However, there are imbalances in the way the money is being invested.

While climate change-related goals represented 20% of the funding gap, the theme was currently attracting 44% of the committed capital. By contrast, human, economic and social-related goals made up more than half of the funding gap but were taking in just 32 per cent of current funding.

Conflict risk: While more than 1.1 billion people have been lifted out of extreme poverty since 1990, failure to accelerate efforts on the SDGs risked fuelling conflict and crises.

What is the way forward?

Closing the funding gap will require not only more funding, but also a broadening of investment portfolios to place far greater emphasis on investments in people and human security. This should include direct investments in the social inclusion, education, welfare, and well-being of human beings

Source: This post is based on the article “UN faces $100-trn shortfall in fight against inequality” published in Business Standard on 17^th Sep 2021.