Intervention by EU Commissioner Urpilainen: UN Summit of the Future Interactive Dialogue on Transforming Global Governance

How to bring in additional investment and financing for sustainable development, such as green bonds and other sources of capital?

A series of crises (COVID-19, Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine and the situation in the Middle East…) have dealt a serious blow to our collective efforts to reach the Sustainable Development Goals.

To get us back on track, we need to mobilise a wide array of financial resources.

Throughout these crises, the EU and its Member States, have remained the world's largest provider of Official Development Assistance.

The EU's Global Gateway investment strategy is helping to achieve the SDGs, by investing in clean energy, transport, and digital infrastructure as well in human and social development.

But we need collectively to do more.

The international finance system must deliver much more financing to help developing and emerging economies fight poverty and tackle global challenges, to avoid deepening inequalities. This is a priority for us but also for many of our partners of the Global South and I am pleased that we could deliver together on this with high ambitions in the Pact of the Future adopted today.

We have made some progress. In the G20, we are supporting Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) to unlock up to USD 357 billion in additional lending in the coming decade. This is inspiration for further steps towards more effective MDBs.

Another priority is to enable investments into sustainable activities.

Private capital needs to be mobilised at scale. And here, green bonds are part of the solution. We know that emerging economies can face hurdles to access capital markets. But we can change that.

This is why the EU established the Global Green Bond Initiative. Europe has the biggest and most advanced green bond market in the world. We are ready to share our expertise on how to develop your own green bond markets.

Let me highlight the European Green Bond Standard. This new voluntary standard, that will apply from December 2024, is designed to be a "gold standard" for green bonds. It provides issuers, within and outside the EU, with a robust framework for raising capital for sustainable projects. It also provides investors with confidence in the integrity and sustainability of the investments.

And our sustainable finance framework is not just for companies that are already green; it also supports those on their journey there.

To achieve progress, we need a global recommitment to the 2030 Agenda and its SDGs. The EU is ready to play its part. Let's do it together.