25 August 2016: The incoming President of the UN General Assembly (UNGA), Peter Thomson, identified financing for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development as a key challenge at an event convened by UN Women and the UN Environment Programme’s Inquiry into the Design of a Sustainable Financial System (UNEP-FI) in New York, the US. The event featured a briefing from UN Women and UNEP-FI on investment progress to support achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

“Implementing the SDGs will not be possible without adequate financing. We have to be creative in mobilizing finance from every possible source and ambitious in exploring how to work together in aligning our global financial system with sustainable development,” Thomson said. He stressed the importance of a transition to a sustainable low-carbon green economy in order to realign the world’s financial system to ensure it can play an enabling role in the 2030 Agenda. He observed that US$5-7 trillion dollars annually will be needed to support SDG implementation.

UN Women’s Deputy Executive Director, Yannick Glemarec, urged “addressing the gender gap in access to finance in order to ensure that new financial solutions benefit women and men equally in support of sustainable development.”

Representatives from international financial institutions (IFIs), bankers federations and other financial groups shared their institution’s experiences in increasing sustainable finance at the meeting, which took place on 24 August 2016. [UNEP Press Release] [UNEP-FI Press Release]