Following last year's adoption of the momentous 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreement on climate change, which has been signed by a record 175 countries on its opening day, the focus has switched to how to finance the implementation of the accords. Multilateral Development Banks are seen as ideally placed to translate the billions of dollars already dedicated to development assistance into the trillions that are required by the new development agenda, especially through the mobilization and leveraging of private sources of finance.
Ahead of its 25th Annual Meeting, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is organizing, Tuesday, together with the United Nations Environment Programme Inquiry into the Design of a Sustainable Financial System (UNEP Inquiry) and the Reinventing Bretton Woods Committee, a seminar on Green Infrastructure Investment.
While estimates vary, the world faces the need to invest around $90 trillion in sustainable infrastructure assets over the next 15 years, most of which will come from private sources. On top of this is the need to deliver access to finance across the world as well as higher risk funding of breakthrough technologies.
The event will feature the EBRD President Sir Suma Chakrabarti and UNEP Inquiry Co Director Simon Zadek, who will deliver a keynote speech on Bringing Environmental Standards into Financial Industry. Discussion at the meeting will focus initially on how best to tap into new sources of finance and to attract investment into the Green agenda from Sovereign Wealth Funds and from the insurance and pensions industry. Speakers will also assess the development of the Green Bond Market and what needs to be done especially on the regulatory front to help its further expansion.
A second session will analyze the development of roadmaps for sustainable financing in individual countries and offers the opportunity to hear the experiences from several different countries from both the developed and the developing world. The event agenda can be found here.
