Speech prepared for delivery at the 14th Seoul ODA International Conference for the session on achieving a greener economy.
Thank you, Professor Tae Yong Jung (Moderator).
Fellow panelists,
Mr. Frank Rijsberman, Director-General, GGGI and
Mr. Woong-yeob Song, Vice President, KOICA.
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen,
I am very honoured to join you at this 14th Seoul ODA International Conference for the session on achieving a greener economy.
I’d like to begin with a favorite proverb of mine. Different versions exist but all of them teach the same thing: that we do not inherit the world from our ancestors, but borrow it from our children.
In this proverb lies the very essence of sustainable development: that we must work to ensure our children grow up in a world that is - at the very least - no worse off than the one we found.
It is a teaching that our species has failed to learn. A recent UNICEF report lays this out in stark terms:
One billion children are at extremely high risk from climate change and other environmental threats. Heatwaves, flooding, cyclones, lead and air pollution, vector-borne diseases. As they intensify and worsen, these horrors are undermining the full spectrum of children’s rights, from access to clean air, food and safe water; to education, housing, freedom from exploitation, and even their right to survive. We are handing our children an increasingly toxic world.
Nowhere is this truer than in developing countries where the multiple, overlapping shocks a child suffers are severely damaging their chances of living healthy, fulfilling lives. And this will only get worse as the climate, biodiversity and pollution crises intensify.
So what can developing countries do to reverse course? How can we recover from the shock of covid in a way that leaves our children a planet that is in better shape than we found it in?
Before I answer this, I want to be clear that we already know where we need to get to. The sustainable development goals provide us with a map to a bold and beautiful vision of our shared future – a future in which hundreds of millions of people no longer go to bed hungry every day, where poverty no longer harms one in 10 people, and where quality education and lifelong learning opportunities are available to all.
But if we have a map, then we have yet to find our bearings. By the end of 2019, the world’s efforts to achieve the SDGs were already off track. Then Covid-19 struck, plunging the world into the worst recession in a century. Global poverty is on the rise for the first time in more than two decades.
And as bad as the pandemic is, the triple planetary crisis of climate change, pollution, and biodiversity loss poses an even greater, existential threat to life on earth. We may recover from the pandemic in the short-term but unless we do so in a way that addresses the planetary crisis, then we can wave goodbye to the SDGs and to our chances of leaving our children the world they deserve.
So how do we recover? How do we find our bearings and walk towards our shared future? The answer comes in three parts.
First, we must avoid the development mistakes of the past. These are fueling the triple planetary crisis in ways that are putting the sustainable development goals out of reach. Second, we urgently need to redirect recovery spending away from the sectors, industries and infrastructure that are causing the most harm. And third, we need to put nature at the very heart of our decision-making.
I’ll begin with the first point:
The conventional response when faced with problems like poverty, hunger and unemployment has been to grow more, expand more, build more. Economic growth in particular has been seen as a panacea - a one-size fits all cure for all the world’s social problems.
And there is truth in this. Massive advances in some parts of the world in areas like poverty reduction, access to electricity, and maternal and child health would have been impossible without economic expansion.
And yet the type of growth we have witnessed and the forms of development enjoyed by high-income countries over the past century have come at a terribly high cost.
- The infrastructure we have built - roads, buildings, transport, industries and electricity - account for three quarters of planet-heating greenhouse gas emissions. Every day that we invest in business-as-usual and carbon-dependent projects leads us further down the wrong path.
- This same infrastructure—and the consumption patterns that it facilitates—fuels the biodiversity crisis. Almost 95% of all deforestation in the Amazon occurs within 6km of roads; we can and must plan our infrastructure better to minimize these types of outcomes.
- And it’s the same story for the pollution crisis. The air pollution, chemicals and waste that are destroying human health and well-being are a direct consequence of the economic and social development paths that we have chosen.
So this is the first key point I want to make: in recovering from the pandemic, in lifting people out of poverty, hunger and ill health, it is crucial that developing countries avoid the mistakes of the past and the present. Infrastructure that supports human development and well-being is badly needed but we just need to do it differently than we have in the past.
Today we have an unprecedented opportunity to do just that — to get it right. That’s because most of the infrastructure that will exist in 2050 has not yet been built. It will take trillions of dollars of investment per year to build and most of it will be built in developing countries.
So how do we get it right this time? To begin with, developing countries must immediately shift their recovery spending away from harmful investments that fuel the triple planetary crisis.
This message is clearly not getting through because more than 80% of the $2.25 trillion in recovery spending is going towards business-as-usual investments.
This is a grave mistake. These investments will lock in the very greenhouse gas emissions, pollution and biodiversity loss that are undermining human well-being and destroying the ability of nations to achieve the SDGs.
They also make little economic sense. We know that green fiscal spending can deliver stronger economic returns than traditional spending alternatives.
For example, investing in energy efficiency and renewables generates five times more jobs per $1 million than investments in fossil fuels. And given that $31 trillion is needed in energy investment up until 2040, directing that money towards energy efficiency, building retrofits, smart grids, and renewable energy supply and storage would be a win for the planet, our health, job-seekers, and investors.
Equally rich fruits are available for countries that invest in green transport, green research and development, green skills programs and natural capital.
This last piece is critical. Natural capital — the living world that sustains us —must be placed at the heart of the recovery, especially in developing countries.
That’s because many natural capital projects don’t require the types of highly skilled labor that are often lacking in emerging economies. These countries also tend to rely heavily on nature-based sectors like agriculture and tourism, so nature-based solutions have the power to safeguard the most critical parts of their economies.
Healthy ecosystems also provide a vast number of vital benefits for people: crop pollination, water filtration, medicine, flood and storm protection, disease prevention, food and fuel to name just a few. Regenerating and protecting these life-sustaining ecosystems through nature-positive food production, for example, can alleviate hunger, reduce poverty, and increase equitable employment.
Natural capital also plays an important role in climate action. Later this year Member States will meet in Glasgow to discuss implementation of the Paris Agreement and ambitious NDCs. It is crucial that countries work together to increase the investments in natural infrastructure—mangroves, coastal wetlands, forests—that are essential to tackling the climate crisis.
So I’ve outlined some of the ways developing countries can recover from the pandemic without worsening the crisis or sacrificing economic growth. But I want to be clear that none of this will be possible without adequate finance.
$6.9 trillion is needed per year until 2050 for infrastructure investment that meets development goals and is aligned with a low-carbon, climate-resilient future. Yet there is a large gap between these needs and current investment trends, especially in low- and middle-income countries.
These countries need help closing the gap, especially as they struggle with the economic fallout from covid and a growing debt crisis. That’s why I want to echo the secretary general’s calls for debt forgiveness and generous foreign aid programs. Generous grants and concessional finance from international partners are urgently needed if we’re going to make the priorities I’ve outlined today a reality.
And so we stand at a crossroads. The paths before us could not be clearer. We can either carry on as before, choosing a business-as-usual development path that plunges us deeper into the triple planetary crisis. Or we can course correct by realigning our actions with the vision laid out in the SDGs.
I know what I want. And I know which path every single child on this planet would choose if given the choice. So let us seize the unique opportunity we have to ensure that the world we return to our children is fit for them to live in.
Deputy Executive Director
