Harnessing the power of the private sector and multilateral banks to achieve the SDGs: UK statement at the UN Financing for Development High-level Dialogue

Excellencies,

Our Prime Minister, at the G20, announced that Britain will provide 2 billion dollars for the Green Climate Fund – the biggest single commitment the UK has made to help the world tackle climate change.

And Britain continues to want bigger, better Multilateral Development Banks. The UK supports, in due course, a conditional capital increase for the IBRD. We have provided more than 4.5 million pounds of guarantees to enable the Multilateral Development Banks to lend more money. We are also extremely focussed on sweating these Banks’ balance sheets. We have already seen an additional 200 billion dollars produced, and we want to see much more.

In addition, Britain is very focussed on the issues of debt. At the Summit in Paris, Britain announced Climate Resilient Debt Clauses, which we are now using, and which means that countries faced with a pandemic or natural disaster have their liquidity freed up to help their citizens, rather than having to pay off capital and interest.

We also want to see the G20 Common Framework used much better to help countries that need debt rescheduling. We have seen what happened recently in Zambia and Ghana and we know that that is not good enough.

Our Prime Minister has also made clear that we will stand by our commitment to provide 11.6 billion pounds of international climate finance before the end of 2025/26, and play our part in the 100 billion promise that has been made. And we have recently announced that we will spend 500 million pounds on forestry programmes because we know the important role they play in tackling climate change.

In November, we will have a summit in London on the issue of malnutrition, food insecurity and starvation, which I think will also make a very significant contribution.

The final point I want to make is about the critical importance of all these different state funding mechanisms being able to link umbilically with the private sector, and in particular with the 60 trillion dollars we know is there of pension fund money. Many of the people who manage pension funds would want to see, subject to the necessary safeguards, this money being used as part of the common fight across the planet on tackling climate change.

So, we think harnessing the role of the private sector is absolutely crucial. As we hope to help explain in a government white paper from Britain later this year on the future of international development. Just as BII – the British government’s development finance institution – is playing such an important role already, investing to support delivery of the SDGs.

As we look ahead to the Annual Meetings and COP28, let’s seize this moment to increase ambition, galvanise action, and find new ways to deliver a bigger, better, fairer international financial system. One that helps countries thrive on their own terms and leaves no one behind.

Thank you.