Business can no longer ignore the ‘North-South’ climate divide: UN
The UN’s top corporate sustainability officer has warned that business leaders cannot ignore the growing “North-South divide” on climate change.
Sanda Ojiambo, CEO and Executive Director of the UN Global Compact – the body responsible for overseeing trade commitments to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals – told CNBC’s Steve Sedgwick that “climate has become a political issue” and the “big gulf” between rich and poor countries.
The division between the global North and global South has “created tension,” the UN director warned on a CNBC panel discussing the challenges and opportunities of pursuing net-zero climate goals at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Globally” among both business and policy makers.
“No matter where you are in the world, you can’t ignore it,” she said.
Climate talks at the COP29 summit in Baku, Azerbaijan in November ended in chaos, with developing countries unimpressed by the rich world’s financial commitment.
Global South leaders and activists are outraged by the $300 billion financing deal, compared to the $1.3 trillion needed for climate adaptation.
At one point, delegates from poor and small island nations walked out, frustrated by what they described as a lack of inclusiveness, arguing that fossil fuel-producing nations were seeking to water down aspects of the deal.
Ojiambo warned of the consequences of fragmentation and stress on climate finance.
Sanda Ojiambo, Executive Director and Executive Director of the United Nations Global Compact.
Lei Vogel Getty Images Entertainment | Getty Images
“It hinders the flow of capital, it weakens the exchange of technology, it erodes trust,” she said, warning business leaders that they “cannot ignore the politics” but rather “work within it.”
The UN chief added that strengthening public-private partnerships with “equitable capital” for businesses in the “global south” is “essential to healing a broken world.”
Ojiambo said the “concern and anger” of the global South is “most affected by climate action” while producing “the least amount of emissions”.
Climate scientists warn Rising sea levels, frequent hurricanes and food insecurity are threats to small island developing nations in the Caribbean and Pacific.
A rise in global average temperatures of 1.5C will intensify the risk of floods and severe droughts, with 32 of the world’s 48 least developed countries.
Both scientific warnings and divisions have led the world to a “tipping point,” Ojiambo added.
A A report published by the UN. In the year It found that by 2023, G20 countries will be responsible for 76 percent of global emissions.
“If we can get a significant amount of big players to just get us where we need to be in terms of those targets, that’s one piece. Then we can work on the rest,” she told the Davos panel.
A ‘gender lens’ investment opportunity
The gender divide can be a great opportunity for business leaders to achieve sustainability goals.
Kathryn Garrett Cox, chief executive of GIB Asset Management and chair of international non-profit CDP Worldwide, says businesses need to apply a “gender lens” to unlocking finance.
“Typically, women-led businesses are more concerned about this,” she said, adding that improving investment “would be beneficial.”
“Gender lens investing is still very early,” Garrett-Cox said.
As he says Gender Finance Network 2X GlobalBy 2023, gender lens investment will account for nearly $8 billion in private market investment.