Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
The United Nations’ top corporate sustainability chief has warned business leaders that they can no longer ignore the growing “north-south divide” over climate change.
Sanda Ojiambo, executive director and CEO of the United Nations Global Compact (the body responsible for overseeing business commitments to achieve sustainable development goals), told CNBC’s Steve Sedgewick that “climate has become a political issue,” and described the gap between rich and poor nations as “the greatest chasm.”
Speaking on a CNBC panel discussing the challenges and opportunities for businesses in pursuit of net-zero climate goals at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the UN chief warned that divisions between the global north and global south have created a “tension.” globally” between companies and policy makers.
“You can’t ignore it no matter where you are in the world,” he said.
Climate talks at the COP29 summit in Baku, Azerbaijan, in November ended in acrimony, with developing nations unimpressed by the rich world’s financial commitments.
Leaders and activists from the global south in the Climate summit left angry over $300 billion financial deal.a paltry commitment compared to the $1.3 trillion needed for climate adaptation.
At one point, delegates from poor nations and small islands walked away frustrated by what they called a lack of inclusivity, worried that fossil fuel-producing countries were trying to water down aspects of the deal.
Ojiambo warned of the consequences of divisions and tensions over climate finance.
Sanda Ojiambo, Executive Director and CEO of the United Nations Global Compact.
Leigh Vogel | Getty Images Entertainment | fake images
“It stifles the proper flow of capital, it stifles the sharing of technology, it’s a loss of trust,” he said, warning business leaders that they “can’t ignore politics” and instead must “work within it.”
Strengthening public-private partnerships with “affordable capital” for companies in the “global south” is vital to healing “a fractured world,” the UN chief added.
The global south’s “anxiety and distress” is because it produces “the least amount of emissions” while being “most affected by climate action,” Ojiambo said.
Climate scientists warn that rising sea levels, frequent cyclones and food insecurity are an existential threat to small island developing nations in the Caribbean and Pacific.
A 1.5C rise in global average temperatures would intensify extreme flooding and droughts already experienced in Africa, home to 32 of the world’s 48 least developed countries.
Both scientific warnings and divisions have brought the world to a “tipping point,” Ojiambo added.
TO report published by the UN. in 2023 found that G20 countries are responsible for 76% of global emissions.
“If we can get a significant number of big players to get us where we need to be in terms of those goals, that’s one piece. And then we can work on the rest,” he told the Davos panel.
Investment opportunity with a ‘gender lens’
Gender gaps could be a great opportunity for business leaders to achieve sustainability goals.
Katherine Garrett-Cox, chief executive of GIB Asset Management and president of CDP Worldwide, a global nonprofit, said companies need to apply a “gender lens” to unlock finances.
“Typically, women-led companies are more concerned about this issue,” she said, adding that improving investment “would be significant.”
“Gender lens investing is still very nascent,” Garrett-Cox said.
According 2X Global gender finance networkGender-responsive investing accounted for nearly $8 billion of private market investment in 2023.
