Nearly 65% of adults in the Arab region remain excluded from formal financial systems, according to a new report by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA). The Annual SDG Review 2025 paints a sobering picture of persistent financial exclusion that is undermining the region’s ability …
In this note, explain the financial implications of recent changes to EU coal power economics. In doing so, argue EU policymakers and investors need to prepare for no hard coal or lignite generation by 2030. Data-driven solutions are offered to ensure an orderly and just transition.
Taking the Pulse 2019 details the energy access financing challenge faced in three countries: Madagascar, the Philippines and Uganda. The report provides crucial insights into how national contexts shape finance flows for electricity and clean cooking access. Each of these countries has its own unique set of energy needs, existing …
This report explores how various political and financial measures could help to “de-risk” renewables investment using onshore wind investments in Serbia and Greece as case examples. The financing costs for renewable energies in Southeast Europe have been significantly higher than for conventional power plants. Additionally, high risk premiums hamper the …
The Asia-Pacific Trade and Investment Report (APTIR) is a biennial publication prepared by the Trade, Investment and Innovation Division of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific to provide insights into the impact of recent and emerging developments in trade and foreign direct investment on …
The Asia-Pacific Trade and Investment Report (APTIR) is a biennial publication prepared by the Trade, Investment and Innovation Division of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific to provide insights into the impact of recent and emerging developments in trade and foreign direct investment on …
Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA) is the region with the lowest percentage of households with coverage to at least basic water of all regions and also lags behind basic sanitation coverage. The analysis looks at access to services, institutional structures, funding sources (including from governments, donors and households), funding channels, …
Riven with scientific uncertainty, contending interests, and competing interpretations, the problem of climate change poses an existential challenge. For India, such a challenge is compounded by the immediate concerns of eradicating poverty and accelerating development. Moreover, India has played a relatively limited role thus far in causing the problem. Despite …
Sub-Saharan Africa's turnaround over the past couple of decades has been dramatic. After many years in decline, the continent's economy picked up in the mid-1990s. Along with this macroeconomic growth, people became healthier, many more youngsters attended schools, and the rate of extreme poverty declined from 54 percent in 1990 …
Ten years on from the global financial crisis, the world economy remains locked in a cycle of low or flat productivity growth despite the injection of more than $10 trillion by central banks. The latest Global Competitiveness Report paints a gloomy picture, yet it also shows that those countries with …
The Sierra Leone National Action Plan for Health Security (NAPHS) is based on the recommendations of the 2016 Joint External Evaluation (JEE). The JEE is a voluntary, collaborative and multi-sectoral process to evaluate country’s capacity to prevent, detect and rapidly respond to public health risks occurring naturally or due to …
As electric and hybrid-electric buses gradually become a reality worldwide, achieving a better understanding of the mechanisms supporting investments in these new technologies as well as their assets is more important than ever. The global electric bus fleet grew about 32 percent in 2018, and it represents the fastest-growing part …
Private sector banks are facing political, market, and societal pressure to direct finance towards low carbon, sustainable development. One way they’re signaling their response is through sustainable finance commitments: publicly-made, time-bound commitments to provide or facilitate capital for climate and sustainability solutions. While the commitments may appear straightforward at first …
Climate-related risks pose inevitable threats to investors and the assets in which they invest. Institutional investors have become increasingly concerned about-climate-related risks, but physical risks, which represent the direct physical impacts from climate change, are not well understood. Water-related risks are prominent physical risks that affect a wide range of …
Finance is key to achieving Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG7), which aims to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all. However, less than one-fourth of the investment required for universal electricity access is taking place. The situation for clean cooking is even more concerning, where investment …
Central Africa is home to the second largest rainforest in the world, the Congo Basin. However, while this massive forest block stores huge amounts of carbon, it receives significantly less international funding than the Amazon and Southeast Asia's forests. Financing being a central to combat climate change, this study aims …
In order to meet international climate goals, there is a collective challenge to “shift the trillions” in private capital to help drive the transition to a zero carbon, climate-resilient economy. Public sources of finance will not be able to meet this demand on their own. As more initiatives among the …
The involvement of indigenous peoples is key to achieving the ambitions of the SDGs. On the one hand, they hold valuable knowledge and traditions that provide solutions to major challenges, including those related to sustainable natural resource management, climate resilience, and promoting food systems that provide healthy nutrition for all. …
Progress report of a study commissioned by the Federal German Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) as an input to the G7 Food Security Working Group and the national and international discussion to independently assess SDG 2 implementation, financial needs, and development in reference to the Elmau 500 million …
Progress report of a study commissioned by the Federal German Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) as an input to the G7 Food Security Working Group and the national and international discussion to independently assess SDG 2 implementation, financial needs, and development in reference to the Elmau 500 million …
The world economy is heading into troubled waters, with recession in 2020 now a clear and present danger, according to UNCTAD’s Trade and Development Report 2019. Warning lights are flashing around trade tensions, currency movements, corporate debt, a no-deal Brexit and inverted yield curves but there is little sign that …
