Daniela Gabor in Phenomenal World:
From the turbulent perch of the present, 2015 seems like a lifetime ago. That year, a trifecta of UN agreements announced transformative global ambitions on climate and development. In July 2015, 193 UN Member States agreed to the Addis Ababa Action Plan of the Third International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD3). Solving the financing question, the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stressed, provided “the foundation of a revitalized global partnership for sustainable development that will leave no one behind.” In September of that year, UN members signed the Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development, a “broad and universal policy agenda” aiming to “transform our world” through a new set of Sustainable Development Goals. Then, the Paris Agreement in December marked a new direction in climate politics. Climate action was no longer synonymous with carbon pricing, but instead a long-term project of economic transformation.
The FfD3, the World Bank reported, was marked by “one stark difference from previous gatherings in Doha and Monterrey: unequivocal acceptance that the financing will have to come from private as well as public resources.” The change was inaugurated in part by the sheer force of a new Bank-created motto for financing development: “From Billions to Trillions.” Public, concessional funding in the billions could unlock trillions in private investment. To meet the aims of the social development goals, the Bank claimed, required trillions in financing, which could only materialize through “a paradigm shift… a financing framework capable of channelling resources and investments of all kinds—public and private, national, and global.” It was music to many ears, eager to hear that trillions of investment only required small amounts of public expenditure.
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