The Chief of Corporate Sustainability of the United Nations warned business leaders that they can no longer ignore the “North-South division” for climate change.
Sanda Ojamambo, CEO and Executive Director of the UN Global Compact – a body responsible for overseeing business commitments to achieve sustainable development goals – told Stedgewick to CNBC that “climate has become a political issue”, describing Disruption between wealthy and poor nations as “the greatest abyss”.
Speaking at a CNBC panel discussing challenges and opportunities for businesses in pursuing the net zero climate goals at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the UN Director warned that divisions between the Global North and the Global South have created a “tension in Global level “both between business and policymakers.
“You can’t ignore where you are in the world,” she said.
Climate talks at the COP29 Summit in Baku, Azerbaijan, in November ended in severity, with developing countries left without impressed by the rich world’s financial commitments.
Global South Leaders and activists in the Climate Summit remained angry at a $ 300 billion financial agreement, a small engagement compared to the $ 1.3 trillion needed for climate adaptation.
At one point, delegates from poor countries and small islands disappointed what they called a shortage of involvement, concerned that fossil fossil fuels were seeking to reduce aspects of the agreement.
Ojambo warned of the consequences of divisions and tensions on climate funding.
Sanda Ojamambo, CEO and Executive Director of the United Nations Global Compact.
Leigh Vogel | Getty Images entertaining | Getty Images
“It kills the adequate flow of capital, kills the exchange of technology, is a broken trust,” she said, warning business leaders that they “cannot ignore politics” and instead “work within it”.
Strengthening public-private partnerships with “affordable capital” for businesses of “South Global” is vital to the healing of “a broken world”, the UN chief added.
The “anxiety and anxiety” of the Global South are due to the production of “the smallest emission” while “more influenced by the climate action,” Ojamambo said.
Climate scientists warn that rising sea levels, frequent cyclones, and food insecurity are an existential threat to small island of developing in the Caribbean and Pacific.
An increase of 1.5 C at average global temperatures would intensify the extreme floods and drought already experienced in Africa, the home of 32 of the 4 less developed countries in the world.
Both scientific warnings and divisions have led the world to a “turning point,” Ojamambo added.
A report published by the UN in 2023 found that G20 countries are responsible for 76% of global emissions.
“If we can get a significant amount of big players to take us where we have to get to those goals, that’s a part. And then we can work for the rest,” she told the Davo panel .
Investing Opportunities in ‘Gender Lenses’
Gender divisions can be a great opportunity for business leaders to achieve sustainability goals.
Katherine Garrett-Cox, CEO and GIB ASSET Management and Chairman of CDP Worldwide, a global nonprofit, said businesses should apply a “gender lens” to unlock finances.
“Typically, women -led businesses are more concerned about the subject,” she said, adding that improving investment would be important. “
“Gender lens investment is still very young,” Garrett-Cox said.
According to the 2x Global Gender Finance Network, gender lens investment was almost $ 8 billion in private market investment in 2023.