First meeting of the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors - 7th session: Sustainable finance working group

Excellencies,

There is no growth without investment, so it is concerning that global FDI  fell by 8% last year; and even more so that investment into SDG sectors fell by 11%.

High uncertainty and higher-for-longer interest rates will worsen this trend.

Three quick points:

• First: Since 2022, capital flows from private creditors in developing countries have been net negative; multilateral development banks (MDBs) have given net positive flows but not enough to plug the gap. 
  
  This underlines the urgency of scaling up MDB financing and enhancing their capacity to address risk to crowd-in private capital. 
  Without this, it won’t happen.
   
• Second: Since 2023, green-washing has been a growing concern for investors. Inflows into new sustainability funds has slow down significantly. We worry about further acceleration of this trend.
   
• Third: International investment agreements must allow countries the policy space that new climate action demands. 
  Old agreements don’t allow this.

Chair,

The question now isn’t whether we can afford sustainable investment, but whether we can afford its absence.

I thank you.