ECOSOC president warns $4 trillion annual financing gap as U.N. readies Seville conference

Ambassador Bob Rae, president of the United Nations Economic and Social Council and Canada’s permanent representative to the United Nations, told reporters at a U.N. briefing that the international community faces an estimated $4 trillion annual gap to finance the Sustainable Development Goals as the U.N. and international financial institutions prepare for the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development in Seville, Spain.

The warning came during remarks and a question-and-answer session with Naveed Hanif, assistant secretary-general in the U.N. Department of Economic and Social Affairs, who laid out figures the forum will address: a multi‑trillion dollar financing shortfall, mounting debt distress in developing countries and the need to mobilize both public and private investment.

“Climate change, so $4,000,000,000,000 per year gap,” Hanif said, summarizing the scale of additional finance needed for the transition and related goals. He told reporters that 68 countries are at some degree of risk of serious debt distress and that 10 are…