Public and Private Financing of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Abstract

The market will undersupply sustainable development goals (SDGs) due to their substantial public good element. SDG investments should be socially evaluated at accounting prices, for which alternative estimation approaches exist, amongst which political arbitrage is needed. Money should also be integrated in the evaluation, as assets not backed by real wealth creation risk having a higher return in cash than SDGs at the time of the initial finance of investment. Current estimates of SDG cost at market prices cumulated over 10 years vary between 20 and 80% of 2019 world GDP. Actual cost could be higher, possibly 125% of GDP, about one-sixth of the world’s private wealth. The PPP financing route can be followed mainly for larger projects and for a relatively limited portion of aggregate public investment needs. This confirms the public sector’s principal responsibility for actual implementation of SDGs, for which public budgets remain to be mobilised and coordinated at the scale needed.

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