[As delivered]

Excellencies,

Dear Guests,

What a great honour to be here again in the Free [and] Hanseatic City of Hamburg for the Hamburg Sustainability Conference. 

We are living at a time of great contradictions. 

Unprecedented wealth. 

Unprecedented innovation. 

Yet, unprecedented instability. 

We have never had more crises in the world since the Second World War. 

International law is challenged, almost on a daily basis.

And development finance is under incredible pressure. 

We are living, today, through a redefining moment. 

In this redefining moment, we are not going to tackle it only with talks. We are going to redefine this moment with talks, with investments, and with action. 

And we have to understand a very simple truth: in these very challenging and turbulent times, it is good when there are ceasefires, but real security only happens when you give people back opportunity.

When you give them a chance for a better life, with jobs, with functioning institutions, with sustainable growth. 

Today, all of these are being tested for too many people in the world. 

And even if it looks like the tensions in the Middle East are decreasing, the economic aftershocks - the ripple effects - are something which might threaten the lives of hundreds of millions of people for years. 

Yes, governments and communities have acted. 

They have acted to prevent up to 45 million people from falling back into poverty. 

But at which cost? 

At staggering fiscal cost. 

These are means that could have been used for something else. 

The subsidies for fossil fuels have ballooned over the past months. [They are on track to reach US $1.1 trillion in 2026].

Today, we see that the debt levels in developing countries have increased. 

We see that [the median developing economy] spends [approximately] 10% of their income in servicing debt interest payments. 

This is capital that could have been invested in the green transition. 

This is capital that could have been invested in a digital transition in using Artificial Intelligence for the benefit of everyone.

What we see is to survive today, so many countries have mortgaged tomorrow.

They have been cutting health. 

They have been cutting in investing in education. 

They have been cutting in investing in the foundations of growth tomorrow. 

And that is why we need international action today. 

We cannot leave those countries on their own. Those countries who had no choice but to protect their people today.

We cannot just say now: we will have to deal with the consequences. 

That is why, at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), we have come up with something which we call the Day After Agenda.

The Day After Agenda is based on three main pillars. 

First, is helping developing countries in reestablishing their fiscal base. Reestablishing their capacity to finance development. 

Now, we do this at a moment where we see that [official] development assistance has been shrunk in an unprecedented way.

But development is financed in many ways. 

It is also based on domestic resource mobilization [through] better collecting taxes on the wealth being created in countries. 

It is also based on remittances.

It is also based on mobilizing international capital.

Second, we need to speed up the energy transition. 

We have seen how a single choke point, the Strait of Hormuz, can destabilize the energy landscape worldwide. 

Renewable energy does not have those choke points.

Solar panels do not have to go to the Strait of Hormuz. 

Wind turbines are not hampered when there is a naval blockade in the Strait of Hormuz.

It is decentralized and today it is the right thing to do from a “heart” perspective, If I could call it that way, from a humanity point of view, it is also the right thing to do from a wallet point of view – from a financial point of view.

And after the first one, is reestablishing the fiscal base, the second one which is boosting renewable energy, the third one is revitalizing multilateralism. 

Dear Amina, I think you explained it extremely well. Yes, the multilateral system is being challenged – and honestly, we have no problem in being challenged. 

All of us need to be tested all the time to make sure that we deliver the best that is available to the 193 countries that we serve. 

But today to the ones that are doubting multilateralism, who are doubting the concept of working together, the endeavours which we are confronted with are all interdependent – climate change, managing migration, fighting illegal drug trade, and fighting violent extremism. 

There is no country today that can say: I can solve it on my own.

There is no country today that can say: I am that prosperous, I am that independent, that I am completely isolated from instability in the world.

Instability in the world can get to your back door much faster than you expect. 

When those challenges are interdependent – the solutions need to be interconnected.

And today, the United Nations is the best convener to tackle those worldwide problems together.

Dear Friends, 

At the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), we do not wait for stability to happen. 

We create stability. 

And that is the whole purpose for me of a conference like this one here, the Hamburg Sustainability Conference (HSC).

The distinguished Michael Otto said yesterday in our preliminary meetings: yes, at a conference we talk, but the goal of this conference is to act. 

Today, we need to believe, we need to convene, but most of all we need to act altogether.

Thank you.