Prime Highlights
- The UN Global Business Forum called for stronger public-private partnerships to accelerate progress on the Sustainable Development Goals.
- Participants highlighted AI, digital technologies and clean energy as key drivers of sustainable industrial growth.
Key Facts
- The UN Global Business Forum is a special event held as part of the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development.
- The forum brings together governments, businesses and international organisations to support the implementation of the UN’s 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda.
Background
The United Nations Global Business Forum on SDGs is an initiative that brought together businessmen, governments, and international organizations to share their ideas regarding the role that businesses can contribute to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
The forum, titled “Business and the Real Economy: Delivering Sustainable Development in a Changing Global Context,” was centered on sustainable industrial development, innovation, infrastructure and enhanced cooperation among governments and businesses.
Top priorities for industry conversations were artificial intelligence, digital technologies, global supply chain changes and green energy. The participants also discussed how to increase the collaboration between the public and private sectors and how to increase the accountability of the business sector to support the achievement of sustainable development objectives.
Investment in the development of sustainable solutions can help to lower costs in the future and support the transition towards clean energy, while simultaneously promoting economic growth, speakers said. They also noted the importance of regional cooperation and deeper partnerships to make sustainability targets into real actions.
However, industry experts underlined the growing role of companies in pushing industrial transformation via AI, digital tech, and more advanced manufacturing solutions. Technologies like digital identification, automation, data collection and robotics can help increase productivity, decrease waste, and utilize resources more efficiently, they added.
The forum agreed that more cooperation among governments, the private sector and international organizations will be key to speeding up SDG progress. Its recommendations will complement other meetings taking place in the United Nations this year, such as the Private Sector Forum and the United Nations Water Conference later this year.
