Green Industrial Age Can Be Sustainable Development Breakthrough

The United Nations has called for a "sustainable industrial transformation" to close the widening development gap between countries, meet ambitious climate targets, and reach the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. According to the World Bank 2023 report titled Financing for Sustainable Development Report: Financing Sustainable Transformations, growth across Sub-Saharan Africa remains sluggish.

The report blames the climate crisis, the war in Ukraine, the COVID-19 pandemic, and debt payments up to two times higher than in 2019, as having put massive fiscal pressures on most developing countries, limiting the ability to fund transformation.

Debt distress risks remain high with 22 countries in the region at high risk of external debt distress or in debt distress as of December 2022. The report suggests that "urgent, massive investment" is needed to accelerate a positive transformation of the electricity supply industry, farming, transportation, and construction. The UN suggests that launching critical transformations in energy, food and education to usher in a new green industrial and digital age will quicken the pace and leave no one behind.