UN Global Compact Network Ghana Sustainable Business and Green Finance Summit

Thank you to the UN Global Compact Network Ghana for convening this Summit.

I am supposed to say “It is a pleasure to join leaders from Government, business, finance, industry, development institutions and our international partners.” And it is a pleasure, but also a bit nerve wracking. 

We so often live in our own bubbles, that stepping into another can be daunting. Like me stepping from my UN bubble into a room full of academics, or indeed, a room full of C-Suite Executives.

But this is exactly why I am happy to be here. The UN is all about achieving the SDGs, and we long ago learned that it can only be done when working together as diverse partners.

A small disclaimer. I am not a green-finance specialist, and I will leave the technical issues of taxonomy, underwriting and emissions accounting to the experts in this room. But, as UN Resident Coordinator, I do see very clearly the importance of bringing together the institutions represented here: those that set the policy framework; those that create jobs and develop projects; those that provide finance; and those who can support partnerships across them. That is what makes this Summit important.

Ghana’s sustainable development ambitions, including its climate commitments, cannot be met through public budgets and official development assistance. Public finance has an indispensable role, particularly in providing essential services and protecting the most vulnerable. But the scale of investment required for a sustainable industrial transition means that private capital must be mobilised. Fast and big.

The money is out there. The money is in here. But we don’t yet the conditions in which good projects can be identified, prepared and financed on workable terms.

The Bank of Ghana’s Sustainable Finance Roadmap and the Ministry of Finance’s Green Finance Taxonomy are important steps in that direction. They help create the clarity and common language that businesses, banks and investors need. They can help distinguish genuine sustainable investment from aspiration alone; they can build confidence; and they can  direct capital toward activities that strengthen resilience, competitiveness and long-term growth.

For Ghanaian businesses, this is not solely a compliance exercise, or as a form of corporate social responsibility. Sustainability is increasingly becoming central to commercial strategy.

Companies seeking to participate in international supply chains are facing greater expectations on environmental performance, human rights, due diligence and transparency. Those expectations are real. And they also create an opportunity: for Ghanaian enterprises that can adapt, demonstrate their credentials and innovate, to access new markets, stronger partnerships and potentially more affordable capital.

Of course, this transition must be fair and practical. We should not create a system in which only the largest companies, with the greatest internal capacity, can meet the new requirements. Small and medium-sized enterprises, locally owned businesses, women entrepreneurs and firms outside Accra must also be able to benefit. This means that finance must be accompanied by accessible technical support, project preparation, data, skills and clear guidance.

The UN system is ready to contribute in that space. Through the UN Global Compact and across our agencies, funds and programmes, we can help strengthen capacities, support policy coherence, promote responsible business conduct and convene partnerships between Government, the private sector, financial institutions and development partners.

Our role is not to substitute for business leadership or commercial decision-making. It is to help make collaboration easier, ensure that sustainable investment advances the Sustainable Development Goals, and keep inclusion, decent work and environmental integrity at the centre of the transition.

I Know today we will have a valuable exchange of ideas. The test of this Summit will be whether a viable Ghanaian business with a credible green project can identify a pathway: what standards it needs to meet; what support is available; which financial institution can work with it; and what needs to happen next for investment to be realised.

I therefore encourage all participants to leave today with something concrete: a project pipeline, a new partnership, a technical-support need that can be addressed, or a clear timetable toward a transaction.

Ghana has the policy momentum, the entrepreneurial talent and the institutional partners needed to make sustainable industrial growth a source of competitiveness, resilience and decent jobs. Let us use this Summit to turn that potential into practical progress.