UDAIPUR: The G20 Sustainable Finance Working Group concluded its second meeting under the G20 India presidency here on March 23. The meeting focused on the SFWG’s work plan for 2023, which centres around three priority areas: mechanisms for mobilising timely and adequate resources for climate finance, enabling finance for SDGs, and capacity-building for financing sustainable development.
Members of the group agreed on key deliverables for the year, including developing a set of options for mobilising financial resources for climate action, creating an analytical framework for SDG-aligned finance, and implementing the G20 Sustainable Finance Technical Assistance Action Plan. The importance of creating an enabling environment for scaling up finance for climate action was emphasized.
Representatives from 93 delegates of G20 member countries, 10 invitee countries, and 18 international organizations, such as the Asian Development Bank and the United Nations Development Programme, attended the three-day meeting. Other organizations joined the meeting virtually.
Workshops conducted
Two workshops were also conducted on this occasion–on Non-Pricing Policy Levers to support Sustainable Investment and on Enabling Finance for Sustainable Development Goals. These workshops facilitated interactions between delegates and a wide range of stakeholders, providing knowledge-sharing platforms for country experiences and best practices.
For the first time, SFWG engaged in discussions that focused beyond climate-related issues and sought to enable enhanced financing for select SDGs, primarily through naturerelated data and reporting and social impact investing.
Jan Bhagidari events
Various ‘Jan Bhagidari’ events were organised in Udaipur from March 18 to March 23 to create awareness around India’s G20 Presidency.
These events included a townhall meeting for MSME entrepreneurs; a seminar at IIM Udaipur on bridging the SDGs financing gap with the role of microfinance; a conference on ‘Green Finance-A Way Forward’; a digital banking education program; sessions on cyber hygiene and cyber security; G20 Financial Literacy Walkathon; a financial literacy camp; a Coin/ note Exchange Mela; and an awareness programme by the Office of the RBI Ombudsman (ORBIO), Jaipur.
On March 20 a seminar was organised on “Sharing Experiences on Climate Budget Tagging”. The aim was to discuss the steps taken at various levels, nationally as well as internationally, to tag climate-related expenditures for better monitoring. The seminar was chaired by Union Finance Secretary with participation from international experts and state/ Central government officials. Delegates also had the opportunity to experience Udaipur’s rich culture and heritage through specially curated excursions, cultural events, and local cuisine.
