Stockholm (NordSIP) – Speaking to CNBC’s Akiko Fujita at the World Economic Forum last week in Davos, Danish Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen took the opportunity to talk up the newly launched, and Denmark-spearheaded, Partnering for Green Growth and the Global Goals 2030, or P4G.
Prime Minister
Denmark
“[The UN Sustainable Development Goals present] a big, big business opportunity. Many, many jobs in Danish industry [are] linked to this, and that’s why we try to export this concept. We have just announced, a couple of months ago, a new initiative called P4G, Partnering for Global Growth and Green Growth,” Rasmussen said. “We have brought on board seven different countries, among them, South Korea, Ethiopia, Mexico. I’m going to meet Colombia today, they have just signed a Memorandum of Understanding with WEF, they will join this initiative, together with the C40 Initiative, the 92 biggest cities in the world. And-, and the idea is to promote partnerships between the public and private sector, in order to meet the SDGs, and creating jobs at the same time.”
P4G aims to create a forum for sharing knowledge and technology between governments, business and community leaders.
The alliance was launched at the United Nations General Assembly in New York last September and includes Denmark, China, Indonesia, Chile, Mexico, Ethiopia, Kenya, South Korea and Vietnam and the C40 network, which connects 92 cities representing 25% of the global economy and includes 12 major American cities, among them New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Houston.
P4G also involves the Danish spearheading of the SDG Investment Fund that is expected to ensure investments worth $6 billion and will help to subtend green initiatives and partnerships between the cities and countries that have joined the project. Primary foci will be on agriculture, food produce, energy cities, water, economic sustainability and the circular economy. The Danish government itself will contribute around $5 million towards incubation and scale strategies of P4G moving towards 2021.
P4G has its international base, a ‘climate hub’, in Washington D.C. as of the beginning of this month (January), with Copenhagen set to host its first summit on 28-29 November 2018.
“[Sustainable Development is] a huge growth driver,” Rasmussen told CNBC’s Fujita. “I mean, if you look at our figures, in terms of the export, lots of it is linked to our competencies in this idea of greening the global economy, in the waste water management, renewables, windmills, etc., etc.”
Image: (c) esfera-shutterstock
