How can we reimagine the global financial system for the 21st Century?
In face of conflict and polarization, how do we rebuild trust in the international community?
With only six years to go, how do we make up lost ground on the Global Goals?
These are some of the thorny questions participants are seeking to answer at the Hamburg Sustainability Conference. Bringing together leaders from government, the private sector and civil society, the HSC holds the potential to be a critical new forum to reshape and advance sustainable development for the 21st century. It aims to create impact across the Sustainable Development Goals and Paris Agreement, with a strategic lens on where international, national and local action is needed most.
The Inaugural Hamburg Sustainability Conference (HSC) comes on the heels of the Summit of the Future, where leaders adopted The Pact for the Future, affirming the necessity of a multilateral approach to address the needs of present and future generations. For sustainable development, peace and security, science and technology and youth empowerment, the Pact for the Future seeks to transform global governance to meet the needs of a fast-changing world.
The HSC is the next step in this journey. By forging and strengthening alliances across sectors and geographies, it will open channels for collaboration on concrete actions and strategies to drive meaningful change.
At a time of complex, overlapping global crises, HSC is focused squarely on opportunities.
Focusing on opportunities doesn’t mean ignoring the challenges. The HSC scene-setting paper prepared by UNDP and the German Institute of Development and Sustainability describes four trends that threaten to derail development: uneven economic growth, slow decarbonization, disruptive technological and AI evolution, and ecosystem degradation.
But the paper also points out signals of change that illustrate how countries and communities are confronting these challenges and dismantling barriers to positive transformation. These are signals of what is possible, and they already exist. We just need to nurture and expand them.
The global economy is projected to grow at 3.5 percent in 2024, but a closer look shows this growth is uneven and making little impact on poverty. There is a growing recognition that the world needs alternatives – new sustainable development pathways to spread wealth and opportunity to all corners.
Circular or regenerative economies and creative financing are powerful weapons against poverty and inequality, as are investments in gender equality and transparent, inclusive and accountable governance.
While the overall decarbonization rate is too slow, we are seeing promising signs of progress towards a sustainable energy future. For the first time, investments in renewable energy are outpacing fossil fuel investments, reaching US$1.7 trillion in 2023. Policy shifts, cheaper prices and energy security concerns are driving growth in solar and wind. Green energy is expected to meet the entire increase in global electricity demand over the next three years
To summarize the enormous potential of technology, artificial intelligence could add $19.9 trillion to global economic output by 2030. But while 93 percent of people in high-income countries use the internet, it’s only 27 percent in low-income countries. Beyond closing the digital divide, we must act to make sure AI and other innovations governed responsibly are the benefits shared by all.
The UN General Assembly has adopted two resolutions to steer AI towards sustainable development. The Global Digital Compact adopted at the Summit of the Future and other international agreements are building momentum towards a much-needed transnational regulatory framework to ensure information integrity.
At the HSC, UNDP and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development will announce a collaboration to further harness the power of responsible AI for sustainable development.
Healthy ecosystems underpin our lives and economy, and countries are taking steps to secure a nature-positive future. In 2022 UN Member States adopted a resolution declaring that everyone on the planet has a right to a clean, healthy environment, and 196 countries have committed to the Global Biodiversity Framework, which aims to reverse biodiversity loss by 2030.
Businesses are also getting in the act, with food companies like Unilever and General Mills committing to adopt regenerative agriculture, and others vowing to green their supply chains. The Taskforce on Nature-Related Financial Disclosures has developed guidelines to help business and finance integrate nature into decision making.
It may seem counter-intuitive, but we live in a moment of extraordinary possibilities.
Despite the very real challenges of poverty and inequality, conflict and climate change, we have enormous resources – from technology to human ingenuity to finance – that can be unleashed for our collective good. The way forward is to find and create opportunities for strong collaborative action around shared goals. Deliberate experimentation, disruptive action and trust-building are all part of the assignment.
This is the essence of the HSC. It’s a platform to spark ideas and expand the connective tissue we need to ‘de-risk’ our common future by investing in sustainable development. It is a call to action to participants and to people everywhere: We must not be mere observers. Instead, we all must be the architects of our common future.
At this inflection point for people and the planet, the Hamburg Sustainability Conference challenges us to think boldly about what is possible despite all odds.
© 2026 United Nations Development Programme
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