The "Pact for the Future" is at the heart of the U.N.'s "Summit of the Future," to be held on Sept. 23/24. The said pact is a challenging topic for 40 leading economies and 193 U.N. member states. To what extent is it possible in a world where global and regional geopolitical and geoeconomic threats and challenges divide countries from each other to such an extent? To what extent is it possible to bring countries together on sustainable development, protecting the earth and climate, lasting peace and stability, a better world for future generations, cooperation in science and technology, to bring them together on common objectives, values and steps to be taken in restructuring the global governance system? Considering the increasing turmoil in the global economic-political system, it does not seem easy.
There are pressing challenges even to sustainable development. The issue of financing sustainable development, which has gained more importance, is becoming increasingly urgent. The most critical reason for the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is the need for more financing. An investment of $7 trillion is required just for the transition to clean and renewable energy for dissatisfactory. However, developed countries state that they can only support $1 trillion of this amount over 10 years. It is unknown how the remaining 6 trillion-dollar resource needs will be met.
In addition to this, the need for infrastructure investment of $4 trillion has been kept to a minimum but is inevitable in developing economies by 2030, and we are talking about $10 trillion in financing needs. The world's leading multilateral development banks and regional development banks still need to produce permanent solutions for these important investment moves. It is obvious that a brand-new perspective is required for the global financial system, and a brand-new system must be created for the financing source needed for the digital transformation and green transformation of millions of SMEs. It is also clear that new models should be added to the existing ones developed in the last 10 years to enable new entrepreneurs to emerge from the new generation among millions of young people with ideas.
Global cooperation in science and technology is an increasingly complex issue. Because, how meaningful is it to expect the leading countries to act together in artificial intelligence or quantum computers while polarization and separation in information, technology and innovation, where the perception of the enemy is predominant, has accelerated to such an extent? In a world where the perception of the enemy deepens even in digitalization, are the leading countries ready to work together on transforming the global governance system? More importantly, can the global power centers sincerely act together for a permanent environment of peace and stability worldwide? Are there any signs of good intentions in this direction? We hope that the U.N.’s "Summit of the Future" will lead to concrete results toward finding answers to some of these questions.
