UN Global Compact and PRI Convene Business Leaders to Accelerate Sustainable Finance for a Resilient Future

6 March 2025, Singapore – The United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) and Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) successfully convened the Executive Roundtable on Sustainable Finance – Driving Leadership in Sustainable Finance for a Resilient Future at the Orchard Hotel in Singapore today. This high-level gathering brought together CEOs, CFOs and institutional investors to mobilize private and institutional capital towards financing sustainable development, addressing biodiversity loss and closing the SDG financing gap in the Asia-Pacific region.

With Asia facing an annual shortfall of $1.5 trillion to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), discussions centered on scaling innovative financing mechanisms to drive inclusive growth, climate resilience and sustainable development. The roundtable, aligned with the UN’s Road Map for Financing the 2030 Agenda, emphasized the urgent need for private sector leadership in mobilizing capital for the Global South and integrating sustainability-related factors into financial decision-making.


Key Themes and Insights


The discussions were structured around two key themes:

  • Financing for Development: Participants explored strategies for increasing capital flows into emerging economies, tackling investment barriers and aligning financial markets with long-term sustainability goals.


  • Biodiversity & Climate Finance: Leaders deliberated on how businesses and investors can incorporate nature and biodiversity into investment frameworks, ensuring that capital supports climate resilience and ecosystem restoration.


Speaking at the event, Neha Das, Head of Asia & Oceania, UN Global Compact, underscored the role of corporate leaders in advancing sustainable finance: “Achieving the SDGs requires bold leadership and concrete action from the private sector. By embedding sustainability into business and investment strategies, companies and financial institutions can accelerate progress toward a more resilient and equitable global economy.”


David Atkin, CEO of PRI, emphasized the importance of investor action: “Institutional investors have a fiduciary responsibility to consider sustainability-related factors in their investment and ownership decisions. Alongside investor action, an enabling policy environment has a critical role in advancing sustainable finance. We are grateful to the UNGC-PRI roundtable participants for an important discussion on how leadership in these areas can create a sustainable future in Singapore and beyond.”


The roundtable concluded with a call to action for businesses and investors to:

  • Strengthen commitments to sustainable finance by aligning corporate financial strategies with sustainability-related factors.
  • Collaborate with policymakers to address policy barriers and enhance regulatory frameworks supporting sustainable investment.
  • Advance standardized reporting on biodiversity and climate-related financial risks.


This event also set the stage for deeper engagement at future UN Global Compact events reinforcing the commitment to scaling sustainable finance solutions across the Asia-Pacific region.


About the UN Global Compact

The ambition of the UN Global Compact is to accelerate and scale the global collective impact of business by upholding the Ten Principles and delivering the SDGs through accountable companies and ecosystems that enable change. With more than 20,000 participating companies, 5 Regional Hubs, 63 Country Networks covering 80 countries and 13 Country Managers establishing Networks in 18 other countries, the UN Global Compact is the world's largest corporate sustainability initiative — one Global Compact uniting business for a better world.


About Principles for Responsible Investment: 

The Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) is the world’s leading proponent of responsible investment. Supported by the United Nations, it works to understand the investment implications of environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors and to support its international network of investor signatories in incorporating these factors into their investment and ownership decisions. The PRI acts in the long-term interests of its signatories, of the financial markets and economies in which they operate and ultimately of the environment and society as a whole. Launched in New York in 2006, the PRI has grown to more than 5,300 signatories, managing over US$121 trillion. For more information visit www.unpri.org. 


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