No Poverty

Since its inception in 2015 the ESCAP biennial series on financing for development has published research on a range of critical issues on financing for development from the regional perspective of Asia and the Pacific.

The Asia-Pacific region is not on track to meet the SDGs by 2030 nor achieve climate ambitions with current financial requirements far exceeding available resources.

This report is part of ESCAP Financing for Development Series. The report examines the trends challenges and opportunities that policymakers regulators and private finance (banks issuers and investors) in Asia and the Pacific face in mobilizing public and private financing for key Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) particularly around climate action. Its aims to spur a more robust and informed debate amongst key stakeholders within member States to establish consensus on critical measures to move the region towards a net zero path and to bring greater clarity regarding the benefits and consequences of selected policy and financing choices in the short and the long- term. The report proposes eight Principles for Action in Sustainable Finance for further deliberation and dialogue among ESCAP member States: (1) the establishment of new partnerships for financing climate action including policymakers regulators and private finance; (2) effective NDC financing strategies helmed by government authorities with sufficient mandate and authority to implement them; (3) Redoubling of efforts to build capacity in climate carbon and financial skills of policymakers regulators and private finance; (4) Regulation to drive forthcoming change in financing decisions; (5) Policymakers need to send clear signals to investors who make investment decisions; (6) strengthen project preparation through engaging private finance and project developers in the pre-investment phase; (7) local investors in Asia and the Pacific need to adopt net zero pledges in line with NDCs; and (8) regional cooperation on taxonomy alignment convergence project preparation cross-border capital investment and data comparability.

Climate change has been called “a wicked problem par excellence” because it constitutes of a series of interconnected problems that cannot be solved in isolation.

In 2022 the Asia-Pacific region experienced unprecedented weather catastrophes such as heat waves and droughts typhoons and floods that resulted in substantial human and economic losses and eroded hard-won development gains.

This report was prepared under the direction of the Executive Secretary and the deputy executive secretaries of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and its editorial board.

The Asia-Pacific Countries with Special Needs Development Report is a recurrent ESCAP annual publication that discusses issues of interest for Asia-Pacific least developed countries (LDCs) landlocked developing countries (LLDCs) and small island developing States (SIDS). The 2025 Report with the theme of “Harnessing a New Generation of Programmes of Action for Sustainable Development Ambitions” focuses on the recently adopted new programmes of action for these groups of countries. It offers a comprehensive understanding of the new programmes their alignments with the Sustainable Development Goals and lessons from previous programmes. It highlights and identifies implementation challenges and strategies for Asia and the Pacific and outlines the role of the international community to assist them in implementing and effectively addressing their unique development challenges.

This report has provided an assessment of the progress made by LDCs LLDCs and SIDS in Asia and the Pacific through past programmes of action while acknowledging the limited progress in some areas with the aim of identifying effective strategies for implementing the new programmes of action.