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.

The development of quality, sustainable, and resilient infrastructure is an important goal of the 2030 Agenda. However, investment in infrastructure in most countries in Asia and the Pacific is insufficient. Developing countries in the region have substantial investment needs in transport, ICT, water and sanitation and energy to attain the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This publication highlights the infrastructure financing landscape and addresses how developing countries in the region can increase infrastructure investment by focusing on the challenges they face along topical areas. Special attention is made to improve public sector efficiency and catalyze private sector involvement to achieve the SDGs.

The sustainable development financing (SDF) is critical for adopting a framework and implementation of sustainable development goals that would be successor to MDGs framework. The publication aims to analyse the scope, trends and potential of all sources of financing at the national levels in the Asia-Pacific region. In particular, financing of sustainable development is required to highlight a number of areas, including: the scope for domestic resource mobilization through tax and capital markets; institutional investments, and leveraging those through public-private partnerships; the need for financial inclusion for all; climate finance requirements; external resources, specifically official development assistance and private flows; and efforts to forge new and better partnerships for financing sustainable development. The publication shows the differences across countries in the region, and explores their potential impact for implementing the sustainable development goals both at the regional and national levels. The publication aims to provide policy makers in the region an improved understanding and challenges and their impact on inclusive and sustainable development, with a special focus on the countries with special needs.