The 2024 United Nations High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) was held at the United Nations Headquarters in New York from July 8 to 17, 2024. BRIGC delegation headed by Mr. Zhang Jianyu, Chief Development Officer of the BRI International Green Development Coalition (BRIGC), addressed the HLPF side events on July 9^th and 10^th at the invitation of UN DESA.

The HLPF Side Event, “Accelerating Just Energy Transitions in the Global South,” was held in the afternoon of July 9th. It was co-organized by UN DESA, ClimateWorks Foundation (CWF), and Tsinghua University’s Institute for Sustainable Development Goals. Opening remarks were delivered by Abdulla Nasser Lootah, Deputy Minister for Cabinet Affairs for Competitiveness and Knowledge Exchange, and Chairman of the UAE National Committee on SDGs, Li Junhua, UN Under Secretary-General, and Xue Lan, Distinguished Professor of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, Dean of Schwarzman College, and Director of the Institute for Sustainable Development Goals, Tsinghua University.

Zhang Jianyu emphasized that the core of the global green and low-carbon energy transition is the effective mobilization of multilateral development funds and private sector investment, the key to which lies in reducing and hedging project risks, in order to achieve the “UAE Consensus” of tripling the global deployment of renewable energy capacity by 2030. He proposed to improve the project preparation mechanism and the insurance portion for renewable energy investment to effectively mitigate and prevent risks. Zhang also introduced China’s specific actions to support the green energy transition of global south countries, including efforts in carbon footprint reduction, green energy technology cooperation, and financial investment.

The HLPF panel discussion on “Climate Mitigation Technologies: Innovation for Industrial Sustainability” took place on the afternoon of July 10th. Co-organized by UN DESA, Tsinghua University, and the Climate Works Foundation (CWF), the event aimed to explore the potential of climate change mitigation technologies in addressing global climate issues and their far-reaching impacts on sustainable industrial development. Mr. Ren Hongyan, Minister of the Chinese Mission to the UN, and Mr. Navid Hanif, Assistant Secretary-General for Economic Development of UN DESA, delivered speeches at the conference. Mr. Zhu Juwang, Director of the Division for Public Institutions and Digital Government of UN DESA, attended the event. BRIGC participated in the panel discussion alongside industry leaders and policy influencers to discuss how technological innovations in climate mitigation can positively impact global climate governance.

In addition, BRIGC was also invited to participate in the HLPF side events on global energy interconnectivity and transition for SDGs. BRIGC also held a working meeting with UN DESA.

The theme of HLPF 2024 is “Reinforcing the 2030 Agenda and Eradicating Poverty in Times of Multiple Crises: The Effective delivery of Sustainable, Resilient, and Innovative Solutions”. Representatives of United Nations Member States and Governments, non-governmental organizations in consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), as well as representatives of agencies of the United Nations system and intergovernmental organizations were invited to participate. The forum serves as a central platform for the UN to implement and review the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the global level.