Can Finance Save the World

The Millennium Development Goals were still focused on public action, public influence, and public methods. That would change at the UN conference in Monterrey, Mexico, in 2002, but cooperation wasn’t yet thought of as truly multidimensional, spanning businesses, financial institutions, and civil society.

achieve them we need to shift the financial paradigm and mobilize the different kinds of finance and actors that are required. This is what I have called “the billions to trillions” roadmap: the needs are in the trillions, but public aid is in the billions. How we bridge this gap is key

Working together by its very nature will require a resetting of incentives and drivers of actions at every level, not just in how our financial institutions are regulated or through the reform of international organizations.

finance, when controlled, can be the best servant to each of us, not just for an elite few but for everyone.

have acquired a clear conviction that financial innovation can accomplish great things in the service of the common good, and that multilateral institutions have a key role to play, thanks to their credit, the quality of their human resources, and their mission.

finance is not the enemy, for the simple reason that, in and of itself, it has no quality of being good or bad. It is only a blind mechanical force that, poorly used or unsupervised, could take a turn for the worse (as we saw with the subprime crisis), or, used well and properly maintained, can offer us something better: prosperity shared by all without harm to our planet (as seen with the development of the green bonds).

The way we will be able to get all humanity working together is to share a clear vision of our future, to get a compass, and to have legitimate leadership to guide us and concrete means of cooperation.

Invest responsibly in a clear and credible way, not just by paying lip service or seeking out the most benign hurdles to step over.

I believe that, despite territorial tensions, countries have to work together in a revamped manner.

Finance can save the world. It is a strong force that belongs to us and serves us. Finance is not the master and should not be allowed to be manipulated by the elites. Finance exists for the common good.