Global inequality, climate change are our biggest challenges, German chancellor says

BERLIN

Global inequality and man-made climate change are biggest challenges of our time, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Monday.

“Almost one in 10 people worldwide live in extreme poverty,” Scholz said in his address the Hamburg Sustainability Conference, underlining that industrialized nations should take more responsibility.

“The five richest men in the world have more than doubled their wealth since 2020, from $405 billion to $869 billion. But the poorer half of the world's population owns just 2% of global wealth,” the Social Democrat politician said.

He said global problems like hunger, poverty, and climate change can only be solved by closer cooperation between industrialized nations and countries of the Global South.

“These are all global problems. They are closely linked, they affect us all, and they can only be solved if the global community pulls together, if we show the will to solve the problems together,” Scholz said.

“We need dialogue, we need new alliances, new partnerships, and, yes, we also need the courage to overcome mistrust,” he stressed.

Scholz proposed closer cooperation between multilateral development banks to make available more funds for development projects, climate-friendly investments in the Global South.

“I want to make it very clear: the Sustainable Development Goals cannot be achieved without the know-how and investment of the private sector. We must therefore manage to develop joint financing instruments to bring public and private funds together more easily,” he added.