“The financial picture is equally stark. At a moment of rising need, net official development assistance fell by 7.1% last year. Meanwhile, developing countries paid a record 1.4 trillion US dollars just to service external debt in 2023,” she added. 

Baerbock, however, said some progress should not be overlooked. 

“We have made some progress,” she said. “Child mortality has been halved compared to the start of the millennium. Clean energy now generates more than 40% of the world ’s electricity, part of an urgently needed shift to renewables. Nearly a billion people have gained access to safe drinking water since 2015. Social protection now reaches over half of humanity, up from less than 43% a decade ago.”

Even so, she argued that technical solutions already exist for many of the challenges the world faces. 

“The gap towards 2030, our challenge is not a lack of solutions,” she said. “It is a lack of political will and – sometimes intentionally, it is a lack of resources.”

UN Secretary-General António Guterres echoed that sentiment, insisting that momentum on the goals could still be harnessed. But Guterres also highlighted the stark contrast between military expenditure and development finance. 

“In all we do, we must make peace a priority. In 2024 global military spending was thirteen times official development assistance. That is equivalent to the entire GDP of the African continent. In other words, this is not a question of resources – it is a question of choices,” he said. 

Queen Mathilde of Belgium, serving as one of the UN’s SDG Advocates, called for renewed determination rather than resignation. 

“We cannot afford to be defeatist,” she said. “It is all the more crucial at a critical time like this to take responsibility to pool our efforts so as to realize the goals and values we signed up to in 2015.”