Side Event at the High-Level Political Forum I 10 July 2026 I New York, United States

Checking the Compass: Navigating a Just, Circular and Resilient Economic Transformation in Times of Uncertainty

Finance ministries are being asked to steer through rough water. Debt is high, fiscal space is tight, and the bills for climate shocks, biodiversity loss and disrupted supply chains keep landing on public balance sheets. And the instruments built for calmer waters are showing their limits.

On 10 July, at the 2026 UN High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) in New York, the Partnership for Action on Green Economy (PAGE) and the Coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate Action (CFMCA) brought finance and environment leaders into one room to ask a practical question: how do you check the compass and chart a course that is just, circular and resilient, without losing sight of growth?

The UNDP-hosted side event brought together finance and environment leaders, development partners and country representatives to explore practical pathways for aligning fiscal policy, investment, circular economy approaches and resilience-building in an increasingly uncertain global context. Landing squarely on this year’s HLPF theme of transformative, coordinated action and global partnerships (SDG 17), it saw CFMCA, which now connects finance ministries from 100 countries, join PAGE as a key partner in making that case, and in showing what it looks like in practice.

Steering the Course Together: Finance and Partnerships to Drive the Transition

Nobody steers the course alone. The discussion highlighted that the transition to a circular and resilient economic transformation runs on partnerships: the Coalition, PAGE, and the finance and cooperation that turn ambition into results.

The discussion also highlighted the role of long-standing partnerships in supporting countries to advance green economy transitions. Mika Nykänen, Finland’s Vice-Minister of Climate and the Environment, highlighted Finland’s role as a founding member of the Coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate Action and a longstanding supporter of PAGE, emphasizing the role of the Coalition and the Helsinki Principles in helping finance ministries integrate climate considerations into economic policy. Germany’s Ilka Hirt highlighted the importance of a whole-of-government approach and multi-stakeholder platforms such as PAGE in bringing together finance, environment, private sector and research actors. The European Union’s Raphaël Savignat noted that the EU has supported PAGE for more than a decade because strengthening policy-making capacity helps translate ambition into investable high-impact projects and real economic outcomes.

Additional interventions from France and Spain reinforced the importance of financing, partnerships and international cooperation in advancing green economy transitions. France’s representative, Eléonore Peyrat, shared France’s experience with sovereign green bonds, noting that the country’s fifth green bond issuance reached €10 billion and has helped mobilize private capital towards climate, energy and environmental investments. She also highlighted the potential role of the Coalition in advancing discussions on aligning financial flows with climate and sustainable development objectives. Marta Pedrajas Herrero, representing Spain, emphasized that circular economy policies are also development policies. She highlighted Spain’s support for more than forty circular economy initiatives across twenty-six countries through its ecological transition programme and stressed the role of circular economy approaches in strengthening local value chains, generating green jobs, supporting sustainable production and advancing broader sustainable development outcomes.

Why the Compass Sits with Finance Ministries

The side event also centred the conversation on the role of finance ministries — not as bystanders to the green transition, but as key actors who hold many of the policy, fiscal and investment levers needed to drive it. Throughout the discussion, speakers also emphasized that climate, nature and resilience are no longer peripheral environmental concerns; they are core economic and development priorities that directly affect fiscal stability, competitiveness and long-term growth.

The keynote set the tone with an uncomfortable truth. Dr. Sam Mugume Koojo, CFMCA Co-Chair and Assistant Commissioner at Uganda’s Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, told the room that the bill for environmental risk is already arriving. It lands on government balance sheets, as unbudgeted disaster recovery, contingent liabilities, pressure on debt servicing and a drag on growth. For a finance ministry, he argued, this is not a question about the environment but about fiscal space, competitiveness and resilience. And finance ministries hold the most powerful lever to respond: collectively, they steer well over US$30 trillion in public expenditure and more than a third of global output.

Country after country showed what pulling that lever looks like. Mika Nykänen credited a market-based clean transition, with 96% of Finland’s electricity now coming from non-fossil sources, helping shield the economy from recent fossil-fuel price shocks. Petal Gahlot of India described four levers: domestic resource mobilization powered by digital public infrastructure, production-linked incentives for green industries, budgeting for resilience rather than reacting to crises, and South–South knowledge sharing, which however, she cautioned, cannot replace North–South support cooperation. Theresa Onayemi explained how Ghana’s climate budget tagging system tracks climate-related spending across government, testing whether projects match commitments.

Brazil’s Gilberto Scandiucci pointed to the country’s Ecological Transformation Plan, led jointly by the finance and environment ministries on the principle that finance must do more than fund projects: it must create markets, from carbon markets to sovereign sustainable bonds. Mr. Scandiucci also underscored the importance of South-South cooperation as a vehicle for accelerating learning, sharing policy experiences and scaling practical solutions, highlighting Brazil’s efforts to strengthen collaboration around bioeconomy, energy transition and integrated approaches to climate, biodiversity and land restoration. And Setyo Budiantoro, representing Indonesia, made the same point from the planning side: low-carbon development sits inside the national development plan, financed through instruments including a green sukuk and the country’s first blue bond.

From Guidance to Capability: PAGE Showing the Way

Much of the discussion converged on the Coalition’s flagship guide for finance ministries, which is being updated with PAGE support. Hrvoje Ćurić Hrvatinić, speaking for the Croatian co-chairmanship, called the updated guide a key priority and confirmed it will be presented at the Coalition’s in-person deputies’ meeting in Zagreb in February 2027. Dr. Mugume Koojo described what the update delivers: it brings nature and adaptation into the core of budgeting, strengthens analysis on debt and fiscal space, and treats domestic resource mobilization as central. But he was equally direct about the limit: a document does not build capacity. That is the thinking behind the PAGE–Makerere initiative, which hosted the first African Symposium on Macroeconomic Modelling in Uganda and turns the guide’s analytical content into a regional training and peer-learning platform, built for South–South exchange. The model is already bringing inspiration: Onayemi proposed a West African hub in Ghana to complement Makerere’s work.

The session also demonstrated how PAGE’s country-level support is helping translate policy ambition into implementation. Ms.Odontuya Baigalmaa, Mongolia’s representative, described how the PAGE team helped integrate green transition objectives across the country’s new five-year development guidelines, and how PAGE and UNDP support underpins a national green finance strategy and a climate change law adopted just two weeks before the event, adding that joining the Coalition is now a priority follow-up action.

The Road from New York

Closing the session, Rafael Peralta, Director of UNEP’s New York Office, distilled the argument: resilience must be built into tax design, subsidy structures and procurement rules from the start, not bolted on afterward — and in fiscal terms, building it in is the cheaper option. The task ahead is pairing the guide with regional training so that a shelf document becomes real capability.

Mr. Godfrey Kwoba, Deputy Permanent Representative of Uganda to the UN, closed with three commitments that now frame the road ahead:

Finalize and operationalize the updated Coalition flagship guide for finance ministries;
Expand regional capacity-building and peer learning initiatives, building on the PAGE-supported Makerere University model;
Strengthen collaboration among Uganda, Croatia, PAGE, UNEP and the wider Coalition while welcoming new partners into the network.

The destination has not changed: greener, fairer, more circular and resilient economies by 2030. The challenges facing countries may have evolved, but participants reaffirmed that finance ministries, development partners and international institutions have a critical role to play in steering the transition. Through partnerships such as PAGE and the Coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate Action, the event demonstrated a shared commitment to translating ambition into practical action and supporting countries to navigate an increasingly uncertain global landscape together.

Speakers

Mr. Marcos Mancini – Global Head of Financial Policy and Regulatory Affairs, Sustainable Finance Hub, UNDP
Mr. Marcos Mancini – Global Head of Financial Policy and Regulatory Affairs, Sustainable Finance Hub, UNDP
Mr. Marcos Mancini – Global Head of Financial Policy and Regulatory Affairs, Sustainable Finance Hub, UNDP
Mr. Hrvoje Ćurić Hrvatinić – Chargé d'Affaires, Permanent Mission of Croatia to the UN, on behalf of the CFMCA Co-Chairs
Mr. Hrvoje Ćurić Hrvatinić – Chargé d'Affaires, Permanent Mission of Croatia to the UN, on behalf of the CFMCA Co-Chairs
Mr. Hrvoje Ćurić Hrvatinić – Chargé d'Affaires, Permanent Mission of Croatia to the UN, on behalf of the CFMCA Co-Chairs
Ms. Ilka Hirt – Deputy Director General, International Policy, Federal Ministry for the Environment, Climate Action, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, Germany
Ms. Ilka Hirt – Deputy Director General, International Policy, Federal Ministry for the Environment, Climate Action, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, Germany
Ms. Ilka Hirt – Deputy Director General, International Policy, Federal Ministry for the Environment, Climate Action, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, Germany
Mr. Raphaël Savignat – Head of Section – Sustainable Development and International Partnerships, European Union Delegation to the UN
Mr. Raphaël Savignat – Head of Section – Sustainable Development and International Partnerships, European Union Delegation to the UN
Mr. Raphaël Savignat – Head of Section – Sustainable Development and International Partnerships, European Union Delegation to the UN
Dr. Sam Mugume Koojo – Co-Chair of the Coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate Action and Assistant Commissioner, Macroeconomic Policy Department, Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, Uganda
Dr. Sam Mugume Koojo – Co-Chair of the Coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate Action and Assistant Commissioner, Macroeconomic Policy Department, Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, Uganda
Dr. Sam Mugume Koojo – Co-Chair of the Coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate Action and Assistant Commissioner, Macroeconomic Policy Department, Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, Uganda
Mr. Mika Nykänen – Vice-Minister of Climate and the Environment, Finland
Mr. Mika Nykänen – Vice-Minister of Climate and the Environment, Finland
Mr. Mika Nykänen – Vice-Minister of Climate and the Environment, Finland
Mr. Setyo Budiantoro – Manager for Economic Development Pillar, National SDGs Secretariat– National SDG Secretariat, Economic Development Pillar, Indonesia
Mr. Setyo Budiantoro – Manager for Economic Development Pillar, National SDGs Secretariat– National SDG Secretariat, Economic Development Pillar, Indonesia
Mr. Setyo Budiantoro – Manager for Economic Development Pillar, National SDGs Secretariat– National SDG Secretariat, Economic Development Pillar, Indonesia
Ms. Theresa Onayemi – Chief Economics Officer and Head of the UN System and Foundations Unit, Ministry of Finance, Ghana
Ms. Theresa Onayemi – Chief Economics Officer and Head of the UN System and Foundations Unit, Ministry of Finance, Ghana
Ms. Theresa Onayemi – Chief Economics Officer and Head of the UN System and Foundations Unit, Ministry of Finance, Ghana
Mr. Gilberto Scandiucci – Minister Counsellor, Permanent Mission of Brazil to the UN
Mr. Gilberto Scandiucci – Minister Counsellor, Permanent Mission of Brazil to the UN
Mr. Gilberto Scandiucci – Minister Counsellor, Permanent Mission of Brazil to the UN
Ms. Petal Gahlot – First Secretary, Permanent Mission of India to the UN
Ms. Petal Gahlot – First Secretary, Permanent Mission of India to the UN
Ms. Petal Gahlot – First Secretary, Permanent Mission of India to the UN
Ms. Marta Pedrajas Herrero - Deputy Assistant Director for Multilateral Development Policies, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, EU and Cooperation of Spain
Ms. Marta Pedrajas Herrero - Deputy Assistant Director for Multilateral Development Policies, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, EU and Cooperation of Spain
Ms. Marta Pedrajas Herrero - Deputy Assistant Director for Multilateral Development Policies, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, EU and Cooperation of Spain
Ms. Eléonore Peyrat - Minister Counsellor, Head of the Economic and Financial Department, Permanent Mission of France to the UN
Ms. Eléonore Peyrat - Minister Counsellor, Head of the Economic and Financial Department, Permanent Mission of France to the UN
Ms. Eléonore Peyrat - Minister Counsellor, Head of the Economic and Financial Department, Permanent Mission of France to the UN
Ms. Odontuya Baigalmaa - First Secretary, Permanent Mission of Mongolia to the UN
Ms. Odontuya Baigalmaa - First Secretary, Permanent Mission of Mongolia to the UN
Ms. Odontuya Baigalmaa - First Secretary, Permanent Mission of Mongolia to the UN
Mr. Rafael Peralta – Director, UNEP New York Office and North America
Mr. Rafael Peralta – Director, UNEP New York Office and North America
Mr. Rafael Peralta – Director, UNEP New York Office and North America
Mr. Godfrey Kwoba – Ambassador, Deputy Permanent Representative of Uganda to the UN
Mr. Godfrey Kwoba – Ambassador, Deputy Permanent Representative of Uganda to the UN
Mr. Godfrey Kwoba – Ambassador, Deputy Permanent Representative of Uganda to the UN