Pontifical Academy of Sciences Vatican: Fraternal Economy Session on the “UN Finance for Development Summit” led by Prof. Jeffrey Sachs, President of the Sustainable Development Solutions Network.
Our April gathering convened global leaders from the UN system and representatives from both developed and developing country governments to explore the ethical imperatives of the upcoming Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FFD4), scheduled for June 30 – July 3, 2025.
As with our previous Fraternal Economy meeting on the Summit of the Future, this session fostered a meaningful exchange between the Church, finance leaders, philosophers, and economists.
The workshop featured several eminent speakers, including: Mia Amor Mottley, Prime Minister of Barbados; Amina Mohammed, UN Deputy Secretary-General; Paolo Gentiloni, Former Prime Minister of Italy & European Commissioner; Felipe Larraín, Former Minister of Finance, Chile; Mahmoud Mohieldin, UN Special Envoy on Financing the 2030 Agenda; Martín Guzmán, Former Minister of Economy of Argentina; and a Professor at Columbia University.
During Prof. Phoebe Koundouri’s speech, “Financing the Ecological Transition,” she presented the forthcoming report of the SDSN Global Climate Hub, titled: “An Integrated Assessment of National Climate Neutrality Commitments and a Decision Support System for Their Achievement: The Case of Greece.”
This report presents an integrated modeling approach to assess Greece’s climate neutrality commitments across food-land, water, and energy systems. It simulates key policies in sectors like energy, agriculture, and transport under a National-Commitment scenario, evaluating their effectiveness and highlighting gaps and opportunities for a sustainable transition. A similar report will be produced to assess climate neutrality pathways at the European level with SDSN Europe.
Prof. Koundouri also presented AE4RIA AI Skills—an AI-powered tool designed to support decision-makers in aligning sustainability-related workforce planning with policies such as the EU Green Deal. AE4RIA AI Skills will be hosted on the SustainChain™ platform, led by Jacqueline Corbelli, Founder & CEO of BrightLine and Founder of the US Coalition on Sustainability, that connects global actors to rebuild sustainable and equitable supply chains.
The AE4RIA – Alliance of Excellence for Research and Innovation on Αephoria–SustainChain partnership is something Prof. Koundouri is particularly excited about. Already, 71 international projects, 3 AI tools, 4 DDS, and 7 leadership initiatives of AE4RIA are involved in the platform!
Heartfelt thanks to Cardinal Peter K.A. Turkson and Sister Helen Alford for their warm hospitality and gracious hosting at the Vatican.
Relevant working paper: “Semantic Synergy: Unlocking Policy Insights and Learning Pathways Through Advanced Skill Mapping.” Read it here: https://ideas.repec.org/p/aue/wpaper/2525.html
