Hamburg Sustainability Conference bets on collective action to rescue SDGs, amid growing multilateral fatigue

At a time when some countries like the United States were abandoning their multilateral commitments under climate goals and sustainability, the Hamburg Sustainability Conference (HSC) in Germany is gearing up to do precisely the opposite — speeding up Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) implementation and charting solutions through new partnerships and collective action.

HSC 2026 convenes for its third edition on June 29-30, 2026 at a moment of acute global unease, when security concerns, geopolitics and geoeconomics have led to faltering of global commitment to the SDGs, even as the need for it has never been more urgent. 

In 2024, worldwide military spending hit a record $2.7 trillion — up over nine per cent in a single year — as more than 100 countries increased their defence budgets, according to the United Nations. If current trends continue, that figure could reach $6.6 trillion annually by 2035. It is against this backdrop of soaring security expenditure and shrinking multilateral ambition that Hamburg is making the case for a different set of priorities.

The conference is a joint initiative of the UN Development Programme (UNDP), Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the Michael Otto Foundation and the City of Hamburg. It will bring together Heads of State and leaders from international organisations, the private sector, academia, and civil society to develop joint solutions for a socio-ecological transformation.

“There is an ongoing debate on whether the world is witnessing the end of a unipolar cycle, or the transition to a multipolar one. What is agreed is that partners are not standing still. Unilateral actions by major powers, coalitions of the willing by middle powers and South-South alliances are popping up across the domains of development, climate, security and humanitarian action,” said a statement by HSC. 

The global economy is too deeply intertwined to be governed by unilateral instincts. Developing and emerging economies accounted for nearly 60 per cent of global growth between 2020 and 2025, and they sit at the centre of supply chains the world depends on, from fertilisers to critical minerals. 

“Yet these are precisely the nations most vulnerable to the unravelling of multilateral cooperation, and the least equipped to absorb its consequences alone,” the conference’s organisers argued. 

Against this backdrop, HSC 2026 has sought to bridge the divide between the global North and South and has set itself three broad tasks: Protect lives and livelihoods and supply chains from the ongoing fallout of the Middle East conflict; reframe sustainable development to fit a new geopolitical reality, including a relook at what “security” actually means today; and persevere with sustainable development as decades of cumulative achievements are delivering fast-paced innovation across decarbonisation, energy transitions, nature-positive investments and green transitions.

To address these challenges, the conference will be organised around three core themes: Resilient Economies, Technology and the Future of Our Planet; Risk, Uncertainty and Conflict; and Ensuring the Future of Human Collaboration: Multilateralism and Governance.

Nowhere is the cost of multilateral retreat more visible than in the race to transition away from fossil fuels and HSC urges that if there was ever a window to accelerate the energy transition around the globe, this is it.

“With record high prices for fossil fuels, there are shifts in both the structure of demand and supply of global energy markets. Close to 80 per cent of the growth in global energy demand is currently coming from developing and emerging economies — with as much as 85 per cent of future electricity demand as well.”