The United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) launched its Global Commission on SDG Finance in late June, and announced that Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava would be an establishing member. A month later, the mayor was finding her footing within that new role.
Levine Cava joins dozens of leading mayors, finance experts and research scholars from around the world to propose innovative solutions and policy reforms that will increase financial access for cities pursuing sustainable development goals. The commission is co-chaired by SDSN founder Jeffrey Sachs, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo and Rio de Janeiro Mayor Eduardo Paes.
(Courtesy of Jennie Lopez)
Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava joined other national leaders at the C40 summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 2022.
The commission will consist of five individual working groups. They will assess innovative finance mechanisms for cities to decide which should be fostered and pursued, transform global finance architecture, explore how to de-risk and incentivize capital for investments in urban sustainability, reform national and international regulatory frameworks, and balance adaptation versus mitigation finance. Levine Cava has chosen to join the fifth one.
“At the end of the day we want to increase the financial flows to cities and regions so that they can make the necessary reforms,” specifically in developing countries with less access to capital, said Levine Cava. “This is a challenge because we need everybody on board to achieve worldwide goals.”
As a result of the meetings that will be held throughout the next year, which Levine Cava expects to be held virtually, each working group will produce a report to present at international convenings, like the annual G20 summit and the UN’s Summit for the Future.
This isn’t Levine Cava’s first rodeo. The mayor has many a time found herself on the global stage, specifically to discuss environmental resilience. She attended the UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, Scotland, in 2021, the C40 summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina, last year, and the Southeast and Caribbean Disaster Resilience Partnership 2023 conference right here at home in January.
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Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine-Cava
She also attended the U.N. General Assembly’s Global Multi-Stakeholder Small Island Developing States (SIDS) Partnership Dialogue in New York just last month.
“Going to Scotland and learning about the struggles of these developing nations and then going to the U.N. and realizing that we are at the forefront of these especially coastal cities and small island developing countries, it is really incumbent upon us as a regional leader to be having those conversations,” Levine Cava said.
She believes Miami-Dade is primed to lead given its efforts with climate-related solutions, notably with its climate action strategy goal of reaching net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, as well as the county’s sea-level rise, extreme heat and Resilient305 plans.
Other places haven’t been as fortunate. The mayor explained how international financial institutions like the World Bank have certain restrictions that make it difficult for countries, especially developing ones, to invest in climate-related solutions.
Ultimately, everyone bears the brunt of these shortcomings – we share the same seas, air and earth as our neighbors. Levine Cava noted how environmental crises anywhere affect both the county’s economy and its borders, which may attract climate refugees looking for relief.
“Obviously, I live and breathe Miami-Dade County,” said the mayor. “I’m focused very intently on our community and quality of life issues right here, but we are a global hub. We are a place that attracts people from all over the world, some for fame and fortune and some for survival … Anything that we can do to help others cope with this puts less stress on us.”
At the same time, Levine Cava said, “we can’t change the weather from Miami-Dade County.”
The Global Commission on SDG Finance stands to offer new avenues for funding projects right here at home, perhaps including the reparation of the Key Biscayne Causeway or an alternative to the 20-foot seawall across Biscayne Bay that residents rejected two years ago.
“Everything that you can think of that we are trying to do, we benefit from learning how others are dealing with it, and we are not alone,” said Levine Cava. “We have to be together in solving all of these problems.”