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Overview of Goldman Sachs role in Aiding the UN with their SDGs

Over the course of the last few weeks, we discussed Goldman Sachs role in helping the UN meet their sustainability development goals. This blog focused on information about Goldman Sachs that came to light between January and March of 2023.

The first post focused on tokenized green bonds that the Peoples Republic of China offered using Goldman Sachs tokenization platform in February. As the bonds were only issued a little over a month ago it is impossible to evaluate their impact on the UN’s SDGs. The issuance of the bonds however has been incredibly successful and marks an important milestone in the world of finance, proving that the legal and regulatory framework is supportive and flexible enough for tokenized bonds (at least in Hong Kong). The chief executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority is set to release white paper in the near future which will detail the development of this bond and the next steps for this new product (Yue, 2023).

The second discussed the Inflation Reduction Act, although this Act was passed in August of 2022 it wasn’t implemented until January of 2023 and remained fairly prominent in the media ever since. Last week The Financial Times wrote an article discussing a Swedish start up, Northvolt who as a result of the IRA are looking at the US as a possibility to build their newest factory. They are also in talks with Goldman Sachs as potential underwriter for their stock market listing (Milne, 2023). Goldman and Sachs also released an article late last week (17th of March 2023) discussing Green Hydrogen detailing how it will help us get closer to net zero. It also noted the financial benefits of investing in green hydrogen as a result of the IRA  (Goldman Sachs,, 2023). The benefits of the IRA on the UN’s SDG are already evident despite only being in place for a few months and I hope to see more pushes towards green investing by Goldman Sachs in the future.

The third post was on Marcus, Goldman Sachs consumer bank. The future prospects of the bank were a bit up in the air when the post was written, with Goldman and Sachs hinting at the possibility of selling it at the investor day. It was anticipated that they would share more light on this in their 2022 annual report. Unfortunately, after reviewing the annual report that was released last week it appears that Goldman Sachs are still holding their cards close to their chest. There was very little mentioned about the performance of the consumer bank only that they had increased their deposits to consumers in 2022 and that they were considering strategic alternatives to the platform (Goldman Sachs, 2023).

The fourth and final post was about systemic barriers to funding that small black business owner face in the US. Goldman Sachs had recently conducted a survey collecting data a number of small business owners to gauge the difficulties black small business owners have in obtaining funding in comparison to their white counterparts. As this post was written quite recently there haven’t been any relevant updates on the initiatives that they have in place to tackle these systemic barriers, nor on how they have helped the UNs SDG’s. 

It is clear that Goldman Sachs are actively fulfilling their role as a member of the UNs Principal for Responsible Banking. They are actively participating in green initiatives and facilitating new ventures such as the tokenized green bonds, which is making innovative strides in both finance and sustainability. They have also passively aided the UN with their SDGs through their consumer bank, which allowed individuals from all over the world to obtain loans at low rates and teach financial literacy. Goldman Sachs are also tackling the UNs SDGs head by providing free education to female black business owners in the US. This group of people are wildly known to face the most barriers to education and funding especially in the US leaving them the most vulnerable to poverty. It is refreshing to see such a large private financial institution directly pushing back against adversity and helping the UN with their SDGs.

Reference List

Goldman Sachs. (2023). The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. Annual Report 2022. New York: Goldman and Sachs.

Goldman Sachs,. (2023, March 17). The hydrogen revolution accelerates. Retrieved from Goldman and Sachs Insights: https://www.goldmansachs.com/insights/pages/the-hydrogen-revolution-accelerates.html

Milne, R. (2023, March 14). Northvolt: the Swedish start-up charging Europe’s battery ambitions. The Financial Times .

Yue, E. (2023, February 16). Tokenised Bonds: Huge Potential to be Unlocked . Retrieved from Hong Kong Monetary Authority: https://www.hkma.gov.hk/eng/news-and-media/insight/2023/02/20230216/

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