Climate change and environmental sustainability

Our current measures of progress are primarily financial and short-term. Macro-level reporting has had a particular emphasis on GDP and corporate reporting has largely been focused on shareholder value. In the context of broader social objectives, our current approaches to reporting are neither sufficient nor effective. While there has been a proliferation of standards and ... Read more

“Biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation are currently among the top threats facing humanity.” This is how last year’s UN Summit on Biodiversity describes the urgency of stopping biodiversity loss, noting the detrimental impact on food security, water supplies and also human health. The causes for the rapid loss of biodiversity are diverse, including agricultural expansion, ... Read more

A talk between Isabel Schnabel (European Central Bank, Frankfurt) & Laurence Tubiana (ECF and Key Architect of the Paris Agreement)

As the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic persist, the urgency and magnitude of the decarbonisation challenge cannot be overlooked. Within the context of the ‘Great Realignment, the 2020s must be the pivotal decade for climate action. While the global response to the pandemic has brought an abrupt decrease in global emissions in 2020, the data ... Read more

Resource extraction and consumption is expected to double by 2060, driven by global population and GDP growth. Such a development trajectory will accelerate environmental degradation and biodiversity loss while exposing the shortcomings of our linear ‘take, make, dispose’ model of production and consumption. A circular economy, as a means to decouple economic growth from resource ... Read more

Designing out waste and pollution through the gradual closing of loops in global production chains is an important requirement for achieving the Sustainable Agenda and Paris Agreement climate goals and for halting the degradation of our biodiversity. A worldwide shift to a circular economy in all value chains, regions and cities is of central importance ... Read more

Enabling and accelerating the net zero transition can only be achieved by recognising intangibles as the assets that underpin value creation in today’s economy. New breakthrough innovations in economics and accounting make this possible. These assets are people and relationships, networks and innovation. They are not fixed assets. They are intangible, not tangible. Currently, accounting ... Read more

Inequality between regions is an important driver of the decoupling of economic and social prosperity. Economic prosperity is increasingly spatially concentrated, while left-behind regions struggle with poverty, bad education, inferior health, political extremism. The COVID-19 pandemic disruptions have created new spaces for change, as citizens and decision-makers around the globe are looking for recovery options. ... Read more

Global Solutions Summit 2021 – Opening Adress by Dennis J. Snower, President, Global Solutions Initiative