TtU's insights into the challenges and benefits of diversity of thinking in public and private organisations
Record, sizzling temperatures in Europe and North America have confirmed the existential threat to the way of life we take for granted.
John Kerry is President Biden’s Special Climate Envoy. He detailed the ominous realities and failings to James Naughtie on the BBC’s World This Weekend on 24 July 2022.
I have been torn wearily in recent days. I emphasise weary. I kept asking myself: what really matters? Here I give you three reflections based on three experiences.
Be inspired to be positive by Tom Fletcher, a young and remarkable ex-diplomat. Take risks. Have mad ideas. Challenge yourselves: are you using technology or is it using you? A leadership conversation with ex-diplomat and Principal of Hertford College, Oxford, Tom Fletcher.
What leaders must learn about connecting risks. From the pandemic to the climate emergency, social media and the misuse of technology, the threats are increasing year on year. Astronomer Royal Lord Martin Rees reveals his greatest fears to TtU’s Nik Gowing and Chris Langdon.
It is unthinkable. We are even closer to war in Europe. The inevitability of what Putin is forcing upon us continues to be real. The date and numbers 22022022 are the new 9/11. History will remember February 222022 as the day the post World War Two security of Europe was shaken. I write this as the founder of the Thinking the Unthinkable (TTU) project in 2014.
Many leaders are not yet convinced by the scale of change needed, plus the urgency. Anna Borg, President and CEO of Vattenfall, the energy giant which is “determined to enable fossil-free living within one generation”, explains why taking risk is so important to achieve the urgent transition needed.
The World Economic Forum’s Global Risk Report 2022 highlights the grim prospects for what lies ahead, especially because of the Climate Emergency. This is a lightly edited version of Peter Giger’s sobering assessment at the report launch.
Huge change in thinking and leadership is needed for our planet to get anywhere close to achieving Net Zero as rapidly as required. Are leaders getting the message and taking action at last?
Yes. Here Paul Polman describes how at last the mountain of scepticism, caution and resistance is shifting noticeably in the direction needed.
Johan Rockström has been speaking with Nik Gowing in Nature’s Newsroom at COP-26 in Glasgow on 6th November, the halfway point of COP-26. He says that “the direction of travel is not debated anymore” at COP 26. “It’s rather the pace of change” that is the question being discussed. He hopes that urgent message from science are at the forefront of leaders’ thinking at COP as a “constructive stress factor”.
On the Climate crisis, “the fear is there. But I think there’s also a resolve to turn not to panic, but to turn that to very concrete actions this decade.” Nigel Topping, UN High level Champion for #Cop26 was speaking to TTU’s Nik Gowing in Nature’s Newsroom at COP-26 on 2 November 2021. This followed the announcement of a significant agreement on funding an end to deforestation globally starting in 2030.
This ground breaking research must revolutionise leadership. It is already doing so after four years study by the Future of the Corporation project for the British Academy. The outcome “exceeded anything we expected”. That is why we at TTU are publishing it. The work involved “hundreds of academics, leading thinkers, business leaders, entrepreneurs, investors, lawyers, policymakers, regulators, and people from every walk of life around the world”.
Tariq Fancy said he was disillusioned by what he saw as the non-impact of sustainable investing. This is despite the bold claims made for new ‘green’ products by this fast growing sector. Too much capital is going towards companies that are doing things that are not in the public interest and too much sustaina-babble is coming out of Wall Street.