TtU’s latest thinking and interviews on the Climate Emergency.
No business can survive in a world beset by crises. If the Russian invasion of Ukraine distracts leaders from taking decisive action on climate then ‘Putin wins’. Strong warning from Aron Cramer, President and CEO of BSF.
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.
TTU’s Nik Gowing talks unthinkables with Ian Goldin, Professor of Globalisation and Development at Oxford University.
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.
The rapidly encroaching Climate Emergency threatens our survival on this planet. Together we face “nothing less than the collapse of the living world”.
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.
All that we take for granted faces existential threat. Most people still struggle to accept that we must all live very differently and do so rapidly in order to ensure our very survival on this planet. But there are flag bearers for new sustainable thinking and living. Here we headline the inspiring lessons from some.
The intense ‘heat dome’ and rainfall events in North America, Central Europe and China have been overwhelming. German Chancellor Angela Merkel called the scale of flood damage “surreal”. President Xi Jinping labelled “extremely severe” the implications of one year’s rain falling in Henan province over three days. But no one should consider these as a shock. The events are in line with scientific warnings. Leaders must expect and plan for even greater extremes.