Name: Insights: Business Solutions to Climate Change - Best of 2019 Fortune Global Sustainability Town Hall
Uploaded: 2020-01-14
Duration: 6 min 3 s
Description: Renowned globalists share their insights and experiences.

 [MUSIC PLAYING] The change that we need to see has to be at a whole systems level, and therefore, I think, given the very short time that we have, we need to identify almost like the acupuncture points in this system, that if we push on them, we can get a rapid and quick transformation. And I refer to the finance, which is the blood line of the entire economies, but most importantly to the subsidies. So if I can pick on one thing, I think we need to look at the harmful subsidies that are destroying d nature. Always see the reports indicate about $100 billion dollars going in subsidies that destroy biodiversity per year. Energy subsidies, $260 billion. So right now our economic and governance system is designed to harm nature, to harm the planetary systems. We need to revert that. How do you do that? With political will, with the engagement of the entire government, not just minister of environment. With the Minister of planning, he had a fantastic talk. With the ministers of economy and finance. And finally, of course, the citizens, not only the buy, but how about reducing your meat consumptions. How about looking at what's in your plate, and try to maybe not eat strawberries in January in Chicago, if they're imported from Kenya? And think about the CO2 emissions of that transfer. I'm Pamela Mar, I'm with the Fung Group in Hong Kong. Our big issue is consumption, so from a consumer products perspective, we see the rising 2 and 1/2 billion new consumers in Asia, from now until 2035, is a really good thing. But from the world's perspective it's not, so I think we should be using every single resource that we have, to help Asia create the new paradigm for our sustainable inclusive consumption. It's possible. We need political will, and we need the governments to actually get the companies to clean up their supply chains, and clean up consumption in Asia. This is a chance, because we're now at the point at which Asia is forming policy, developing its governance institutions, to make the transition from primary, to secondary, to tertiary. But you're talking about political will. It's hard, isn't it? To say to the new arrivals, no, you can't do what everyone who ca-- the billions who came before you did. It's not about saying no, you can't do it. It's about getting every company in Asia to clean up what they're doing, and to push long-term profit ahead of short-term. Yeah. I'm Priscilla Lu, DWS Sustainable Investments. One of the things that I would really like to see, is for large public listed companies to not only focus on P&L, but really P&L with respect to overall resource consumption and depletion, and so they have to account for, which going back to what Peter and what Dave was talking about. And also, sustainability being as important as a financial performance. Is that if we can include in that, really accounting for how much water you're depleting, How much waste you're producing, and how much waste you actually recycle, and therefore offset the waste that you actually dispose without recycling, and how much water you consume without reusing gray water and so on. If all of that becomes a part of your performance, because resource-- you know, we talk about capital return and capital performance, but capital can be more than just money, it should be a resource overall of the environment. I think that that should be the focus of all the cooperation. Just commenting on the conversations I've heard this two days, I think it is a reminder that, you know, the treating of a waste issue is not a sequential, or mono-solution one. In a sense that, yes, we talk about what's a new material to replace plastics? And so on. And sure, that's definitely a worthwhile thing to look at. But it feels as if that is replacing one material for another, if you don't look at the rest of the cycle. So while we are looking for more solutions-- if mono-polymer, recycle-ready materials are not satisfactory, then don't dismiss recycling, because it is stopping waste leakage into the oceans. Yeah, thank you for that. It has to come, again, from the policies made by the policy makers. Can we go to the demand side? Well, we can go to the demand side, provided the policy makers put the policies, right policies, so that instead of supply side, we go to the demand. So in my way of thinking, it has to start from the right policies, and that is the most difficult part. We can talk about equity, but then somebody said, what about eating strawberries in Boston in the winter? What over the poor farmer from Nairobi? What is going to do his income, if his market from Us disappears? People talk about the British buying flowers from Kenya. Well, we have to think about the poor farmer in Kenya, who's producing the farmer. So the problems are complex. The issues, when you look into it, they are difficult. They're not easy. Yeah. All actions have beneficiaries and people who pay the cost. And the question is, how do you maximize the beneficiaries? And how do you minimize the cost? You need wise policies. Yes. Half the carbon in the US, and I presume this is a reasonable fraction for the world, goes through monopoly pipes and wires, which means they're regulated. So we have standards for labor, we have standards for contract, why not standards for electricity? It's that simple. Either through compulsion, or reward. It doesn't matter, as long as it gets done. And the same goes with buildings. Why allow people-- we don't allow people to build buildings that burn down. We Don't allow people to build buildings that fall down. So why should we allow people to build buildings that just waste energy? [MUSIC PLAYING] 

Insights: Business Solutions to Climate Change - Best of 2019 Fortune Global Sustainability Town Hall 

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Renowned globalists share their insights and experiences.

Business Solutions to Climate Change

the change that we need to see has to be at the whole system level. And therefore I think given the very short time that we have, we need to identify almost like the acupuncture points in this system, that if we push on them, we can get ah, rapid and quick transformation. And I refer to the finance, which is the, ah, bloodline off the entire economies. But most importantly to the, uh, subsidies. So if I can pick on one thing, I think we need to look at the harmful subsidies that are destroying nature. Oh, STD Reports indicate about $100 billion going in subsidies that destroy about ever steeper year. Um, energy subsidies. 260 billion. So right now, our economic and governance system is designed to harm nature to harm the planetary systems. We need to revert that. How do you do that with political will with the engagement off the entire government? No. Just Minister of Environment, with the Minister of Planning here, Fantastic talk with the Minister of economy and Finance, and finally off course, the citizens, not only the bike, but how about reducing your mid consumption. How about looking at what's in your plate and try to Maybe not. It's strawberries in January in Chicago if they're imported from Kenya and think about the year two emissions off that transfer I'm Pamela Marm with the phone group in Hong Kong are big issue is consumption. So from a consumer products perspective, we see the rising two and 1/2 1,000,000,000 new consumers in Asia from now until 2035 is a really good thing. But from the world's perspective, it's not. So. I think we should be using every single resource that we have to help Asia create new paradigm for sustainable, inclusive consumption. It's possible we need political will, and we need the government to actually get the companies to clean up their supply chains and clean up consumption in Asia. This is a chance because we're now at the point at which Asia forming policy, developing its governance institutions to make the transition from primary to secondary to tertiary. But you talk about political will. It's hard, isn't it to say to the new arrivals? No, you can't do what everyone who the billions of thought about you know you can't do. It's about getting every company in Asia to clean up what they're doing and to put ah, long term profit ahead of short term. Yeah, I'm Priscilla Lou DWS Sustainable investments. One of things that I would really like to see is for large public listed companies to not only focus off on P N L, but really p n l will respect overall resource consumption and depletion. And so they they have to account for which going back to what, Peter and what what they was talking about. And also sustainability, being as important as a financial performance is that if we can include in that really, uh, accounting for how much water you're depleting, how much waste you're producing, how much ways you actually cycle and therefore offset the waste that you actually dispose without recycling and how much water you consume without using reusing great water and so on. If all of that becomes a part of your performance, because resource that you know, we talk about capital return and capital performance, but capital can be more than just money. It should be resource overall off the environment. I think that that should be the focus off the corporation. Um just committing on conversations. I've heard this two days. I think it's just a reminder that you know the treating off a waste issue. It's not a sequential, all mortal solution, one in the sense that yes, we talk about, you know what new material to replace plastics and so on and sure that that's definitely a both while thing to look at. But if you says this, it's replacing one material for another. If you don't look at the rest of the cycle, so what? We are looking for more solutions. If more No polymer recycle ready materials are not satisfactory. Then don't dismiss recycling because it is stopping waste leakage into the ocean. Yeah, thank you for that. It has to come again from the policy's made by the policy. Can I go to the demand site? Well, we can go to the demand side, provided the policymakers put the policies right policies so that instead of supply site, we go to the demand. So they're in my way of thinking he has to start from the right policies, and that is the most difficult part we can. Uh, we can talk about equity, but then somebody said Ah, what about meeting, uh, strawberries in Boston? New Inter. What over the poor farmer from Nairobi. What is going to do this income if he's market from us, disappears. People talk about the British buying flowers from Kenya. Well, we have to think about The poor farmer in Kenya was producing the farmer, So the problems are complex issues only Looking to it, they're difficult. They're not easy. All actions had beneficiaries and people who think the question is, how do you maximize the beneficiaries? And how do you mean? You need wise policies. We'll have the carbon in the U. S. I presume this is a reasonable fraction, for the world goes through monopoly pipes and wires, which means they're regulated. So we have standards for labor. We have standards for contract. Why not standards for electricity? It's that simple, either through compulsion or reward. It doesn't matter as long as it gets done and the same goes with buildings. Why allow people? We don't allow people to build buildings that burned down. We don't allow people to build buildings that fall down, So why should we allow people to build burned building, build buildings that just waste energy