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The New Generation Industry Leaders (NGIL) programme is a global community of fast-rising young industrialists, working to accelerate environmental and social progress in manufacturing and production sectors, transforming perceptions and inspiring a new generation to take up a career in industry.

Over 50 world-leading companies have joined the initiative, including Apple, DHL, Johnson & Johnson, Rockwell Automation, Siemens and Stanley Black & Decker.

Beyond proposing their young leaders to join the community, these companies are making their training materials available to the community and executives are acting as mentors for the community members.

Discussing Africa's digital transformation, Huawei's Ken Hu said that Africa has made great progress in connectivity. He said that in the past five years 5G coverage has increased from 11 - 49%, but compared to the rest of the world, the gap in Africa is still large. He adds that only 26% of people in Africa use mobile internet, compared to 49% in the rest of the world.

Hu highlighted that smartphones are still very expensive in Africa, despite the fact that the demand for digital services is huge. He referenced Kenya's widespread use of mobile money and went on to say that mobile devices need to be more affordable, and Africans need to be supported to enhance their digital skills.

Hu referenced the World Economic Forum's white paper that was launched today in collaboration with Deloitte. He agreed with the findings and reiterated that access to power is necessary for digital transformation. Hu said that only 2% of Africa's labour force has IT skills. He said the resources of public-private partnerships can be leveraged to bridge that gap.

The Central Dredging Association (CEDA), the International Association of Dredging Companies (IADC) and Vital Ports, in collaboration with Swiss Re and B Capital Partners have launched the Financing of Sustainable Marine and Freshwater Infrastructure: A joint study to explore financing of green coastal, river and port projects report at the Sustainable Development Impact Summit this week.

The study explores what is needed in order to improve the connection between green-labelled funds and sustainable waterborne infrastructure projects.

Against the backdrop of climate change, energy transition and loss of biodiversity, together with the fact that there are limited public budgets, means there is a bigger role available for private capital to play in bridging the infrastructure funding gap.

The report is based on the findings of the mutual working group, which discusses nine case studies. The main conclusion is that sustainable waterborne infrastructure solutions are available, have been tested and are economically viable.

Read the full report here

More than 40 companies in the World Economic Forum’s Clean Skies for Tomorrow Coalition – whose mission is to accelerate the deployment of sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) – have achieved a major milestone on the path to net-zero emissions by committing to powering global aviation with 10% SAF by 2030.

Commitments have been made by:

In a session on Building Tomorrow's Energy Systems the panel discussed how new approaches in technology, investments, policy and businesses can build the energy systems of tomorrow - given that 80% of the world's energy still comes from fossil fuels, despite efforts to shift to renewables.

Ignacio S. Galán, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Iberdrola SA said "If we don’t move rapidly, we won’t reach our goals." He continued to explain that we have the technology, the skill and the financial resources, but the policy is slowing us down. "We cannot change the rules or jump, we have to be very consistent."

Turning to the outcomes of COP26, Galán said he is optimistic.

"I think the main priority is who is going to finance renewables in the emerging countries. It’s a common effort to transform the situation. We cannot change the rules on the energy market, to maintain trust."

In the same session, Unilever's Judith Hartman talked about the pain points of the energy transition. One pain point, she said, is that you have to have long-term thinking and a balance.

People sometimes talk about just wind and solar, but the system at the end has to work – and one technology is not enough.

Gas has to stay to deal with the intermittency of the renewables. It’s important to work on the greening of gas. France believes by 2050 our gas will be renewal.

"There are so many technologies available and we shouldn’t bet our planet on one."

"The good news is there is a lot of money flowing, and if we get the right regulatory conditions, it can happen."

In a separate session, panelists discussed the criminalization of the destruction of the environment - so-called 'ecocide'. Such a move could have major consequences for government and business - so how could a new legal definition transform climate action?

Veronica Scotti, Chairperson, Public Sector Solutions, Swiss Re Management, believes if and when ecocide law passes, it won't change how the insurance industry works. She said the industry is constantly evolving and adapting, and so we should be above the bar of any law.

"I would expect all of us in the financial sector to rise way above that bar", she said. "Our commitment is to be around for hundreds of years, so we need to understand systemic risks, like climate change and biodiversity. We shouldn't wait for a law, we all have to act and make choices", she argued.

"I place ecocide under the umbrella of what doing sustainable business means. We leave a footprint with everything we do, and we all have to raise the collective consciousness of our actions. We shouldn't stop with ecocide either, we have to go further and place a higher value on nature", she said.

What about the use and management of data for sustainable development? Wired Magazine's Gideon Lichfield moderated a session on Shaping a Responsible Data Ecosystem, involving two key players in the business world: JoAnn Stonier, Chief Data Officer, Mastercard; and Erin Egan, Chief Privacy Officer, Facebook.

Stonier defined a data ecosystem by explaining how receiver organizations use data, but data enablers have to be created along the way - and they will have to address the risks - from bias, through to issues of the data science itself - the methodologies to use the data.

As organizations use data to solve problems - they often do it as a one-off. "We need to find ways to combine data sets while still protecting privacy. This is where an ecosystem comes in: multiple datasets, multiple stakeholders to the benefit of multiple parties at the same time. That's the larger challenge."

She used the example of the need to access pandemic information over the past year. Now as economies shift to opening up - imagine if we take multiple datasets and combine them so we understand at a much more granular level - issues like employment, economic information, transportation, small business owners... so that all of these players could plan systematically for changing policy and behaviour.

Egan said we need to find the balance between being open and allowing all the benefits, but also really careful.

The key question is how to advance the use of data for public good. In the case of Facebook, the company has shared data on movement to help manage public crises. Movement Range Maps enabled governments to measure the effectiveness of stay at home policies. The means by which this data is shared is in an aggregated way so privacy is maintained.

Facebook has also been doing surveys focusing on gender equality and the impacts of Covid on women-led businesses.

But how do we navigate the different laws and doing this responsibly? Cambridge Analytica offered critical lessons. But there is still a real need for multistakeholder projects to complement the laws.

With the percentage of people living in cities projected to rise to 68% by 2050, resulting in high energy consumption, greater infrastructure needs and, carbon emissions, cities have a critical role to play in the race to reach net zero.

To help address this challenge, the Forum, has released the first iteration of its Toolbox of Solutions, designed and built in collaboration with Accenture.

The toolbox is an interactive digital platform containing more than 200 practical solutions to help city leaders, national governments and businesses to decarbonize cities.

The first-of-its-kind toolbox draws on input and case studies from more than110 cities, businesses, academics, civil society leaders and other urban stakeholders around the world and across sectors to capture best practices for urban transformation and decarbonization.

United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals set a target for governments on non-communicable diseases (NCDs): By 2030, reduce premature mortality from NCDs by one-third. As lung cancer is the biggest cause of cancer death globally, improving survival is crucial to meeting this goal.

In response, the Lung Ambition Alliance (LAA) and the Forum launched the Global Lung Cancer Collaboration, which convened around 30 organizations to kick off collaborative programmes to transform outcomes in lung cancer and ensure the future sustainability of health systems.

LAA is a global coalition of AstraZeneca, Guardant Health, the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) and the Global Lung Cancer Coalition (GLCC) with partners across more than 50 countries aiming to accelerate innovation and drive improvements for people with lung cancer. This collaboration will help make progress towards the UN goal and LAA’s ambition to eliminate lung cancer as a cause of death.

Please contact WEF-LAAlungcancercollaboration@mhpc.com to get involved with this exciting collaboration.

In 2020, BCG announced a new commitment to achieve net-zero climate impact by 2030, and, from there, to become climate positive, removing more carbon from the atmosphere than we emit each year.

Since the announcement, the company has increased the ambition of their greenhouse gas emissions targets, committing to cut emissions intensity in half by 2025.

The Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) has validated this goal as aligned with the aim of the Paris Agreement: to limit a global temperature rise to 1.5°C above preindustrial levels. BCG has also begun integrating more CO2 removal solutions into their carbon credit portfolio,

They further increased the impact with clients and in society through the expansion of BCG’s Center for Climate & Sustainability and the launch of BCG Green Ventures.

BCG is also supporting the UK government in preparing and organizing the UN COP26 climate change conference taking place in Glasgow in November 2021.

Read more about this initiative here

The EDISON Alliance aims to improve the lives of 1 billion people through the 1 Billion Lives Challenge by increasing affordable digital access to healthcare, finance and education by 2025.

Although 85% of the world’s population lives in areas covered by 4G, only half are online. Cost, not coverage, is the critical barrier to connectivity.

In low-income countries, home to 650 million people, mobile broadband is 18 times more expensive than in developed countries, as a proportion of average income.

Read more here.

Education challenge

Day 2 kicked off with an UpLink Daily session exploring how the WorldClass Education Challenge is scaling up effective models for education delivery. Deloitte's Punit Renjen talked about his company's pledge to help 100 million people access education. He said the challenge is to provide equitable access, develop the right skills and equip teachers to deliver those skills.

Adapt to climate change impacts

In Global Implications of the European Green Recovery, Feike Sybesma, Chairman of the Supervisory Board, Royal Philips said we need to learn to adapt to the flooding and fires resulting from climate change impacts, adding that we also “need to realize that 80% of all investments in the transition need to come from the private sector.”

Reduce emissions financing

Alison Martin, Chief Executive Officer, Europe, Middle East and Africa, and Bank Distribution, Zurich Insurance Group said her organization is trying to address climate change by reducing its air travel, though it’s far more important for the company to reduce its financing of emissions – in terms of the companies it invests in, and those it insures.

No avoiding the carbon neutral game

Stefan Schaible, Senior Partner, Global Managing Partner, Roland Berger Holding, said the US presidential election last year eliminated the last remaining hope among some companies that they could avoid the “carbon-neutral game.”

He said all companies now understand carbon-neutrality is a long-term trend “where you have to go.” Schaible also noted the German elections, and said whatever the makeup of the new government it will be necessary to provide the right help and guidance for companies trying to transition to greater sustainability.

For example, he said, as electricity demand is predicted to spike, related permitting processes should be sped up.

There are 17 SDGs

The session on Sustainable Solutions for the Middle East and North Africa saw Crescent Petroleum's Majid Jafar reminding developed countries that there are 17 SDGs - not just the one relating to climate change.

Consumers

Highlighting the consumer environmental footprint, Royal DSM's Geraldine Matchett explained how consumers are increasingly interested in the footprint of what they buy - so connecting end to end supply chain is critical. She says the Forum's food innovation hubs are extremely effective at bringing innovation to a more connected value chain in this respect.

Digital inclusion

Turning to digital inclusion, the launch of the Edison Alliance's 1 Billion Lives initiative provided context for a discussion on the challenge of addressing the fact that 47% of people worldwide are not using the internet and the cost of available broadband exceeds affordability targets in 50% of developed countries.

Verizon's Hans Vestberg spoke of his company's commitment to make financial investments, but he said this must go hand in hand with advocacy, skills, partnerships and training.

Google's Ruth Porat explained how in the US one in three small businesses would have failed during the pandemic without digital skills. Google is implementing a digital skills training programme which not only helps people get jobs, but also builds confidence in the future.

But Crescent Petroleum's CEO, Badr Jafar, said digital empowerment is not an end in itself. The ultimate goal is to address the challenges faced by humanity. "Technology is a means to that end. And technology itself is not the agent of change - we the people who use the technology are the agents of change." He continued, "history will judge us on whether we use these tools for the collective betterment of humanity."

The World Economic Forum has announced the continued growth of the coalition of companies supporting the Stakeholder Capitalism Metrics initiative. Since January 2020-2021, over 100 companies have shown support for this initiative with over 50 already including the metrics in their 2020-2021 reporting materials.

Companies that have committed to the metrics since January 2021 include:

Allied Irish Banks

ALROSA

Bain & Company

Biogen

Crescent Enterprises

Crescent Petroleum

Diligent Corporation

Enel SpA

Engro Corporation

EQT

Ericsson

Galp

Gingko Bioworks

Hanwha Asset Management

Henry Schein

Hyundai Motor Group

Intesa Sanpaolo

Koç Holding

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries

Nasdaq

Norilsk Nickel

Occidental

Olayan Financing Company

Olayan Saudi Holding Company

Orkla

PETRONAS

PTT

SAP

SOMPO Holdings

Standard Chartered Bank

Swiss Re

Trafigura

Wipro

Read more here.

Get emerging trade tech to SMEs

Kicking off the day with the Trade for Tomorrow session, Clifford Chance's Global Managing Partner, Matthew Layton, stressed the need to get emerging tech to SMEs. He also praised cooperation between the public and private sector on trade, saying, "there is good work being done among businesses on reporting and transparency to get some standardization". Clifford Chance has partnered with the Forum on the launch of two new trade reports.

We need a new earthquake model for climate

In A New Compact for Resilient Economies and Societies, John J. Haley, Chief Executive Officer, Willis Towers Watson used the example of the earthquake model that was developed in the 1990s and explained how it prefaced a total transformation in risk modelling practice. It's this kind of shift that is needed today.

Commit to net-zero now

In the afternoon session, Shaping an Equitable, Inclusive and Sustainable Recovery, Vicki Hollub, President and Chief Executive Officer, Occidental Petroleum Corporation said a better balance for quality of life needs affordable energy, but that puts pressure on the rest of us to develop the transition out of fossil fuels to prevent emissions from existing sources and remove CO2 from the air.

She continued, fossil fuels will help to generate low-cost power for some of those places that don’t have it today. "We need to collaborate to get there. Look at the incentives for solar, and electric vehicles to see a case study of how that can happen."

CCUS (carbon capture and storage) has to happen and getting more companies involved will help us get there without mandates from governments. The companies committing to net-zero are the drivers, she added.

In the same session, BCG's Global Chief Executive Officer, Rich Lesser said there is great progress but enormous challenges to decarbonizing.

Many companies are realizing they have opportunity to go further than they think they can in economically viable ways.

"To go to net-zero is really expensive, that last 20-40% of carbon is really hard to get out. But people are realizing they can go 40-70% faster than they thought."

It’s not enough though. To get the last part [of the emissions] out requires a collaboration across sectors. Most sectors have [Scope 3] emissions in their upstream partners, which requires operational skills to put the right measures in and incentives.

For many countries, this is not affordable – we need the developed world to step up more and better collaboration across country boundaries. We have to work together to make it a just transition across the macro and micro level, he said.

4IR and the impact on equity

Finally, at the Global Economic Outlook, Global Chief Economist, UBS Wealth Management, Paul Donovan warned of the impact on equity that we might see as a result of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

Deglobalization?

He also spoke about the the issue of globalization, saying that although we’re seeing a rise of economic nationalism, "there’s also a positive form of deglobalization - which is localization, where it becomes more efficient to produce locally."

He continued, "This is much more sustainable. But overall - as we see globalization decline, in parallel, we need to have a strategy to deal with the negative consequences."

The private sector has a responsibility to actively reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help lead the global transition to a low-carbon, climate-resilient economy.

Swiss Re and Southern Green Gas (SGG) have launched a set of Carbon Removals initiatives in Australia involving Direct Air Capture of CO2 (DAC).

Swiss Re and SGG will collaborate on Carbon Removals in the following areas:

The Swiss Re Institute published The insurance rationale for carbon removal solutions report in July 2021. This report recognises that the achievement of net zero emissions involves the need to build a carbon removal industry capable of delivering negative emissions at the speed (within three decades) and scale (10–20 billion tonnes per year) that climate science says will be required to enable sustainable living for future generations.

Read more about this collaboration

Wipro has teamed with BMW to develop and easy way of managing mobility for Munich employees and reward them for active and sustainable choices.

Designit, a Wipro company, created this employer supported, flexible, mobility-as-a-service platform. Users gain points(coins) when travelling sustainably on bicylces and public transport and can redeem them for gift rewards from partner companies.

In addition, BMW partnered with brands like Adidas, so employees can trade points for items.

The test of this platform concept was such a hit within BMW, they knew it had to be taken to market. Now Moovster, a spin-off from BMW, offers companies and employees a smart mobility budget solution to flexibly use all kinds of transportation in a city according to individual needs. It rewards users for healthy and green lifestyles, provides tax benefits, and even offers cities the possibility of forecasting and influencing traffic flows.

For businesses to reach their emission targets, the global trading system needs to adapt, and businesses are calling for the change.

These are the main findings of the Delivering a Climate Trade Agenda: Industry Insights Report released today by the World Economic Forum, in collaboration with Clifford Chance.

Interviews revealed the following ways for trade to support businesses to decarbonize and grow sustainably:

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has just published their annual Goalkeepers Report.

This year’s report, co-authored by Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates, co-chairs of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, shows that disparities caused by COVID-19 remain stark, and those who have been hardest hit by the pandemic will be the slowest to recover.

Fortunately, amidst this devastation, the world stepped up to avert some of the worst-case scenarios, and the co-chairs highlight the “breathtaking innovation” that was only possible because of global collaboration, commitment, and investments over decades.

The report also illustrates how the so-called “miracle” of COVID-19 vaccines was the result of decades of investment, policies, and partnerships that established the infrastructure, talent, and ecosystems necessary to deploy them quickly.

Read the 2021 Goalkeepers Report here.

See the results of the Goalkeepers Global Goal Awards on the Goalkeepers website.

PepsiCo has introduced pep+ (pep Positive), a strategic end-to-end transformation with sustainability at the center of how the company will create growth and value by operating within planetary boundaries and inspiring positive change for the planet and people.

pep+ will guide how PepsiCo will transform its business operations: from sourcing ingredients and making and selling its products in a more sustainable way, to leveraging its more than one billion connections with consumers each day to take sustainability mainstream and engage people to make choices that are better for themselves and the planet.

pep+ drives action and progress across three key pillars, bringing together a number of industry-leading 2030 goals under a comprehensive framework:

Read more about this initiative here

SNC-Lavalin has focused its attention on the objective to transition the Canadian economy towards a net zero Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions target by 2050.

In its Engineering Net Zero (Canada) report, the company provides carefully thought-out analysis and directions from thought leaders and subject matter experts inside the company. The made-in-Canada solution supports jobs, growth and a more modern economy, powered by clean energy.

The report examines the blueprint for Canada to achieve the net zero carbon target by 2050. It brings into perspective the challenges and potential solutions across economic sectors.

Read more here

Royal DSM has announced a series of new quantifiable commitments aimed to address urgent societal and environmental challenges linked to how the world produces and consumes food by 2030.

Through investment in its (bio)science-based innovations, extensive partnerships, and advocacy activities, DSM aims to help deliver change to ensure accessible, affordable, healthy nutrition and healthy livelihoods within planetary boundaries.

DSM’s new strategic food system commitments by 2030 are:

Read more about Royal DSM's initiative here

Improving the employee experience (EX) is a top priority for employers. But few have an integrated EX and business strategy to address the challenges of the new reality and the way work gets done post-pandemic.

The report reveals a great "EX awakening" as a result of the pandemic:

56% of employees worked fully remotely or in a hybrid model, up from only 9% three years ago.

Nearly half of organizations (46%) cut people or hours.

Over four in 10 (44%) restructured (36% did organization-wide restructurings).

Roughly two-fifths (39%) cut pay or benefits.

But only 1 in 10 organizations have a “Transformative EX,” which is required to deliver a high-performance EX (HPEX) – and to achieve better business and people outcomes.

The Wellcome Trust's Dr Charlie Weller explains why the search for new COVID-19 vaccines is critical to the strategy for managing the disease long-term.

Accenture's 2021 Future of Work report looks at what people need to be healthy and productive in the new era of work.

The headlines:

Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation is on target to finish building a hydrothermal (Hydro-PRS) recycling plan. The patented process uses super critical steam (water at elevated pressure and temperature) to convert these multi-layer single-use plastics into the oils and chemicals they were originally made from, readying them for renewed use in recycled products. This means that the plastics in question can be infinitely recycled.

This recycling method is not intended to replace existing mechanical recycling but is meant to complement them by providing waste treatment options for plastic waste otherwise destined for landfill, incineration or open dumping in the environment.

Maersk is investing $1.4bn (£1bn) to speed up its switch to carbon neutral operations, ordering eight container vessels that can be fuelled by green methanol as well as traditional bunker fuel.