Alem Tedeneke, Public Engagement+1 646 204 9191, Email: ated@weforum.org
- Ethical, sustainable business the only way to do business in the future, CEOs say
- New initiatives launched on climate, green growth, air quality and gender parity among others
- Follow the Sustainable Development Impact Summit 2019 at http://wef.ch/sdi19
New York, USA, 24 September 2019 – The Sustainable Development Impact Summit closed with calls to build more alliances and give voice to the voiceless, as the world seeks to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
It is no longer about the cost of action, but about the cost of inaction, which is far greater,” Børge Brende, President, World Economic Forum told global leaders at the closing session of the third Sustainable Development Impact Summit.
I feel emboldened to prove that business can be a force for good,” said Alan Jope, Chief Executive Officer, Unilever, United Kingdom. He added that such an approach benefits shareholders too. Referring to conditions in global supply chains that companies like Unilever use, he added: “We will have better top and bottom line performance if we run our business responsibly.”
"We’ve been talking a lot about how to prevent terrible change to this planet,” Alessandra Onofrio, Co-Founder and Executive Director, Meu Rio, Brazil, said. “We also need to organize people at the front line of climate change and other impacts so they can better articulate their needs and express their power.” Such organization is not just for their own benefit, but to make the SDGs achievable. “If there’s no popular support for a solution, it’s a fragile solution,” she said.
"Ethical business, sustainable business is the only way to do business in the future,” said Jesper Brodin, CEO and President, Ingka Group (IKEA Retail, Ingka Centres, Ingka Investments). “Ethics need to be not just on the surface but in everything you do.” Looking ahead, Brodin said such ethics must include a discussion on how to use technology to benefit society.
Melati Wijsen, Co-founder, Bye Bye Plastic Bags, sharing lessons learned from her successful effort – begun when she was 12 – to ban plastic bags from her home island of Bali, said: “It needs to be a collaborative effort. No one industry or individual can do it alone.” She called for agreement on the precise definition of sustainability and for education reform so young people can engage with climate change and other generational challenges within school walls.
Phillip Atiba Goff, Co-Founder and President, Center for Policing Equity, USA, called for giving voice to the voiceless so they have ownership of and feel trust in institutions. “Those who are closest to the problem are closest to the solution,” he said. “So we need to make those closest to the problem closer to power.”
Referring to the theme of mobilizing action for inclusive societies, Ignazio Cassis, Federal Councillor, Switzerland, said: “Leaving no one behind requires addressing the specific needs of people in vulnerable situations, but also empowering them and engaging them in decisions that impact their lives.”
The Sustainable Development Impact Summit 2019 brought together over 1,000 participants. From the business community, participation among chief executive officers was higher than at any World Economic Forum meeting outside the Annual Meeting. Representation among public figures was 30% higher than in 2018. One third of all participants represented civil society organizations.
Here are the summit’s key outcomes and impacts:
- Colombia’s President Ivan Duque announced plans for a regional eight-country pact to increase the contribution of renewable energy to 70% of all energy by 2030.
- Duque also announced a new initiative, Biodiverse Cities, aimed at reinvigorating the economic health of cities in the Amazon Basin.
- The Mission Possible platform was launched with the backing of 23 companies and organizations. Its aim is to achieve carbon neutrality in seven high-emission industry sectors and value chain initiatives representing 30% of all global greenhouse gas emissions: aviation, shipping, trucking, aluminium, steel, chemicals and cement.
- The Coalition for Climate Resilient Investment, comprising three countries and 30 organizations representing through their membership $28 trillion of assets under management, was launched to promote public and private sector investment in climate-resilient infrastructure.
- His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales established the Sustainable Markets Council, a public-private philanthropic coalition working towards building and financing a new market approach at global scale.
- The Food Action Alliance was established as a new partnership between the public and private sectors and international multilateral organizations to support efforts to radically transform global food production.
- The Tropical Forest Alliance convened a Brazil Strategic Group, bringing together Brazilian and international businesses with the aim of halting deforestation linked to industry supply chains.
- An affiliate Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution is to be established in Norway. The centre will focus on developing policies to accelerate the most innovative emerging technologies for protecting the world’s oceans.
- Six countries and 39 organizations across multiple business sectors formed the Just Rural Transition, a partnership aimed at helping rural areas prepare for a shift towards climate resilient and sustainable food, land use and ecosystems. The partnership is backed by $12 million of funding from the UK government.
- Over 100 organizations from across the public and private sector came together to form the Global New Mobility Coalition, a partnership aimed at cutting traffic congestion and reducing transport emissions by 95% by 2050 by integrating shared, electric and autonomous mobility solutions.
- The Global Sustainable Energy Innovation Fund was announced, with the goal of building an investment fund of at least €1 billion for sustainable energy innovation that will be formally launched at the Forum’s Annual Meeting in Davos in January 2020.
- The Global Battery Alliance announced a 10-year plan to prepare the way for the technology to reduce emissions across energy and transport by 30% by 2030.
- The Clean Air Fund was launched with initial funding of $50 million to focus multistakeholder efforts on helping the 90% of people worldwide that breathe polluted air. Projects are already under way in Poland, India and China to deepen research and scale solutions. The goal is to increase the size of the fund to $100 million through philanthropic donations.
- The Government of Egypt joined the World Economic Forum’s Closing the Gender Gap Accelerator programme, aiming to increase women’s participation in the labour force, increase integration into leadership positions, close wage gaps and provide women with the skills of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
- The UHC2030 Private-Sector Constituency published a new statement confirming private-sector commitment to providing universal healthcare by 2030.
- A partnership between the International Committee of the Red Cross, World Bank and World Economic Forum published a framework to facilitate greater private-sector investment in projects addressing humanitarian crises or fragility.
- The Forum’s Media and Entertainment Industry team established a partnership of consumer brands, media platforms, content producers, distributors and civil society to support digital safety by tackling hateful, violent, racist and terrorist content online.
- The Country Financing Roadmap, which provides countries with actionable steps to unlock capital to meet the SDG’s, was launched with Saint Lucia as the first country to develop the Roadmap.
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