The WEF’s “Building back broader” asks its six Global Future Councils how to build back a more inclusive global economy. The to-do list will not surprise you: progressive fiscal policies, social protection and decent jobs, 21st century skills for all, more social justice, and public-private partnerships 2.0. The last chapter argues for more foresight in decision making (yes!) and identifies current “frontier risks” — ie risks that emerge at a frontier as technologies surface or human and societal forces shift (p.59). Three caught my attention because I have not read enough about them and should: the militarization of space, a permafrost methane release, and human-engineered pandemics. Last we heard from minority shareholder activism and sustainability it was not good news: Emmanuel Faber got kicked out of Danone. There is now a trend of such activists pushing for more sustainability in large companies.  Jessica Camille Aguirre tells the story of “the little hedge fund taking down big oil”, or how Engine No1, a small investment firm managed to place two climate experts in the board of Exxon Mobil. Traditionally, activist investors have worked to influence the management of companies with the view to increase the value of companies’ stocks – to make money. The same strategy and tactics are increasingly used to have more positive impact on the planet. Watch this space.    The Pew Research Center shows that 61% of the public in OECD countries think that their country is more divided now than before the pandemic. This number goes down in the Asia-Pacific with Singapore, Taiwan and New Zealand feeling more united. To note that these optimistic countries are those with the lowest number of deaths and the best crisis management according to their populations.

Megan Rapinoe [34:55] thinks that “everybody should live in their full individuality. We live in a society that values individual over the greater good but we require that individual to fit in this tiny box of what we deem as a society acceptable.”

The Global Peace Index (GPI) consists of 23 indicators and covers 99.7% of the world population. The 2021 GPI report shows that global peacefulness has deteriorated by 2% since 2008, calculates that the global violence price tag is $14.96 trillion dollars per year, and says that its latest increase comes from growth in military expenditures. The three indicators with the largest deterioration in 2021 are violent demonstrations, political instability and militarization. The three with the largest improvement are deaths from internal conflict, number and intensity of internal conflicts, and deaths from terrorism. A poll with 150,000 people in 142 countries shows that 15% of people globally feel that crime, violence, or terrorism is the greatest risk to their daily safety. Only road accidents are cited as a bigger risk (19%).

Sunita Sah’s “Mental health: pressure to return to the office could be making employees more anxious” [H/T Anthony Renshaw] shows that nearly all employees are anxious about returning to the office. They fear being exposed to COVID-19 and dread loosing flexibility, commuting, wearing a mask at work and needing childcare. What is preoccupying is that many employers have not consulted their staff when drafting return-to-work policies adding to the overall stress of their workers. 

The “Sustainable Development Report 2021” shows that for the first time since the adoption of the SDGs in 2015, the global SDG Index score – assessing each country’s performance against the 17 SDGs – decreased in 2020. The drop was driven by growing poverty and unemployment globally, including in OECD countries. The three countries that have progressed most on the SDG Index score since 2015 are Bangladesh, Côte d’Ivoire, and Afghanistan; and the three that have declined the most are Venezuela, Tuvalu, and Brazil. The regions that have seen most progress are East and South Asia.

My [edited] quote is from Pink Floyd Roger Waters: “How did [Mark Zuckerberg] – who started off by saying, ‘She is pretty, we’ll give her a four out of five,’ ‘She’s ugly, we’ll give her a one’ – how did he get any power in anything? And yet here he is, one of the most powerful [person] in the world.”

Happy World Environment Day!

UNEP and FAO’s “Ecosystem restoration for people, nature and climate” launches the latest UN campaign: The UN decade on ecosystem restoration. The report pulls together the literature and data on ecosystem degradation and the benefits of its restoration for the economy, people and nature. It is a very useful reference document. And I saw three weaknesses on the call-to-action front. First, the chapter on trade-offs is too general. Indeed, companies which are pro-active on climate change, need specific guidance on how to weave biodiversity in their action plans. Second, the report points to the lack of exhaustive data on restoration costs – essential to make the case for return on investment. Third, the final chapter is overwhelming as it shows how the campaign relates to environmental conventions and the SDGs, and presents the 5 task forces, advisory board, hub and playbook that will help execute.

Netflix’ sustainability commitments are reaching net zero by 2022 and investing in nature-based solutions. Their new head of sustainability who took the job in October 2020 recently said that her position had been the most sought after in the history of the company. What got me excited: A bold plan; a woman scientist leading the job; and the use of the platform to promote the cause.  

The Economist Intelligence Unit’s “An eco-awakening: measuring global awareness, engagement and action for nature” measures the awareness, engagement, and action for nature using social media data. The popularity of nature and biodiversity has increased by 16% worldwide since 2016 driven by growth in Asia, and primarily in India (190%), Pakistan (88%) and Indonesia (53%).

UNEP Executive Director Inger Anderson tells INSEAD students: “Preaching to the converted isn’t going to make the difference we need in our societies. So, we need brave and fearless people inside corporates. We need strong and young voices, not worn down or subsumed by a company’s culture, to be the flea in the ear, the conscience, the voice of reason that forces corporates to move beyond lip service to sustainability and start doing something meaningful.”

Mark Carney’s “Value(s): Building a better world for all” is not available in print in France yet so I listened his narrating it for 20 hours. It’s surprising by its content and format. First, Carney’s thesis – the market-based economy has been stretched too far – is quite unusual for a former Bank Governor (of Canada and England).  He argues that the “price-of-everything-is-the-value-of-everything” motto led to the three global crises of finance, health and climate. He demonstrates why our system needs rebalanced away from financial optimization. He calls on governments to act according to societal core values, and on business and finance to develop clear plans to net zero while promoting values-based leadership. Second, the book’s format is also surprising. It is basically a textbook which, in addition to the theory, gives historical perspectives, practitioners’ insights, and global institutional contexts. Finally, it is also intriguing to see how Carney is personally acting on the recommendations his puts forward in his book. As the UN Special Envoy for Climate Action and Finance, he is now guided by a mission to integrate climate change in every finance decision. For all its qualities, it is also a very dense book and I probably did not absorb half of it. And the historical perspectives are mainly Western/Eurocentric. But it definitely got me thinking…a lot. Tomorrow we bring Mark Carney to INSEAD and I am excited to hear more based on what I heard. You can join for free here.
 
The G7 Environment and Climate Change Communiqué is worth reading because it makes a few important commitments: phase out government support to fossil fuels; end government spending on coal by end 2021; decarbonize power systems by 2030; protect 30% of land and oceans by 2030. Most measures will impact Official Development Assistance (ODA). Be ready for an accelerated greening of ODA as Ministers ask all Multilateral Development Banks to publish comprehensive green action plans by COP26.
 
This Niall McCarthy’s graph shocked me. The US has 120 firearms for every 100 of its residents.

My quote this week is from Mare Sheehan, aka Mare of EastTown [Episode 5: 46’]: “Doing something great is overrated. As then people expect this from you all the time. What they don’t realize is that we are just as screwed up as they are.”

Much has been written about the US’s decision to back the patent waiver for COVID vaccines. These two articles help me take the long view. Peter Hotez and al’s “Producing a vaccine requires more than a patent” reminds us that boosting the production of mRNA vaccines to fight COVID requires a technological-scientific-regulatory ecosystem that few emerging economies possess and typically takes a decade to build. Anand Giridharadas’ “Of patents and power: Doses are charity. Knowledge is justice” interviews five activists to unpack the justice, power, and political dynamics at play around the COVID patent waiver debate. It shows the limits of market-based solutions for global health issues. 
 
John Levy’s “The hybrid workplace probably won’t last”  identifies strong factors playing against the long-term success of hybrid teams. Communication and trust decrease with distance. Lack of breaks, transitions, and commutes affects reflective capacity. Creating a remote culture of belonging is hard work. Levy, an expert of connection, trust and belonging, predicts that all white collars will go back to the office.
 
My graph this week is Piechartpirate’s animated “Worldwide energy production by source 1860-2019”. Click and play. It is quite sobering. For all the progress on renewable energy, the world is very far from getting rid of fossil fuels.

My quote is from Aldous Huxley [h/t Maria Popova]: “Knowledge is acquired when we succeed in fitting a new experience into the system of concepts based upon our old experiences. Understanding comes when we liberate ourselves from the old and so make possible a direct, unmediated contact with the new, the mystery, moment by moment, of our existence”.

Casey Newton’s “How Basecamp blew up” is about a small tech CEO struggling to manage the complexities of politics at work. Late April, the CEO, fed up with employees’ conversations and task forces on power and justice, sent a memo announcing that societal and political discussions were no longer allowed at work. Staff, including senior ones, started to quit. The CEO called an all-staff meeting, some racist comments were made, the CEO did not take a strong stand, a third of the employees quit. The ping-pong-tables/on-demand snacks/bean-bags-in-the-office cool atmosphere tech firms portray have given us a sense that tech employees can show up at work with all their needs. But the Basecamp debacle shows that it does not apply to the hard stuff.
 
Jasjit Singh’s “From band-aid to deep impact” lists the 10 questions social sector organizations should consider to maximize their long-term outcomes. They are about identifying the market failure and needs to target; focusing on value creation more than costs; having a credible impact model with clear accountability and measurement strategy; using existing knowledge while learning along the way; and seeking the right kind of funding and partnerships. It is a useful guide with illustrations and hyperlinks. It triggered three thoughts. One, the outcome-based mania risks diverting funds to what is easy to measure. Indeed, social and development impact bonds in developing countries focus on health, education and employment – nothing on, say, gender-based violence. Two, the search for credible impact models can translate into endless meetings as captured in this Manu’s cartoon on the theory of change. Three, as mentioned here, random control trials tend to exclude emerging country economists from development economics.
 
Niall McCarthy’s “Electric vehicle market to hit ludicrous mode” shows electric vehicles (EV) growing from 11 million a year to 145 million in 2030. EV is a tiny share of the global market now (1.5 billion) but it is growing fast.  

My quote this week is from former Danone CEO Emmanuel Faber back in the press this week: “Employees are the boss. So if you let employees be a voice in the company about what is truly as stake you will have a swing. The more this new generation will be there pushing ESG issues the more need there will be for top management to act. I think as leaders we should like employee action. But in reality the people who have power may not like this!”