 What kind of world do I want to live in? I think about this question a lot. For our generation and for specifically my group of people, which is refugees, the circumstances might dismantle any vision of the future that we have. You're trying to rebuild. You're trying to make a future for yourself. And then the climate-related disaster comes and you start again. It's not about how it's affecting you now. It's about how it's affecting you your entire life. The first step to understand is that we're all a part of it. None of us are going to be left out by the crisis. We're at a stage where if we don't act now, really, there won't be very much left. There are generations that will never see certain things that we grew up seeing in real life. We have to start treating this like the emergency it is to achieve the 17 sustainable development goals. We have to go from an intention to a serious commitment. Business leaders really need to rethink how they conduct their business and invest in creating systems that are climate-friendly. The action I would like to see is accountability. Structures being put in place where countries aren't just asked to do something, but they're kept accountable to the decisions that they make. There has to be that strong collaboration between government, between corporations, between youth activists to drive change forward. The world I would want to live in is a world where imagining the future is not a privilege. To live in a world where people do not give up on hope, the hope that a positive change is possible. The fact that you're listening today means that you are willing to make a change. Hello, everyone, and welcome to the World Economic Forum issue briefing. How thinking circular will transform economies? I'm Linda Lucina, and I am a comms lead here at the forum, and I am very pleased to be watching today with an amazing slate of panelists who I'm going to introduce to you in a second once we get through the program. But first, I really wanted to get us grounded. Not everyone is close to the circular economy, and I want to make sure that we are all playing on the same sheet of music here. The circular economy is a way of approaching production and consumption that eliminates waste, and this is going to require a system wide rethink of everything we do, how we make things, how we use things. And that is a change that critically cannot happen unless our economies change. And that's what we're going to talk about today, because we cannot fix some of the biggest problems with the climate unless we fix our economies. And so to get us grounded even further on this, I have a short poll to set the stage, and they're going to set up a link right now in the chat. Please take a look at your in your chat right now, click on the link, and we're going to go through a little poll. They can pull that up right now in our Slido. Please feel free to do that. The first question is for this energy efficiency and renewables can tackle 55 percent of global emissions. The question is circular economy tackle. This is sort of a question we're all more familiar with energy and energy efficiency that don't talk much about circular economy. Take a think on that. All right, very good. The correct answer here is 45 percent. So those of you who did that, you get a gold star. It shows you the massive opportunity that there is with the circular economy to tackling the biggest problems of our lifetimes. Let's go to the next question now. The next question is what percent of the global economy is currently circular? We have three options here, 8.6, 33 percent and 60.7 percent. Take a look and tell me what you think. We have a very circular focused audience here today. That's amazing. That's great. Awesome. Yes, absolutely. The correct answer is 8.6 percent, and that does show us two things. It shows us both the challenge and it also shows the opportunity, the progress that we could be making towards this. And our last and a last poll question that we have, let's go to that by by some estimates, how many jobs will be created by the shift to a circular economy? And this is sort of until by 2030 with three options here, 700,000, two million or 7.8 million. And absolutely, the answer is 7.8 million jobs by 2030. And what we're going to be digging into today is that some of those jobs may not be labeled circular jobs, but they will be laddering up to this new economy, to this new world that will be making and using things in a completely different way. And so I would like now to talk to to the the the prime minister of Bhutan. We're very, very lucky to have the prime minister with us today, especially because it is a special holiday today in Bhutan. It is a public public holiday in the Buddhist calendar. And we're so pleased that you were able to make it today. This is typically a day that people take with their with their families. Also, it's a it is a blessed rainy day in the Buddhist calendar. And I also wanted to mention that yesterday you spent some time with our circular shapers and improved. And that is a group of young people who are also sort of working from the ground level to shape the circular economy. So please let us welcome Prime Minister of Bhutan, his excellency, Dr. Lote sharing. Thank you so much, sir. You have the floor. Thank you, Linda. Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, and everyone who are listening and viewing us online. Very good afternoon from a land of nobleness, I would say. With this, I bring you greetings from my king, His Majesty the King, our Majesty the people of Bhutan. Linda rightly said today we are on a public holiday and we consider today a very, very special day in the year's calendar. Because today we consider all the waters in the country is blessed. And the manner we use that blessed water, we feel purified externally as well as internally. Now, I really don't know how much link can we all make with this holy water holiday in Bhutan to the circular thinking that we all are going to talk about today. Yet as a hardcore medical person, the closest and the most unconventional link I can make to my medical thinking is a category organ donation system that we have in our practice. Those who donate their organs after they have had declared brain death, we all know that the different teams will come and harvest their organs. The reusable organs are, as we all know, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas, gut, eyes, hands, face and of course on a category organ donation system, the last organ that we all harvest is the heart. After harvesting, of course, the external body will be handed over to the relatives. The usable organs will go to the recipients who are waiting in line, giving them new hopes and lives in a different, all two different manner. So if I don't know how many can make a link to circular thinking, but I can see a clear circularity in that. And in governance back in Bhutan, our main principles or philosophy of governance is based on principles of gross national happiness, which means development with values. It focuses on sustainable development. That balances spiritual growth with material wealth. Guided by these G&H principles, we ensure that we extract the minimum and harm our Mother Earth the least. I want to tell you that all major projects, policies and activities that are undertaken in the country will have to pass a G&H screening tool. And as the chairman of the commission, I'm telling you that it is not easy to pass that test because the screening tool will measure community vitality, positive psychology, preserving our nature, preserving our tradition and culture. All those components are taken into consideration and we do not consider economic viability of the project as number one or two points. So it is very, very difficult to pass that test. And then we also know that, again, the experts here will have to will have to try to link what are the little random examples I'm giving here to the circular thinking or circular economy that we are going to talk about. The other principle that we all value very highly in our country is the tourism policy. We are a very small country. Our tourism policy, I would say, is the shortest, but probably the most profound only says high value, low volume. By that, we are very sure that we do not look up to tourism as a source of revenue generating activity. We want tourists that will value us and we want tourists that we can learn from. By that, we ensure sustainability in itself. So I see some circularity in the wisdom of our tourism policy. Similarly, many listeners here might know that, though a resource-constrained country, the major share to our economy comes from hydropower, which we all know is renewable, is almost run of the river mills. So that is also renewable. Our constitution, which many may not know, mandates us to keep at least 60% of the country under forest cover. And currently, we have 71%. And 51% of the country is protected further by law as biodiversities centers, which will ensure the legal protection to maintain it forever. At the same time, we also have a very innovative way of maintaining and functioning that. We want to ensure the viability of the protected area on one side. On the other side, we would like also to make sure that the livelihood of the people residing in those places is also taken care of. So on that, we have a royal chartered innovative financing mechanism to ensure its sustenance forever. So those, I would say, are the little things that I can share with my experts. And these things, I'm saying that these are the macro framework of the circular frame that we all talking about within that bigger, I think the minor circular, circular economies also. But on that, the product designers, consumers pattern, mindset of the consumers and the innovative capacity of the entrepreneurs that must follow to make everything circular. I leave it up to the experts who will be following after my talk. All these major examples that I gave you are the visions of our His Majesty, the king for this country. With whom all Buddhists have an unconditional profound, I would say, a genetic link with him. We all unconditionally believe and respect him. He is truly a leader for us all because of his master's benevolence and care for us. We as a resource constrained small country managed to fight this pandemic in a very efficient way. So I thought these are the side effects of profound circular vision that our leaders always had in Bhutan. So on this note, without taking much of your time, I would like to conclude by saying that the whole world now is looking forward to going on to the new normal after the pandemic or coming out of the pandemic. I would like to request all the thinkers, movers and shakers, leaders here to use this pandemic coming out of the pandemic as a reset button to bend the traditional linear pattern of our consumption and economy into a bit more circular pattern. So that when we come out, we just don't come out of the pandemic medically, but we come out of it in a wholesome manner and then go very circular from here after. So with this, I'll be excited to listen to the panelists and see what all take home messages I can take and use it in my governance. So thank you very much, Linda, and thank you all the listeners here. Thank you so much, Prime Minister. And I really connected to a lot of the things that you said, including the fact that we need to make these pipelines because that's the way that we're going to be making sure that we're baking in circularity in the years to come. And that's so important for innovation and also that idea of mindset. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. We are going to now shift to our other panelists here. And these are two folks who can kind of show us how circularity is going to be changing on sort of the business end, on innovation and in sort of even manufacturing. And so my two esteemed panelists that you guys are lucky to hear from today are Dr. Lim Jue, the CEO of SG Innovate, and Sucheta Goval, the Chief Commercial Officer at Covestro. Thank you both for being here. Thank you, Linda. Very good. I would like to start with Sucheta. Sucheta, you know, when we talk about the economy and the way that it has such a responsibility to change in the climate and how we can't really, the important role that that has, why aren't people really talking about this enough? You know, why isn't the idea that you can't fix the climate unless you fix the economy more widely understood? So firstly, I think, Linda, you raise an extremely interesting question. The economy and circular thinking climate or climate neutrality is intrinsically linked. If you look at it, one needs for the economy to move incentives for a far more climate-positive world. A few do exist, but largely they are not in place. Some of these incentives need to create a wide range of disruptions. This is the normal that we need to start getting used to. And therefore, because some of these incentives don't exist in the scale that one needs for a climate-neutral future or for shaping the circular world, many people just can't imagine that the economy is actually the engine of such sustainability, such circularity and resiliency. And many people can't imagine, therefore, the growth potential that can exist, the job potential, the growth potential and also the thinking, whether it's R&D production, even end-consumer behavior and mindset towards circularity. Absolutely, absolutely. And say that we build this more circular world. We have to build special capabilities within businesses, within our economies. We have to upscale. We have to invest. Tell us what that looks like on the ground so people can picture it and maybe even making Kvestro a window into what the capabilities that you're already investing in. Right, so firstly, let's talk about capabilities. Once again, I'm so pleased you pinpoint and spotlight the issue of capabilities. There are capabilities in mindset, and there are hard capabilities as well. So let's take the mindset issue. If each one of us as a mindset capability starts thinking not waste as waste, but waste as value, then we start thinking reusability right from the time of consumption or thinking consumption. And that's an incredibly important mind shift in mindset. On the hard capabilities companies such as ourselves, Kvestro and many, many other players are making huge investments in R&D, that is absolutely critical. So monetary investments, tools and skills including digital R&D, but also people capabilities getting the right folks to come in and play a part in this recycling technologies. One can't underestimate the power of recycling technologies because I can keep speaking to you and say, you know, Linda, think circularity, stop your high consumption, et cetera, et cetera. But if I don't give you the tools and the means to recycle in the productive way, then it's not possible for you to turn that mindset into action. So recycling technologies, we are likely over the next decade and have already been investing over a billion in such types of new technologies, especially recycling of polymers. We've got a mini plant in Germany in Leverkusen. We've got huge production initiatives which de-link us from fossil fuels. So fostering default fossilization through a very, very innovative CO2 platform technology. We've got new business models in place and that's incredibly exciting because it also has the power to unlock jobs and jobs potential. You had one of your slide of questions on that. And of course, collaborating with governments and chemistry, there's a pan-European collaboration of your project and some recycling project also in high-growth economies like China. So I think in production, in R&D, getting mindsets and people and this whole cultural shift is extremely, extremely critical. No, that's amazing. That's amazing. I'm talking to lift off of that idea of collaboration. Let's talk to Joy. Joy, you know something about collaboration. So can you talk a little bit about deep tech for goods and what that program is because it really is sort of a sneak preview into the types of collaboration that we are going to need. We need to work with people who've never worked before. We're going to need to work with rivals. We're going to need to find new ways of tapping into each other's capabilities and things like that. Tell us about that and why that is a sneak preview for the type of collaboration that we're going to need for sustainability. Sure thing, Linda. Look, you know, as Jigavit, we are set up as an investment house that invests in areas that are deemed strategically important to the community. We are relatively new to this, to the sustainability agenda. And so that's, that was one of the reasons we thought, you know, if we're new to this, let's step up and, you know, how quickly we can learn by working with people. So we are teamed up in our deep tech for good initiative with the UNDP's Global Center for Technology, Innovation and Sustainable Development we're teamed up with ADB Menchers with the Nanyo Technological University and the X-Prize Foundation together with ecosystem partners like Salesforce, CYB Cement Group, you know, the, a group of ecosystem partners that continues to grow by the day. You know, I think we want to lead by example. I think, you know, in a capitalist world economy where self-interest is the organizing principle very often as we've seen in the pandemic unless it's something that threatens all of us, sometimes it's hard to get people to work together. This is our own little contribution to an effort to break free of dogma and habit and then try to work together and try to bring the technologies that our startups are developing to help to democratize healthcare, bring clean water to people, quality housing, you know, these are the goals of the program. Sure, sure, absolutely. And what, in your opinion, I'm going to go a little off-script here, Joy. What in your opinion is surprising people about the type of collaboration that's needed? Like I said, we need to work together in a way we never have before and you're working both on the government side but also, you know, working with these startups, you know, creating these pipelines but what is surprising people about that type of new collaboration? I'm not quite sure what you mean by surprising but I think it's been fairly effective. I think we do this across the board. I mean, the UNDP is one such collaboration. We're also trying to bring big companies to work with small companies to address issues that are, if not entirely circular, at least important adjacencies to the circularity agenda. I think the surprise is, and I suppose if there's a surprise, it's that, you know, this is actually starting to work. I mean, we're converting cynics. You know, it's even people who are not known to be, you know, but, for example, I understand now the very, very compelling data of the harm that we're doing to Mother Earth and joining the, you know, jumping on the band market and joining the alliance. Sure, sure. And startups, Joy, you guys are creating this sort of pipeline. What is there in sort of creating that pipeline of innovations working with the big corporates? What is that special role that they have in creating new jobs and new innovations? You know, without trying to offend anyone, I hope I don't offend anyone because you know, startups are like the pigs and dogs that are trained to dig out truffle. Right? They are raised on debt is to address a need or a want. I think whether you talk about Apple or Facebook, SpaceX, Tesla, I mean, these startups are ultimately, in my view, the most important transducers of issue. They're the most latest research into something that's tangible and is deployed in community for practical benefit. So I think, you know, the role, I mean, we've seen that over and over again. I mean, you know, the new industries that are being created, the new movements tend to be driven by startups. So, you know, and then eventually the big companies kind of say, hmm, you know, what have we missed? And then maybe we should work with them. So that's a very important relationship. And that's a relationship that we try to foster with a lot of our activities between, you know, we try to bring startups with big companies because the big companies also can do things that small ones can't, right? I mean, if the small companies want to actually deliver impact, they're going to need to work with big companies who have the channels to do so. So, you know, we do pictures, we do reverse pictures and the whole idea ultimately is to get people to work together. Very good, very good. They're going to give me the hook very soon. We have time for just one question for each of you guys. So if there is a sort of, and what's the number one change that leaders of all stripes need to be making right now to sort of maximize the economic opportunity from circularity? Very, very briefly, very, very short. Joy, what would be yours? I think leaders need to come forward and really provide that leadership emphasis and presence on this, on matters related to this agenda. Yeah, let's not try to be polite anymore. We've got to come right out and say this is important. Very good. And Sucheta, what's the number one change that leaders need to do right now? They just need to think that carbon leakage and energy policy is a joint agenda without causing trade conflicts. It's our agenda. It's their agenda. Absolutely, absolutely. Well, I can't thank you all enough. This has been an amazing morning and fine. Well worth me waking up in my time, New York. I want to thank you all so much for my incredible guest. To learn more about our work on the Circular Economy for NetZero, you can click. There's going to be a website link in the chat. It's going to be a special site that we have. You guys can look at more resources that we have to help you get informed and engaged. So take a look in the chat and click on that link and dig in. And then we are the last day of SDIS, the Sustainable Development Impact Summit. For those of you who are watching live, a recorded version of this is going to be available on the site along with other sessions, all at wef.ch slash sdis21. And don't forget, my digital colleagues have been working very, very hard doing a live blog, making videos and articles. And you can also follow along with all of that on our website as well as on social media using the hashtag sdis21. That is it for me. Enjoy our last day of sessions. I hope that they will make you feel two things, hopeful for the future and ready to get to work. Thanks so much. I'm Linda Lasina from the World Economic Forum. Have a wonderful day.