 Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to this press conference from the fourth day of the 49th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum here in Davos. Thank you for being here in the room. Thank you for joining us on the live stream, whether you're watching on Twitter, Facebook or the website, we are certainly happy that you're tuning in. This press conference is dedicated to the question how to deal with the electronic waste crisis. That dramatic, I admit it, but as you will see, it is also quite a challenge that we're facing here. This press conference is also dedicated to the launch of a new report called New Circular Vision for Electronics, Time for Global Reboot. So more drama from us, let's see if that's justified. We have a wonderful panel here tonight to speak about this topic and to try to answer the question how to deal with the electronic waste crisis. To my immediate left, we're joined by Frans van Houten, the CEO of Royal Philips. To his left, we're joined by Naoko Ishii, the CEO and chairperson of the Global Environment Facility. To her immediate left, we're joined by Xiaohu Lin, the Secretary General of the ITU. And last but definitely not least, we're joined by Lian Kamp, the founder and CEO of Everletcher. You see as always the forum tries to have a nice mix of multi-stakeholder experts here together. Frans, you are a co-chair of PACE, which is the platform for accelerating the circular economy. And as everybody has seen, PACE is on the report. So it's basically your report. But let me give you the opportunity to introduce PACE to the audience. Give a bit of background of what PACE is doing and what they will find in the report. It's a pleasure. A couple of years ago, here at the World Economic Forum, several organizations started an initiative around plastics. We called it mainstream. And that was a focused effort to get organized around, let's say, closing the loop on plastics. That started to become successful and then we said we need to do more. And WEF is a great convening organization, but as an action platform where many governments and companies all come together, we felt we need an organization. And that is the platform to accelerate the circular economy. What PACE does is, first of all, it brings everybody together. We share knowledge, but we also organize together around projects. And we do that around themes, plastics, electronics, responsible food chains, but also insights around, for example, how do you make procurement circular? Because that's an essential ingredient. So there's a lot of knowledge to share. And then we have a geographical angle. And now, okay, we'll speak to that in a moment, but obviously you cannot only do this on a global level because action is always local and therefore mobilizing people on the ground in different geographies is essential. So PACE brings all of that together. And then we have a lot of volunteers that put their shoulders behind it. And then we have a high intensity cadence of meetings and phone calls to get things moving and we solve problems. And that works pretty well. The knowledge finds its way into reports. The circularity gap report actually says we still have a big job to do. And then the new report around division for circular electronics basically defines the problem, but also defines how you can solve it, either by giving electronics a new life, repurposing a repair loop, or by actually taking it back and recirculating the materials. This can be done in an economically viable way. We are convinced of that. And then to switch from the knowledge part to the action part, we said, okay, we need to create around electronics two big initiatives. One for capital equipment. If you know Phillips, then you know that we stand for medical equipment. And very often that goes to, in a business-to-business relationship to hospitals and so on. And we have rounded up a lot of companies to say, let's take all of that equipment back. Now, instead of letting it go to landfill, we want it back. And there's today already 10 companies, 10 big multinationals who are making these pledges, among which Mitsubishi, Dell, Cisco, many others. And we all have pledged to reach certain goals and we publish these goals into our annual reports and so on. So for example, Phillips, we will take all medical equipment back by 2020 and all products by 2025. A bigger challenge is the consumer electronics. Think about your phones and all your other gear that very often makes it into the landfill. And also, there are many initiatives to close the loop. Today, we had a meeting around PACE. There were many intense dialogues around it. How governments and procurement should become circular, but also that there should be standards to make sure that electronics is repairable and that we know what valuable materials are inside, so to all take it back. So, of course, that is all described in this document and here's how we activate on that. I think it is going to be very useful to talk about the geographical expansion because I already mentioned you only get traction when you mobilize people on the local community. And there we have exciting news to give. Now, okay, why don't you take it over? Thank you. Good afternoon. This exciting news that France is talking about is actually launch of the Nigerian E-Waste Project. As you may know, Africa is becoming a bit of a dumping site of those electronics so that how we can really avoid that problem. Currently, Nigeria has received maybe 500,000 tons of electronics waste a year and it is estimated that 100,000 people are working in informal sector and then they exposed a huge health risk. So, how we could actually solve this problem? This project we are now launching, or they are now launching, has two components. The one is policy side. This project helped them to introduce EPL extending our producer responsibility principle and then also it has an infrastructure side, how to do this better recycling. So, with this policy side and the infrastructure side and we hope that this project will actually that solve this crisis, E-Waste crisis in Nigeria and the Fatsuma, we hope that it will be actually that then replicated in some part of this in Africa which have the same problem, which are facing the same problem. If I may say one more thing about China, that China joined this space last year and that today we are very much privileged to have a minister, Xi Jinping, that the vice chairperson of NDLC National Development and Reform Council and then apparently we learned that the minister chair is actually the person who coined the word circular economy and all of these years that he has been promoting the circular economy as an actually means to realize the much bigger vision of ecological civilization which is basically meant to catalyze that in a holistic, comprehensive way of their economy and also society. And we got quite a good briefing from him directly that how China has been doing and what is his plan to go forward so that I think the entire pace and the team is very much benefited from China and also we hope that the pace platform will also help that kind of ambition to move forward. So it's from regional global dimension that maybe the two things I'd like to share with you today. Thank you, Noko. And Franz, you used this wonderful expression that your volunteers put their shoulders behind it and indeed it is heavy lifting. Let me just quote one statistic from the report that I've found absolutely astonishing as a layperson here on the panel. Every year approximately 50 million tons of electronic and electrical waste are produced equivalent in weight to all commercial aircraft ever built. I think that's a very concrete example of the amount of e-waste we're dealing with and the report goes on to say that if nothing is done, this amount will triple by 2050. As Secretary General, ITU has been very active in that field and is engaged in this work as well. Can you share your perspective as an international organization on the magnitude of the challenge, please? Thank you very much. It's on. It's on? Yes. Okay, very good. Thank you very much for your call for my message. I'm Secretary General of International Telecommunications Union. International Telecommunications Union was created in Europe, 1865, so that we already had 153 years of history. But from the very beginning, I do have worked with our industry, including Philippines, to develop new technologies of communication. And with these communication technologies, evidently you have to use electronic equipment. So from the very beginning, we are just encouraging our society to get new technologies with electronic equipment. So we have not really put this question on the e-waste, on our agenda. So when we got this kind of statistics, you just quoted that annually we had about 55 million tons of e-waste. That was valued around 68 billions of dollars. So this is a very big money. And this money, someone said that in the world, around 120 countries, their GDP is not higher than that one. So that is the very big issue for us. And then another story is that we already worked on this issue for some, sometimes, but still up to now, only 10% of the recycling of this e-waste is done by someone. And this is not enough for sure. And we talked about the climate change, and we talked recently about plastic pollution. And the e-waste also causes some environmental issues for us as well. So that is a very big issue. So I do work with the equipment. We are very proud that ICT is not a part of a problem, but ICT is always a part of a solution everywhere. But now we see that ICT also cause trouble of these environmental issues and the problems. So we are very serious. We try to work hard with our partners, with our members, with our industries to address this issue. And last year, we invited a few UN agencies together with ITU to sign a memorandum. We try to work together. And those UN agencies, including ITU, United Nations University, IELO, and UNDP, and WEF as well. And I'm very pleased to share with you that just last week, we got another member of WHO to join us to sign this agreement for the e-waste. So this is something we just started. And we try to address this issue very seriously. And when we signed that agreement last March in ITU at our big meeting of WISIs, I also mentioned that this kind of statistic just shows us the e-waste situation on the territory. We are not talking about the e-waste in the sky. In the sky, you have another kind of e-waste as well. That is more serious for us if something happened. That, for example, late last year, we had some problems about shutting down from the sky of satellite. So that is another issue we will try to address. And I'm very pleased that we already have some first report to be launched today. And that report will give us some information about the situation today and what we plan to do. Of course here, we count on our media friends to help us to raise the awareness of this important issue and invite everybody, particularly through our NGOs and the others to come together to address this issue. Let me just stop here for a moment. Thank you. Mr. General, thank you for your remarks. Leanne, you are the resident geek on our panel this evening as the CEO of Everledger. Tell us a little bit about what Everledger does, but more importantly about how technology in general can be an important aspect of dealing with the electronic waste crisis. Please. So I wear the badge proudly. So yes, my name's Leanne Kamp. I'm the founder and CEO of a technology company called Everledger. And I'm also hold office with the Queensland government as the chief entrepreneur to set policy and help assist in the innovation agenda around fourth industrial revolution technologies. My company began in the heart of London in 2015, predominantly using the combination of fourth industrial revolution technologies, blockchain, smart contracts, machine vision and robotics to transform a supply chain. And that being the diamond supply chain to bring transparency across a singular product, but to also think about how this supply chain can be transformed to reuse metals and minerals out of an electronic waste supply chain. And we proudly sit here in front of you today and I read this report and I'm completely excited. So being the resident nerd on the desk, this report stands as the blueprint, the blueprint for entrepreneurs and innovators around the world that understand the singular technologies that can come together to solve for very real challenges. And as we start to understand how circular economy will transform, it will become a chamber within the beating heart of trade. And of course, these technologies will also form the artery system to enable us to move the limbs of industry to really transform the importance around waste. And more importantly, I'm completely excited around electronics because the reality is unless we have a good identity system to be able to identify not only the source of these materials and where they have come from, but also that same identity system that can persist over time, we are now able to create an entirely new system of value, something that is incredibly important to industry, to economies and to even to the future of jobs, works and skills. Thank you, Leon. Franz, you are leading a global company and yet you are a proud Dutchman. So I'm surprised that you kept a secret about the role that the Netherlands will play for PACE. So I have to put you on the spot and please share with the audience what is going on. So you've heard us talk about the movement that is starting to get success around circular economy, plastics, e-waste, food chains, practices. So it's really exciting. But clearly, you then need to put a movement behind it and an organization. So also over the last year, we have been working on fundraising and establish a permanent organization that can run PACE. WRI will be the hosting organization and the Netherlands has supported us to become the hosting country, through funding, through other means. And so this is very exciting. PACE will be headquartered in the Netherlands. And from there on, we will expand further. Maybe finalizing then with a statistic, already over 11 countries have signed up to PACE. Already over 54 companies have signed up to PACE. So all of this is expanding. And I think this is where leaders take responsibility and where the media can help us is create awareness, but also hold everybody to the responsibility that to live in this world and for the next generations, we need to shift from a linear to a circular model. And that's our goal. Thank you. Thank you, Franz. And for the sake of our online audience, the WRI is the World Resources Institute that Franz mentioned. You mentioned the role of the media, so let's open the floor for a question and answer. If I could see a show of hands of those of you who have a question. Yes, we have a lady in the front row. Please, the microphone is coming. Hello, panelists. I'm Angela, working for a Chinese online media court center. And I was here attending the last press conference and I asked one question about how to recycle all the wasted batteries out of an electric car because the electric car has been a big market here in China, but we start to consider about what to do with all the use the batteries after they run out of the life. So I asked a question, but they say that this panel actually it's about how to deal with all the waste, so you might come up with a better solution for this. Thank you, panelists. Thank you very much. So don't tell anyone one, but these are the better experts here in this press conference. No, I'm kidding, of course. But who wants to take a stab at answering the question? Maybe to give you some time to think about your answer, one statistic also from the report we're launching today is that only 20% of all this property is recycled. So I think that that goes to show how relevant your question is. I'll be happy to give it a start and then you can contribute. Please. Let's say first we need to do general recycling and take back, right? But that can never be the end goal. And as Minister Xi also shared, standards will have to be set. For example, standards about repairability, standards about reusability of materials, material passports, and those are going to be next steps. Within the e-waste, the electronic waste alliance and the circular vision, there is also a battery alliance, right? Where battery companies start to discuss on how to do this. And one of the future solutions can be is that the manufacturers will have to take responsibility for what they design and produce, right? So still not the final solution, right? But definitely we are moving. I could probably answer, Everledge was a part of the global battery alliance and we've been working in particular components of the battery and particularly in lithium. And we understand how we can do traceability from the source of the mine with lithium. And then also within the battery itself, we can take lithium out in terms of its pouch and then have a reusable component in secondary life. The other parts of the exploration has been around sort of second and third generation use of batteries where it could be used in a mobile car, but also could be reused stationary for the storage of solar energy on houses. The experiments that are underway now is how many recyclable loops are safe that we can consider. And then at the end of that third or fourth life, how do we then sort of dematerialise the finished item? If you could wait for the microphone, please. You mentioned about recycling and reuse of the batteries, but what's the cost for that? Is that expensive? Is that affordable right now? Would that be more expensive than just throw it away? The economics are complicated. I think that there are certain governments, and certainly our government in Queensland is looking at the value construction around the cost of waste versus the taxation and the full cost across the supply chain. So governments are enlivening and they're awakening to the reality of cost measures and taxation. I think the redesign of the battery at source of manufacturing is critical to enabling sort of next-generation zero-waste policy. But at the moment there are certain types of components within batteries. We certainly are able to extract cost effectively, use and reuse over multiple generations of use. But I would like to say that we've solved the problem, but all I can say is we're wholly committed to solving the problem rather than it's been solved. But if your question is around economic viability of circular models, I can say for capital equipment where Philips is very active, we are convinced that a circular model is going to be profitable, apart from being the right thing to do. So we can integrate it into our economic model. And if you fundamentally integrate it, it is a very sustainable economic model. And that's also why we are moving fast in the capital equipment side. Thank you very much. We're already slightly running over time, but maybe we have time for a second question. Somebody's still hesitating here, no? Yes, of course. Can I ask for quite a wide, maybe general question about, what do you feel, the question to Mr. Zhao, because the big issue is about Huawei, this company, because if you come here, we'll like to hear your view about the issue. It's not the... I believe also this is going beyond the scope of this report. It's definitely an interesting question, but not for today. So can I change another question? Yeah, sorry. To Mr. Houghton, for the Brexit, I mean for the e-waste, the standard will after Brexit with the standard and any relevant regulation will be changed. Thank you. Again, I would say we should not discuss circularity in the context of one particular political issue. We run a global platform and regardless of any political situation, we do a call to action that everybody will adopt circularity in their business models and that can be done regardless of what happens there. Maybe to broaden the question, I know none of you is from the public sector per se, but what would the role be for the public sector in this? So you're partnering with Nigeria and other regions as well. So what are they bringing to the table for this? I think I'm from the public sector. Actually, the GEF is not the NGO. It's actually we were owned by 183 member countries. So we were actually intergovernmental institution. And one of the things that we are very proud of and I think it's important is in order for us to move on to this circular economy, we need this PPP and a private public partnership because that role of the government is actually to create this regulation and so that the circular economy become actually profitable. That the right now that in many ways that the lack of regulation, lack of policy actually kind of hampering that the circular economy moving forward. So I think that today we discussed a lot about what are the obstacles, how we can move forward. Many people actually mentioned that if we can have a more standardized regulation that the information, the policy which creates the circular economy much more profitable that would be definitely one way to go. So to me, the circular economy is the answer. It's a question to how to make this current economic linear to more circular. The role of the government is absolutely important without this PPP private public partnership. We can't really go deeper. So I think that there is a huge kind of opportunity and the huge responsibility of the public sector, public policy too. And I can speak on behalf of my public office certainly under the Minister of Innovation, we've readied this year in Queensland a number of investments, both in hard infrastructure in startups and scale ups with purpose led innovation around circular economy with a laboratory to ensure that we can test and trial and then create sandbox environments for corporates, for governments and for NGOs to all participate across an entire supply chain within our state. So I think it's our incumbent responsibility to create an environment and have that investment upfront. Yeah, from my view side, that we try to encourage other ecosystems that are going to join us. Of course, we talked about recycling of 10%, not 20%. Our target next is 30%. And for those who could be recycled, people will do that job. For example, people talked about in one tons of e-waste, you have gold, 10 times more than one tons of mines. That people look for gold, they will come to this part of work to recycling this equipment. But of course, that question earlier raised that battery contamination of the environment that is quite serious. And that one, you might be able to reuse some batteries, but then in the end still, those things cannot be used. Those chemical elements could go to the environment to damage our environment. So that is something we really have to engage everybody. Of course, the real work will be done by industry, but the government has obligations to create good environment policies to encourage our industries and could also provide some financial support, like you said, that there's political obligations to do this job. If you look at this economic recycling that may not be worthwhile, it cannot be sustainable. But anyhow, this- Very concretely, governments should start procuring for themselves in a circular way. The government procurement bill is enormous and they need to make that move. Secondly, we need policies from governments and then some legislation. If I give you the example, how many countries are now starting to prohibit single-use plastics? For example, in plastic shopping bags, which all end up in the landfill or in the ocean. Very concrete examples. So as a businessman, I always say, make it simple. These things can be done tomorrow. There's no reason to wait. So policies procurement can start right away. And we also heard from some government officials like, you know, mobile phones said, you know, that every six months you change, you know. You have a lot of second hand mobile phones wasted and that cannot reuse these mobile phones. But the government already put this on their agenda to see how can we encourage people to use this electronic terminal equipment. And we, ITU, worked with the other agencies like UNEP. You know, they are very competent in the environment aspect. And then we worked with, now we invite WTHU to join us because from their side, for the human health, you know, that they could see the damage caused by the E-waste, you know, that. And, you know, all this would help us to have a very good understanding of these kind of problems where we could find ways to solve, to address those issues. Thank you very much. And mindful of the time, it's my sad duty now to close the press conference. Go to the website, read the report. It's definitely not a waste of your time. Thank you very much for being here. Thank you for watching and a special thank you to all my panelists tonight. Thank you.