 Hello everybody, and welcome to this special edition of the Agenda Dialogues. I'm Amanda Russo. I'm going to be your moderator for the next 30 minutes. We have a lot to cover and a lot of very important topics, so we're going to jump right in. Today, we're speaking about how businesses and governments can deliver on the promise of climate action. COP26 was just five months ago, and we saw a slew of climate commitments and millions funneled into important financing. But then, just one month ago, Russia invaded Ukraine. The war is already a humanitarian disaster, and in addition to the human cost, leaders around the world are warning that the stakes are high when it comes to the next stages of the energy transition. We're midway to COP27 in Egypt, and there's a lot of questions on what to do next and where to go. The two people I have joining me today are going to help us answer some of these questions. We have Alec Sharma joining us from London, the COP26 president, thank you for joining us, and we have our managing director, Kim Hoi Nio, from the Center of Climate and Nature here at the World Economic Forum. Alec, I'm going to come to you first for the first question. Will the crisis and its impact on energy flows speed up or slow down the energy transition? Amanda, first to say thank you to WEF for having me on. Look, I mean, you're absolutely right. The world has changed for the worse since the illegal and frankly brutal invasion of Ukraine by Putin's regime, and I don't think anyone can be failed to be moved by the terrible images that we're seeing coming out of that war every day. And of course, the international community stands shoulder to shoulder with the courageous people of Ukraine, and you talked about humanitarian crisis, absolutely, and we have to address that and provide support. But of course, there is also an issue in terms of global energy markets, and that is again something that every country is having to grapple with right now. I've just come this afternoon from Paris. I was at the International Energy Agency, I mean, it's a real meeting, and of course, this was sort of front and central of that discussion. And what I did say at the meeting to colleagues is that clearly every country is going to have to look to see how they meet that acute need now. Clearly, governments are going to have to make sure that lights stay on, that people's homes are heated, that businesses are able to operate. But I also made the point that ahead of COP26, we managed to get 90% of the global economy committed to net zero. And in fact, some of those commitments came at COP as well. So as countries make those decisions in terms of energy going forward, they also need to keep the medium and long term view in sight and make sure that they are staying committed to the net zero commitments that they have made. And clearly, we are seeing the benefits of having homegrown renewables, homegrown clean energy right now. So in the UK, for instance, we've built a big offshore wind sector. We've gone from 40% of the coal in the UK coming from, sorry, of electricity coming from coal back in 2012 to a few percentage points now. And certainly, I can see that we will see an acceleration in renewables. We will see an acceleration in clean energy as well. And I think it's worth pointing out that when this takes place, it is, of course, good for the environment. It also has a big economic benefit in terms of creating jobs as well. So yes, we will see, I'm quite sure, a accelerated push on renewables. And at the end of the day, we will end up, I hope, with not just an environmental but an economic dividend as well. Thank you, Alec. And so, Gimhue, over to you. Alec talked about an acceleration. What are your thoughts or some of the next steps of the energy transition? So first, my heart goes out to all those who have been impacted by the situation, the current crisis that we are confronted with. I think we need to, it's a humanitarian crisis. And we have to support all multilateral efforts to help the people on the ground. At the same time, we also want to reduce collateral damage from the crisis. On energy, agree with Alok, we need to see how we can step up on the transition towards renewable sources of energy and continue to push on to address climate challenge. And stepping up was a big part of what we saw back in November at COP26. Alec, obviously, is a big part of your existence for the past many years. And I'm sure with the conclusion of the Glasgow Climate Pack being signed on and the 1.5C warming target within reach, we know there was a lot of involvement from the public and private sector. But what I'd like to ask you is, for you, what was the role of businesses? And how did businesses contribute to that Glasgow Climate Pack? Yes, Samantha, I mean, the Glasgow Climate Pack, I mean, I do think it was a historic achievement. I mean, even in a pretty fractured world last year, it's obviously got worse this year. But even in a pretty fractured world last year, we managed to get consensus with almost 200 countries signing up to a really strong set of commitments. The issue now, of course, is to push forward and make sure those commitments turn into delivery and action. But I do think COP26 in Glasgow was one of the first cops where there was a big focus on business. We had lots of the business community coming together. And I think the reason for this is because we have got to that inflection point where governments, businesses, society effectively are singing from the same hymn sheet. They understand why it's important that you need to take care of the climate and the environment at the same time as your championing growth. And that's why green growth is a big, big trend. Net Zero is a big, big trend right now. And if you look at some of the commitments that the business has made, we were running campaigns on clean energy. We were running campaigns on stopping deforestation. We were running campaigns on zero emission vehicles. And in all of those areas, we had some significant signups from business. So we had 54 businesses and investors, big businesses and investors, car manufacturers signing up to the Glasgow Declaration on Zero Emission Cars and Vans. And basically what they were signing up to was ending the sale of ICE vehicles in 2035 in the big leading markets and 2040 in other markets. We had commitments made by companies in terms of addressing the issue of deforestation. And we also had a significant number of big financial institutions signing up to the Powering Pass Coal Alliance. But I think one of the biggest announcements from business was the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero. So $130 trillion of assets signing up to go to Net Zero by 2050. I mean, that is absolutely huge. I think that will grow. And I think that is the kind of the direction of travel. And so I do think business played a big, big role in terms of the momentum at COP. And last year, I visited almost 40 countries. I spent a lot of time talking to governments, but also to businesses. And I can tell you that there are countries across the world where business is leading government on this clean growth agenda. And that's something that we need to see happening more and more. Because ultimately it is going to require the real economy to help deliver on the commitments that were made in Glasgow. And I think delivering on these commitments and making them is obviously something that continues to make headline news. And it's very encouraging to see this happening. But I think when we talk to friends and family who may not be in this, who may not be in these industries, may not be in government, they think, wow, 2050. That's really far. Like that seems like a long time in the future. So, Gimwe, coming to you, what do you think needs to be done to deliver a meaningful decarbonization like this decade? Because you have to lay the foundation now for 2050. And I think there's a lot of activities that maybe people just don't know is currently happening. And I would agree that the first steps have been made. It's an important one, the long-term commitment. And really now it's translating ambition to action. But before I get into the detail, I do want to congratulate Alok and his team. Because I think Glasgow did very successful mobilized. The corporate and business finance industries to engage governments, to push for bolder commitments, they themselves are also organizing efforts bottom up to drive towards net zero. From an optimist point of view, I would say that right now the glass is 20% full. Lots more to do. And really is to map out action plans. Reduce, how do we continue to cut emissions? Replace, how do we continue to invest into new sources of energy, new technologies, innovations to support energy transition, but also to restore, conserve, and carbon sinks in nature, both on land and in water. Every company, every industry group, governments will need to map out their own action and deliverables. And the more clarity they can have on the immediate actions to be taken, I think the faster they can get to where they need to be 10, 15, 30 years from now. And I know one of the things that the forum did was the first Movers Coalition. And that was all about creating the market demand now to create the investment now so that the technologies can be developed so that way you can then test them and then use them. It's not an overnight thing. So it's definitely a very impressive thing that was mobilized for COP26. But I mean, you touched a little bit about the finance and you've come to the forum from a previous career in finance. So staying with you, tell us what do you think are some of the key actions within the finance world that need to happen this year? How do we protect the climate and the communities that are most vulnerable to some of the changes that are happening because of climate change? Yeah. So ESG is quite well understood among financial players. And ESG stands for Environment, Social, Governance Issue. It's quite well integrated into operations of financial players. But it's still more regarded as a compliance area. The question is whether or not we can get the financial industry to also start looking at investing into ESG opportunities. So they need to find that sweet spot and ideally grow it where people, planet, and profit can jointly prosper. These opportunities exist, but we need to put some spotlight on it and continue to push for growth in this area. The second thing that I want to highlight is really the notion of a green premium. So CEOs have told us that today, you don't really command a significant price premium for green goods and services. And the analogy that I would draw is for tech companies, they do command a premium when they are tech enabled. Can we actually do the same for companies that are actually going green or contributing significantly to the climate transition? If you think about carbon pricing, the World Bank, IPCC have spoken about how you need at least carbon price to be $80 and above for us to get to a 2 degree, 1.5 degree pathway. So to a large extent, we are still not fully pricing in the cost of carbon emissions. And I think one of the things we need to do collectively is think about how we can price in and provide a premium for green. The forum is quite well known for its global risk report. Every year we publish a report, and every year the same three risks are flagged out, climate change, biodiversity loss, ecosystem collapse, and extreme weather events. And these have been flagged out as the top risks among business government leaders. The question is, are we actually pricing in well the risks in each of these areas? Because if we are, then really companies who are best able to mitigate the risk should become the winners of tomorrow, business winners of tomorrow. And Alec, over to you next within the finance questioning we have here, you greatly increased the amount of climate finance going to developed countries. However, there's still been reports that there is this gap in the financing required for developing in low income countries that they need to be able to balance economic growth with the transition to net zero. So what's the role of the private sector in helping to close this gap? Yeah, Amanda, if I may just go back very briefly to an earlier really important point you made, which is that we talk about net zero by the middle of the century, by 2050, that is some way off. But of course, what we have also got is commitments from countries in terms of how they will cut their emissions by 2030. And in the UK, we have a very ambitious plan to cut emissions by 68% by 2030 our nationally determined contribution. And one of the things that all countries agreed to do was to look again at their 2030 emission reduction targets and come back by the end of this year if necessary to see that those are then aligned with the Paris temperature goals. And so, I mean, the reason I say that is that this issue of, you're talking about 2050 but actually what matters is what you do by 2030 and 2035 and moving forward. So that is something that we, of course, this year are pushing forward countries to come forward with more ambition. On the point about finance, you are absolutely right. I mean, there are lots of commitments that are made by governments, but I think we have to understand that ultimately, a lot of that is going to require finance to deliver it. And yes, we got commitments in Glasgow. So, ahead of Glasgow, we set out a climate finance delivery plan which is basically showing how developed countries collectively will get to that $100 billion year goal that was set a long time ago was due to be delivered by 2020. I think we accept that it's unlikely to be delivered in 2020. I mean, that report will be produced by the OECD so we will see where we come out. But what we did manage to do was to get commitments which show that, and I think with some credibility actually that over the years 2021 to 2025 around half a trillion will be mobilized from developed countries to support developing nations. And the other thing that we agreed at COP is that developed countries will double the amount of money they put into adaptation by 2025. And that is a particularly acute issue for many countries which are on the front line of climate change but actually are not responsible for creating any meaningful emissions at all. But this is where the private sector is going to be so important. So, one of the things that we also announced at COP26 was a just energy transition partnership for South Africa, $8.5 billion initially to support South Africa to support SCOM with the move away from coal towards clean energy. And last week I co-chaired a meeting with our German minister of colleague on bringing together the G7, bringing together the multilateral development banks, bringing together the private sector to see how we might be able to support, collectively, other countries as well, developing nations to make a clean energy transition. So, the reality is that none of this is going to be possible until and unless we're able to deploy private money and that's what we are looking to do. And actually the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero has a strand of work where they're doing precisely that, looking to see how all these trillions that have been committed to Net Zero by 2050, how do you mobilize that money into developing countries? And I do think actually the MDBs, the multilateral development banks, have a key role to play here as well, looking for instance to establish first loss capabilities behind which the private sector can then come in and invest as well. So, yeah, there's a lot of work going on. I hope by the time we get to Sharnel shake, we can show some more country deals in the same way that we had for South Africa, but there's a lot of hard work ahead and ultimately to deliver on all of this, it does require finance. And let's turn to some of that hard work ahead. COP 27, we're about halfway there. I think a lot of questions that have come up have been around leadership, the bold leadership that's needed from public and private sector to really move things forward and we're seeing a lot of this, people are calling and urging their leaders to say, hey, we're behind you, like we're ready to go, tell us what to do. So, Alec, kind of turning to you, you're the president of the COP, what's your advice to CEOs, to heads of states, to heads of NGOs, are there specific qualities for climate leaders that we need in today's world? Yes, I think first you mentioned Egypt and of course they have the presidency for COP 27, Sharm el-Shague is, as you said, a number of months away now. We're working closely with our Egyptian partners on this agenda because obviously a lot of what we've got of the line in Glasgow then has to be delivered at COP 27, but then also beyond that, there's a whole range of work programs that are taking place. And that work is vital. Clearly every COP then is a stepping stone for the next COP. So we very much hope that we will see more progress in Sharm el-Shague. Look, I mean, I always hesitate from telling people how they ought to lead. I mean, let me give you my own experience from COP 26, which is that this was the first COP that I had ever been to. I'm not at least historically a sort of climate warrior. My own background is banking. I was our business and energy minister when I took on this role full-time. The one thing that I felt was incredibly important as part of this process was to build consensus. And that's why my team engaged with countries all around the world. It's why, for me, it was so important to visit as many countries as possible last year. As I said, I visited almost 40 countries over the eight, nine month period. And it was about listening, because I think there are countries which are in different positions here. There are those developed nations. There are those sort of developing nations which want to grow. And one of the recognitions, I think, that we have to have is that you cannot say to a developing country that, I'm sorry, you must curb your growth because that is somehow going to keep emissions down. I think the answer is to support countries with green growth. I mean, if I give you a statistic from the UK, over the last 30 years, we've managed to grow our economy, our GDP, around 80%. And yet we've also cut emissions by 40%. So I think supporting countries is going to be really vitally important. And as I said, from a leadership point of view, it is about listening and building consensus as a co-presidency. That's something that we sought to do. And I think those who watched COP26 will have seen that the final few hours were actually pretty tense. And the reason that we were able to get this historic deal over the line is because we had collectively with other countries built the trust over the last two years. And just in terms of businesses, what I would say is that, please walk the walk, right? You're making commitments. Make sure you deliver on them, work with your suppliers, and actually give the message to governments around the world that business is willing to lead. And frankly, if business is saying that to governments, you're gonna get much more progress with governments also then deciding that the business is behind them in this green growth agenda. Yeah, I think, you know, business is saying, well, it is what it is, it's not gonna fly anymore. I think people are actually gonna start saying, okay, well, let's go. We know you do, you know, going green is good for business. And we know that, you know, Zebras can change their spots. People who said one thing one day have decided, you know, we're all in. We realize this is good for business. We can move forward and it's good for our partners and members and everything. So, Gimwe, I know you've addressed climate and sustainability in a number of angles throughout your career. You know, what's your advice to some leaders out there? Maybe there are people, you know, in the tech sphere or in crypto or in, you know, traditional business or in NGOs. What would be some of your advice to them for the next stages? I think first we have to be optimistic. We have to dare to dream of a better future for ourselves. You know, I was speaking to some scientists from the polls. Working in the North and South Pole is difficult for them and they speak about the eco-entuousness, right? And I think this is also quite pervasive among corporate executives, public sector leaders, right? Especially those dealing with climate sustainability issues. The challenge is immense, it's highly complex. But I think in situations such as this, we also need to maintain a very healthy state of mind, right, dare to dream and to, so that we are in a good position to deal with the issues, right? And to take it a step at a time in a good direction, right? We want to take care of the environment but this transition path is a journey, right? We also need to take care of our lives, livelihoods, jobs at the same time, right? So there are many things that we're trying to solve but we just need to be directionally moving and ideally accelerating as we move. The second thing that I would highlight is that I think this is also a moment to harness innovation. I mean, the human being has a huge capacity to innovate, especially in times of critical challenges. Within the forum, we've actually launched an open-source platform called Uplink that actually allows innovators to, we crowd-source ideas from innovators from solving problems of plastic waste to reforestation efforts. In fact, just yesterday, we announced the winners in India where we had launched a trillion tree challenge. And the innovations came in all form, right? From simple ideas to recycling agricultural waste to into packaging material to scientific ones where you can actually use fungi to bind the roots of plants, to enhance a plant-neutron intake, which is also a good form of carbon storage. So what we really want to do is to launch a bit of an eco-pruner revolution, right? Use that energy to want to make things happen into something very positive for ourselves, right? The last thing is that I think at moments like this, we also need to continue to build partnerships. It is a global challenge. None of us can do it alone, and we are much stronger together, right? We have convened various communities, highly committed to climate action, the youth global leaders, CEO, climate leader, champions, friends of nature, friends of ocean, so and so forth, right? And right now, we are also starting to look at how we can engage the regions, right? Regional stakeholders and partners who would actually be closer to the ground and they can help drive execution and success stories. And the other area is also how we can actually continue to convene closed-door conversations where we can talk about difficult issues, and address them on a sectoral basis. One of the most recent dialogues we've launched is around the oceans, ocean 100 dialogues, right? To create spaces for companies engaged in the maritime, shipping industries to discuss, and work together to build a future together. Well, I'd like to thank both of my guests, Alex Sharma. Thank you for joining us from London. Kim Hoi Nio, thank you for joining us here in the studio in Geneva. And thank you to our audience. It's been a pleasure and we hope that you've enjoyed this special edition of our Agenda Dialogue series.