 Good afternoon from an overcast Washington and good evening from virtual Davos. I'm Ishan Thirur, Foreign Affairs columnist at the Washington Post and anchor of today's worldview, the Post's daily column on global politics. I'm really delighted to be moderating what is an essential discussion on tackling inequality in the decade of action as part of the forum's Sustainable Development Impact Summit. Today you heard President Biden speaking at the UN General Assembly warning that we now live in a decisive decade and for his part he and other wealthy and he and other leaders from wealthy governments are pressing a head on action around climate change as well as action on the pandemic and the spread of vaccines. But what we've seen over the past year and a half in the middle of the pandemic is that even when the international community, governments, the public sector, private sector come together to rally around global crises, many of the solutions don't yield fully sustainable or inclusive solutions. So I'm here today joined by a terrific panel of public and private practitioners to talk through how we can tackle, as the title says of the panel, the inequities that we're seeing exposed by not just to say the spread of the pandemic or the spread of climate change, but our responses to it. So I'm joined by, first but not least, Gabriel Rucher, Executive Director of Oxfam, Aaron Kramer, then Chief Executive Officer of Business for Social Responsibility or BSR, Peter Lacy, Chief Responsibility Officer and Global Sustainability Services Lead for Accenture and Aditya Mahapatra, Vice President for Global Social Impact and Sustainability at the Expedia Group. Gabriela, I'd like to start with you. You and I spoke at the forum almost, I guess, in this year, but in January at a slightly different stage of the pandemic. And we looked rather gloomily ahead at some of the challenges facing the world and the inequities that the pandemic exposed in societies across the world's continents. Where are we now since that moment in January? What have you seen in terms of the course of the recovery and how the recovery is played out? And what are the other kinds of fissures and social inequities that are widening that you are worried about? Thanks, Yishan. So it's great to be here and to connect again, as you say, after I think it's been seven, eight months since we last had this opportunity. And yes, before all, I want to say that what we've gone through now a year and a half of this pandemic and this common experience in humanity is a real chance for change that we really haven't seen in a very long time in a generation. So it's the wake up call, not just in poor countries, but now everywhere, that the climate crisis is really here. And we heard it from the people on the video in the introductory video, but also increasingly recognition that the market on its own will not save your livelihood or your life in the middle of a pandemic, but government can. So these are paradigm shifts and they really offer us hope. And I still have that hope because I think we need to translate that thinking and that realization into real policy change, not just go back to the ideas that made us so insecure in the first place. So and that was the kind of spirit that was seen at the end of World War 2 that took on solidarity and really brought the richest, made people's rights and really shared prosperity at the time, transforming how things had been dealt with before. So that means three things at the common at this moment in time. First, it has to mean that we take on extreme wealth in our economy. So billionaire wealth has shot up more over the past 17 months than it has in the past 15 years. While at the same time hundreds of millions have fallen into poverty. So this is really alarming and such extreme inequality is of course not good for poverty reduction for social cohesion and for anybody. And it's definitely not good for democracy. So we need to really think of a range of tools to begin to radically shift course and fund a recovery that starts with taxing capital and wealth and to really reduce this extreme inequality. Every large corporation needs to be paying the fair share of tax in every country. After World War 2, Roosevelt insured corporations paid between 40 and 50% tax rates and that stayed on for decades because there was public support for that policy. And I think that should be our ambition now. This year we could see a historic tax deal but it will only really be historic if we get the global minimum tax rate not in line with tax havens where it is at the moment but really at least 25%. And second, it's very important that we don't treat the inequality and climate crisis as separate but really it's one crisis that is intertwined. Our economy is one where the richest 1% of humanity use double the carbon of the poorest 50% who in turn are hit hardest by climate change. So we have to bring down the emissions of the richest to stand a chance of defeating climate change. And we need not just vague net zero promises from governments and corporations that can pass on the buck for reducing emissions to others but real zero targets that drastically cut emissions and pace out fossil fuels and then invest in clean energy and supply chains. And the third is yes we're all beginning to talk about recovery but the reality is that we have rich governments whose decisions are prolonged in the pandemic. So the current model of defending the big pharmaceutical monopolies is keeping billions excluded from vaccine supply. So the result is thousands of people each day are dying whose lives could have been saved by a vaccine but it is also sustaining the virus and all the consequences that it has had on people's lives. So if we want to talk recovery we need to waive the patents and make a people's vaccine available for everyone. Thank you. Thank you Gabriella. That is a rather ambitious and significant set of proposals from new stringent corporate tax rates to recognizing the need for certain private international property protections to be waived so that we can help poorer countries develop their own vaccine and boost the spread of the vaccines. These are huge political questions. I turn to you to talk a bit more here in Washington of course some of this some of what Gabriella laid out in terms of raising taxes and figuring out how to spread vaccines and so forth are very much on the docket here in Washington the Democrats. The Biden administration are trying to push through some pretty significant tax reforms. We'll see whether they're actually able to but could you talk a bit about how you've seen this past year with this administration and its approach to some of these major issues around reckoning with climate change around building a more sustainable recovery in the pandemic as well as of course in your field how it intersects with your reading of the corporate sector and the kind of public-private partnerships that can emerge. Thank you Sean. Excuse me. Well you know the interesting and maybe troubling thing is even if we weren't dealing with the global pandemic we would we were already dealing with some very profound changes and challenges so certainly the climate crisis structural inequality in in really every country around the world and technological change that is coming so fast that even as it enables us to do lots of exciting things it also presents some pretty big challenges and that's all against the landscape of significant generational change decline in in democratic institutions and processes and business model disruption that is happening very very rapidly so the agenda is a very significant one. A lot of these things also are interlocking challenges and I think that is both the problem but also may lead the way to the solution so 230 editors in chief of major medical journals just a couple of weeks ago issued a joint call saying that the climate crisis was the number one public health problem facing humanity. When that comes out an unprecedented collaboration in the middle of a global pandemic I think that speaks very loudly about the fact that climate change is a human issue it is an economic issue and it's one that affects our well-being in very very substantial ways so that does seem like it is a big set of so-called wicked problems but in fact I think that is partly also the pathway to the answer so Gabriella spoke of some of the innovations that took place after world war two and I think we're at a similar moment we are present at the creation if you will of a new set of solutions and in our view something that is relevant both for policymakers and also for the private sector is the urgent need to create a modernized social contract that will enable people to thrive communities to thrive and be represented in policy processes and economic activity and for national economies and the global economy to create enable prosperity enable innovation while also reducing the inequity the inequality that is plaguing us on both a human level and an economic level and so I think some of the policy steps being debated in Washington are they represent generational change they really cannot be overstated it's a very profound set of changes the European Union's undertaking similar steps I think the time is right to do that and business often dislikes that kind of activity I actually think that it is far and away in the interest of business to call for action on some of these questions and we've seen a number of businesses advocate for greater racial equity for decisive climate action and and even for tax fairness and that is I think the north star is a new social contract that maybe borrows from the spirit of the post-war world but creates a model that is the one we need for the 21st century if I can press you just a little bit further on that I mean this idea of a modernized social contract incredibly important incredibly compelling can it emerge without structural political reforms and significant structural political reforms well we could talk at great length about the dysfunction of our democratic processes which I think both are about structural challenges you know we see in the United States a minority of voters has selected a president more than once in the last five elections six elections so there's clearly an issue there and I think obviously the interference with democratic processes born of some of the the technologies that we otherwise rely upon and and like quite a lot these are profound challenges so yes political reform is absolutely essential there's no doubt about it in the United States campaign finance leads to all sorts of distortions and inequities so absolutely yes but I also think that even with the structures we have if the political will is there amongst elected officials if the business community speaks out about the need to create the kinds of policies that will enable innovation will enable transparency will enable market rules and incentives to point towards long-term value creation I think we would make it an immense amount of progress so let's let's shift them to the business community I did the you are at Expedia a company that of course must have had an incredibly interesting and probably difficult experience of the pandemic what lessons has have you learned in terms of the work you are doing both within the company and without in terms of of you know what a major player like Expedia can do on the world stage of course there is a parallel and it's probably a second question about climate change because of course global travel is a part of the climate problem and perhaps it can be part of the climate solution yeah absolutely thank you so much for having me here and very happy to speak a little bit about the work that Expedia has been doing and realizing I'm at this moment I think everyone called it a wake-up call and both of these confounding crises are absolutely wake-up calls for the travel industry they're impacting the travel industry in real deep and profound ways first and foremost with the COVID crisis it is something that we are of course you know very much impacted by all aspects of our business has been and it's one where we see a near-term solution vaccines right and we want to make sure that all the world has the access to the vaccines that we have in our communities here we've kicked off a campaign over the last month which is called give the world a shot where we are really working on getting more vaccines to countries in need in partnership with UNICEF we've raised about 10.6 million dollars to give to UNICEF to help with vaccine distribution in in countries that are in need beyond that we've issued a call to action to our corporate sector peers to get involved in this it seems to be an issue that not enough companies are paying attention to and we know we all can't come back until the world is vaccinated right this is an issue that really does require all of us be paying attention and all of us to be activated around it so we've issued a call to action of course the travel industry can't address this alone it is very much material to us but it is one that we want the rest of our corporate partners to also be paying close attention to beyond that on climate change of course this is something that's also very much present for us on a daily basis the destinations that we serve where we send our travelers to are every day impacted by the climate crisis of course beach towns are eroding we have ski resorts that don't have any snow we have fires overtaking lots of different communities so in every which way that especially the physical impacts of climate change are having a tremendous disruption to the destinations that we serve and underneath those destinations in that physical kind of manifestation is really the communities who are really reliant on tourism and travel for their livelihoods travel and tourism represents one in ten jobs globally in many nations it represents 30 percent of GDP in the Caribbean it's 30 percent of of employment and so we're looking really hard at how we can partner with some of the small and medium-sized businesses that exist in these communities using a lens of equity first and foremost really trying to get in there and to understand who is really underserved in these communities how can we partner what are their needs and really centering the solutions that they identify in the kinds of tools that we can bring to really partner with them over the long term and help them build more resilient businesses to withstand what we know is coming ahead. Peter if I could quickly turn to you uh you are chief responsibility officer at Accenture and as we talk about finding equitable and inclusive solutions to a range of social crises whether it's the pandemic or climate change so forth what responsibilities do businesses and major companies like yours have for modeling that kind of inclusion and sustainability in their own right and in their own internal functionings? Well I think um well first of all thank you very much for the invitation I can't think of a more important topic to be discussing right now um at the convergence of a number of the different forces that uh I think that others in the panel have already laid out um I think the direct answer to your question is that there is an enormous obligation on business to ensure that the way that they think about their core purpose the way that they think about their vision their strategy their operations their value chains um are positively contributing to tackling inequalities to tackling inequalities of different types but also to tackle directly the sustainable development goals which are I think um while of course always imperfect are the best roadmap that we have to tackling sustainable development in its true integrated sense including um poverty alleviation including eradicating hunger including good jobs including tackling that in the context of climate change uh and broader environmental sets of issues so I think that is my starting point our starting point and the twist I would give it is Shan would be on the one hand you can see it as a moral obligation and I think many of us would see it as a moral obligation as part of what it means to be a successful business in successful societies on the other hand and you can sort of see I keep it behind me the SDGs as the picture behind me I keep it there for a very specific reason I think it is the world's first ever um and most extensively codified innovation roadmap for markets and business over the next decade arguably it takes place or it has been created in parallel to the first time that we have ever been as conscious and Aaron mentioned this in terms of technology in the incredible pace of technology it takes it takes place against the backdrop of a world that is very conscious of going through a fourth industrial revolution breakthroughs in science in engineering that have been creating possibilities in new business models that were simply unthinkable even five ten years ago and changing the cost base of everything from digital technologies to bank the unbanked to opening up new forms of entrepreneurship new shifts from products to services so you take those two things together we have this incredible codified innovation roadmap the Paris goals and the SDGs we have this incredible you know once a century once every 50 years industrial revolution taking place and the job of businesses should be to incorporate that into their strategies to drive their own competitiveness while being able to measure the impact that they have on things like inequality now what I will say is shown that you know just a couple of thoughts just to stimulate debate every three years for the last 14 years 15 years I've led the world's largest study of CEOs on sustainability for the UN secretary general for three of the secretary generals now in a row and in this particular study which will be released in well the next week I think at the UN GA we you know we were made a very specific effort under the new executive director Sandoj Ambo to look at what CEOs in the global south were saying around some of the themes like inequality and business tackling inequality and and I think it's not all good news twice as many CEOs from the global south as the global north have told us over the and this is a thousand CEOs 426 from the global south have told us that the pandemic has had a significant negative impact on their agility to address sustainable development in their core businesses 39 percent of CEOs from the global south have said that their company's budget for tackling sustainability initiatives quite understandably has been reduced as a comparatively only 24 percent in the global north said the same and so I think it's incredibly important to realize that not only is it important for us to all to see the SDGs as an innovation roadmap to see Paris as an innovation roadmap to incorporate that into our businesses but to be very clear that the pandemic has not had an even impact around the world it has massively disadvantaged and potentially slowed the potential for investment which is why I come back to the intersection that a number of different speakers have made with climate change and with tackling carbon emissions and with the upcoming Glasgow summit in just a few weeks now I mean hardly even months and why it is so important that if we want to tackle inequality structurally and we want to tackle the incredible challenge of adaptation or to mitigate where we have the greatest impact and create new jobs new markets new growth we are going to have to make absolutely sure that the delivery of the hundred billion dollar climate finance commitment mobilized through public and private interventions takes place that is an absolute necessity that must come out of COP and many businesses that we've spoken to have said the same thing and we must look at how the next nine years combines the public and private sector investments in things like the digital revolution and the fourth industrial revolution and arcs that curve towards tackling sustainability in the form of climate change which will exacerbate many of those inequalities and directly inequality because there simply isn't the capital I mean the UN and Bank of America estimate more than six trillion a year needed every year to deliver the sustainable development goals and we are missing it every year at the moment and so I think all these issues come together and become incredibly important that business has a very loud and clear voice about what it expects at COP as well as other forces and other actors. Peter thanks for that you really put a lot of things together for us and we're really very close to running out of time but I'd like to just pick up from there and then quickly turn to the rest of the panel Gabriela Aaron and Aditi if you can offer a couple of 30 second closing thoughts based on your sitting on based on where you are sitting in your perch what has the experience of the how is it informed your view on how that how we tackle the much broader issue of the climate. Let's start with you Gabriela since you raised it in your opening remark. Yeah so very quickly I would say we have seen what is possible as we come together and the role of the state so I think for business it means paying taxes paying workers a living wage and really committing to cutting emissions and not focusing on net zero in terms of of passing the buck and in terms of the pandemic at the moment is really to think how we make the vaccine a global good by waiving intellectual property rights so that is something that needs to be in place for a moment such as a pandemic and I think again we can have exceptional measures that address the climate crisis because we already know we can do it collectively so I have hope. It's a great note Aaron what do you think? Well I won't recite all of the difficult things we've experienced let me point to three positives the first is the rise of ESG investing is flowing a lot of very serious money into a different kind of economy that's been arguably the brightest spot over the last 18 months number two boards of directors are paying significantly more attention to climate to structural racism another range of and and and other issues and the third flowing from that is businesses are finally starting to understand that it's essential that they create resilient business strategies that embrace all of the social and environmental change that we're experiencing and designing businesses that make a positive impact outward for society and help them withstand the kinds of shocks that we may well experience again. And I think she should close us out now since we're now over time but it's been a really we should go on for so much longer. Sure so I think you know the the most optimistic parts are definitely the cooperation and the partnership we know it's necessary for the global pandemic particularly around vaccinations now we know we all have to work together similarly on climate change it will take the same kind of spirit and unity and we need to just make sure that we continue to put people at the center. Climate change is obviously an incredibly challenging and complex problem and the people and solutions that really address the impacts on people really need to be at the center of it. Well great thank you to Gabriella Aaron Aditi and Peter this has been a tremendous start to a conversation we could take it like so many other conversations hosted by the forum we could it could be an extended one that we'll hopefully keep having offline on top link on social media thank you all for joining us and hope to speak to you soon take care