16 June 2021, New York City -- UN Secretary-General António Guterres was joined by Heads of State and dozens of Chief Executive Officers and UN Chiefs at this year’s United Nations Global Compact Leaders Summit to address the converging crises of climate change, the COVID-19 pandemic, worsening social and economic inequality and unchecked corruption in order to offer a roadmap for a sustainable recovery.
Opening the Summit, UN Secretary-General António Guterres and Chair of the Board of the UN Global Compact remarked: “Only through global cooperation at an unprecedented level can we build back from the pandemic, get on track to achieve the SDGs and avert the worst impacts of climate change. Business has a central role to play. Your efforts and leadership can lift the entire world. But you need to embrace transformational change. In every sector, a much deeper, faster and more ambitious response is needed to unleash the social and economic changes demanded by the 2030 Agenda and the Paris Agreement on climate change.”
Delivering a keynote address at the Leaders Summit, President Halimah Yacob emphasised the need to accelerate action on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and outlined three key strategies that Singapore is adopting to help companies and workers transition to the green economy.
“Helping companies and workers transition to the green economy will be key to how they, being a major player in the ecosystem, can play a role in the achievement of the 2030 Agenda,” said President Halimah.
“Singapore, for its part, will continue to fully support the efforts of the UN Global Compact and its local chapters, including the UN Global Compact Network Singapore,” she added.
Over 26 hours of continuous virtual programming -- including more than 100 global, regional and local sessions - leaders from business, civil society, governments and the UN reflected on the importance of collaboration and public-private partnerships and pledged to increase their ambition to achieve the SDGs and accelerate climate action.
In a series of sessions under the banner “Elevating Ambition for Corporate Action” the UN Global Compact’s new strategic plan for the next three years was launched to galvanise bold, rapid progress on sustainability through business transformation. It calls for enhanced corporate accountability, including cutting carbon emissions in line with a pathway to net-zero by mid-century and envisions regionally-balanced growth of the UN Global Compact network. It also enables greater flexibility for business action at the local level, with companies adapting to each country’s unique context as well as seeking to harness the energy of small and medium-sized enterprises as the foundation of national and local economies. And it promotes stronger business engagement with UN partners, including partnerships to finance the 2030 Agenda.
During the plenary session “Financing the 2030 Agenda and the Paris Agreement” which explored how linking “ESG” to meaningful corporate sustainability action will benefit investors and companies, the UN Global Compact CFO Taskforce committed to key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure their progress towards the implementation of the CFO Principles on Integrated SDG Investment and Finance.
UN Global Compact Network Singapore, the local chapter of the UN Global Compact, contributed to two sessions centring around partnerships and post-pandemic business strategies for building more inclusive and sustainable societies:
SDG Ambitions: Mobilising Ambitious Corporate Actions Towards The Global Goals
- H.E Erick Thohir, Minister of State-owned Enterprises of the Republic of Indonesia
- Sabin Aboitiz, Aboitiz Equity Ventures Inc., Philippines
- Anna Ho, Vena Energy, Singapore
- Ho Ren Hua, Thai Wah Public Company Limited, Thailand
- Sheue Yann Wong, EcoWorld Development Group, Malaysia
- Jurgen Coppens, Accenture Strategy South-East Asia
Strategic Partnerships For Sustainable SMEs
- Gavin Chua, SGTech Singapore
- Amam Sukriyanto, PT Bank Rakyat Indonesia (Persero) Tbk, Indonesia
- Wilson Low, Wilstech Sdn Bhd, Malaysia
- Mohammed Zahidullah, DBL Group, Bangladesh
- Marc Proksch, UNESCAP
The UN Global Compact Leaders Summit also recognised the work of ten “2021 SDG Pioneers” who are doing an exceptional job to advance the SDGs through the implementation of the UN Global Compact Ten Principles on human rights, environment, labor and anti-corruption.
Article reprinted from:https://unglobalcompact.sg/news-details?id=0d5b40bb-2884-4cf0-8ef0-2cd48fe9709c