Leaders from the public, private, and civic sectors urged companies to integrate sustainability in business and industry operations and help pursue low carbon and climate-resilient development while recovering from the coronavirus pandemic.
In the The Nexus of Climate Change and Sustainable Development webinar held on October 21, sector leaders discussed and started to build the case for a climate-resilient development beyond the public health emergency.
Featured leaders include Kenneth Berlin, president and CEO of The Climate Reality Project (TCRP); Nazrin Castro, branch manager of TCRP Philippines; Rachel Herrera, Commissioner of the Climate Change Commission (CCC); Lorenzo Guinto, chief planetary doctor of PH Lab; and Toby Melissa Monsod, a professor at the University of the Philippines (UP) School of Economics.
Pedro Maniego Jr., a fellow and trustee of the Institute of Corporate Directors (ICD), moderated the webinar.
Berlin expressed how climate change presents significant risks to businesses, such as frequent extreme weather events, leading to mounting economic losses, direct damage to facilities, difficulties to transporting goods, and closing of markets.
"Despite these risks, national and global efforts will create massive opportunity that will translate to economic growth and job transitions. Recent studies suggest that transition to low carbon and sustainable economy could deliver direct economic gains of 26 trillion US dollars to 2030, compared to business-as-usual," he said.
Castro cited TCRP’s mission of catalyzing a global and urgent solution to the climate crisis and accelerating the shift to renewables through their robust network of leaders across the world.
"Climate action is not just about making sacrifices, but much more so on taking the opportunities to reach new heights. It is recognizing that, as leaders in our respective fields, we have the ability and even the obligation to reimagine and actually pursue what is right and better for our future,” Castro said.
Herrera meanwhile provided global and national context on the progress of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, as prescribed in the Paris Agreement, as well as stressed that the government cannot push for low carbon and climate-resilient development alone.
"Private sector brings in the capital and know-how on technology. And it is in developing countries where there is most opportunity for investments. Let our investments be competitive not just from a business perspective, but also from a carbon perspective. Let’s look beyond the pandemic and invest on climate resilience," she said.
On the linkage of health and climate change, Guinto noted the impacts such as the rise of cases in cardiovascular, infectious, and respiratory diseases, stressing that the causes of air pollution are the same culprits of climate change—such as vehicles, power plants, and factories from the burning of fossil fuels and emission of noxious gases.
"Climate change does not stop, while COVID-19 is in action. We need to address together. We need a health system that is universal, high-value, pandemic-resistant, and climate-smart. Our patients now are not just the people, but the planet as well," Guinto said.
For Monsod, the pandemic laid bare glaring gaps in our ability to withstand physical shocks, and that like the pandemic, climate risk is a physical shock that translates into an array of grave socio-economic impacts.
"Ignoring these gaps and assuming the economy can simply start where it left off would be as foolish as rebuilding a fallen structure in the same hazardous location, using the same plans and materials, and thinking the structure will not collapse the next time around,” she said.
"Resilience spending can be a stimulus, but stimulus spending may not contribute to resilience. Greater resilience means attention to vulnerabilities in the real economy and in relevant institutions. For firms, it means a pivot away from the traditional shareholder-centric model of governance to a richer model that puts health and resilience of the company at its center," she added.