When you're on the road to hell, leap...

"On the road to hell"...

This is a phrase one might expect to hear in a country-folk or heavy metal song-- accompanied by a fitting guitar solo, naturally.

But last week in Geneva, the diplomatic capital of Switzerland, this very undiplomatic sentiment was being catapaulted from the centre stage of the Building Bridges conference towards an audience of public and private sector leaders--a group of individuals who, between them, represent trillions of dollars of capital and investments globally.

Sandrine Dixson-Declève , Co-President for The Club of Rome (an organisation of individuals who share a common concern for the future of humanity and strive to make a difference) presented the assembly with two options for the world's, and humanity's, future. Either we continue to make limited, incremental changes while the world boils, or we can take a great leap.

What exactly does such a leap look like? especially when your starting point is hell?

Simply put, 15 MVPs (Minimum Viable Products), one for each of the United Nations 's Sustainability Development Goals--15 solutions which could not just budge the needle but catapault it into the green zone of the relevant assessment metric.

And what would this new world look like?

1. Poverty could end a generation sooner through better healthcare and education, financed by a redistribution of wealth within countries but also from the Global North to the Global South
2. Gender Equality could be achieved within the next generation (not the next 10 as currently predicted)
3. A transformed food system could feed humanity without depleting and destroying the planet's limited resources in the process
4. A clean energy model would power and sustain this planet and its people

We have 80% of the solutions already ( Paul Polman , ex- 联合利华 CEO) which is already a fantastic start. What we are lacking is the will to leap.

We must reach more tipping points, faster. We must move from first gear into second, and from second directly into fifth. Because we have now reached the point where the cost of not acting is more costly than acting, than funding any difficult transition.

This is the biggest opportunity for mankind--bigger than the industrial revolution was. But it must be delivered faster than the technology revolution was.

Financing change, not changing finance

Change is needed, and urgently. But this requires two things: money and collaboration.

Forget Milton's capitalism and competitive models. Try cooperative collaboration. Companies (and governments) that partner together will not only achieve better efficiencies and economies of scale, they will see better returns while not destroying their futures in the process. Because when we work together we share risks and create more opportunities for growth.

But what about the money? Between Covid and inflation, there doesn't seem to be anything left.

Look at this way. World governments spent $17 trillion on managing COVID when the annual global cost to protect bioversity (a contributing factor the virus's genesis) is only $350 billion--just 2% of that emergency figure.

We are losing $3-$4 trillion a year by not transitioning our energy models to clean(er) energy, by subsidising fossil fuels and then cleaning up after them.

In a world where half the people are obese and the other half are starving, $12 trillion is the cost of a broken and wasteful food-generating system.

The money is there... it's just being spent on the wrong things. It takes great will at the government and the boardroom level to "do the right thing" for the future, even if its cost is your short-term political or corporate welfare.

We can continue to develop solutions like the recent 联合国儿童基金会 / WTW partnership which insures at-risk communities affected by climate change.

We can find retrofit solutions like converting existing gas-powered cars into electric vehicles ( UAE Independent Climate Change Accelerators ).

We can continue to plant more forests like famous photographer Sebasti?o Salgado has done in Brazil (millions of trees over 20 years).

But we need greater leaps.

And we need individuals, corporates, and governments to take them... together.

If this was an epic saga, this would be the point in the story where the group of heroes reaches that final fork in the road. Do they choose the easier (for now) path for the sake of that downhill walk, even thought they know it will eventually lead them to their doom (i.e., to hell). Or do they gulp hard and take the second path, the path that ascends steeply and sharply and delivers them to a spectacular summit.

From there, all they must do is leap.

#SDGs #ClimateChange #SocialImpact #TheGreatLeap