EDITORIAL

Will the year 2023 be a pivotal year?

Perhaps it will. For, we are more than ever, at a crossroads.

Indeed, we are now halfway through to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), set in 2015 in the UN framework for 2030. The "SDG 2023" report is expected to be released in the middle of the year, providing an overview of the progress of the 2030 agenda. To remove the suspense, here is a preview of the verdict: we are still far from being on track. 

Admittedly, there is some progress. For example, the COP15 biodiversity agreement in December 2022 by 196 nations in Montreal: although incomplete because of its blind spots, its non-binding nature and its financing, it was nonetheless unhoped-for given the state of negotiations at its opening. 

Undoubtedly, Covid has made the achievement of the SDGs especially complex, especially in terms of the fight against poverty: the 2022 reduction rate for extreme poverty was one of the lowest in recent decades. A generation lost out in terms of quality learning, back at the level of the early 2000s according to the World Bank... Increasingly glaring climate inequalities. Rampant inflation putting the most fragile economies under pressure.

For companies and investors to contribute to this much-needed edifice, one of the major challenges of 2023 for their managers and directors will be to continue transforming business models even as inflation puts pressure on prices and asset values. In particular, how can rising expectations on climate and social issues be translated into concrete improvements? Here are a few ways to integrate social progress, environmental action, and economic performance:

• talk less, act more. For example, commitments to become "carbon negative" in the long term are beginning to supersede those aimed at carbon neutrality. Perhaps it would be more useful at this stage to focus on concrete action plans, as well as on the evidence to be provided?
• restate the issues, allow for creativity, and rely on co-development: in view of the imperative socio-environmental transition, the order of priorities has been re-evaluated in many activities and what was impossible yesterday may no longer be impossible today. Therefore, we must not hesitate to circle back to the questions again, and to innovate in order to find solutions & cooperative alliances capable of redefining the rules of the game
• go to the heart of the matter and aim for autonomy - sovereignty for states, limited exposure to risk for companies: to do this, we need to go beyond questions of access to energy and raw materials to truly focus on the equitable distribution of value and the development of human capital

This is what we are working on with our partners and clients, through our missions or by building public-private partnerships and coalitions that combine operational resilience, regulatory compliance, environmental impact reduction, and value creation, in the most vulnerable segments of value chains.  

We look forward to discussing these topics!

Raphaël Hara, Managing Director