Leading Sustainability Transitions

ficult for business leaders to deal with the climate and biodiversity crises, as well as the wider environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues around sustainability. Leaders also are facing significant human rights challenges, which are yet another source of disruption. One recent study by KPMG found that 86 percent of CEOs fear that a recession will occur within the next 12 months. As a result, half said they were planning on “pausing or reconsidering their existing or planned ESG efforts in the next six months”; 34 percent had already done so.2 Keeping ESG issues high on the agenda may have become more difficult, but the imperative to do so remains as pressing as ever. Across the globe we continue to see more and more temperature records being broken and to experience the devastating effects of extreme heatwaves, wildfires, crop failures, storms, and floods. Consumer goods company Unilever, for example, claims that disruption of agricultural supply chains due to the climate crisis already costs the company €300m (about US$320m) a year.3 As the authors of the February 2022 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report concluded, “The cumulative scientific evidence is unequivocal: Climate change is a threat to human well-being and planetary health. Any further delay in concerted anticipatory global action on adaptation and mitigation will miss a brief and rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a liveable and sustainable future for all.”4 Clearly, the LEADING SUSTAINABILITY TRANSITIONS