Business must step up in new era of environmental activism

EARTH Day is an annual event on Apr 22 first held in 1970 in the United States. It has since grown to become a major moment in the global environmental calendar, with events in around 200 countries with over 1 billion people participating.

This year's theme is "Investing in Our Planet" with a call for all stakeholders, especially business, to act boldly, innovate, and implement a partnership to drive a greener and more prosperous future. The timing of this year's event comes as a landmark report this month from the United Nations-convened Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warned we are on track for an "unliveable world".

Amid the Ukraine conflict, and with the pandemic not yet over, there are growing concerns that with so many challenges facing the world, the green agenda will get sidelined again. So global processes needed to put the world onto a more sustainable pathway require not just a serious injection of political urgency, but also greater participation of business.