Celebrating APCEL’s 25th Anniversary: Webinar Series on Corporations and the Future of Environmental Sustainability

Our governments are challenged with a plethora of environmental issues. There are huge challenges in reaching net zero emissions, and practical action is a priority. U.S. President Joe Biden’s announcement to prioritize climate action, China’s commitment to become carbon neutral, along with the European Union’s ambitions to become the first carbon-neutral continent, and commitments by Japan, Korea and other countries, suggest that policy makers are increasingly prepared to change course. Singapore recently announced the launch of a Green Plan to address climate change and promote sustainability.

Although public awareness and political pressure are at different stages in different countries and regions, the direction is clear: policy makers will have to face environmental issues, ready or not, and probably sooner than later. Policy is needed to give a clear and stable direction, but businesses primarily have to deliver the net-zero target and provide the vast majority of the required investments for this economic transformation. Environmental Governance is the key factor to achieve these ambitious objectives.

How are nations, civil society and business responding? In this series of webinars, APCEL will discuss the role of corporations in this transformation and their impact on environmental governance, starting with the commodities sector, followed by the financial sector and finally by the shipping sector.

Moderator: Ghislaine Nadaud, Visiting Researcher, APCEL

Part 1: Environmental Governance in Commodities: Soft to Hard Law

Speakers: Yuki Yasui, Asia Pacific Region Co-ordination Manager, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Finance Initiative; Stefano Savi, Director, Global Platform for Sustainable Natural Rubber (GPSNR); Agam Fatchurrochman, Secretary General, Indonesia Palm Oil Association (Gapki), Deputy Head of Corporate Sustainability & CSR, PT Bumitama Gunajaya Agro; Samantha Bramley, Director, Environmental and Social Risk Management, Standard Chartered Bank

Watch it on Youtube here