Book Review: Sustainability and Corporate Mechanisms in Asia by Ernest Lim
Pearlie Koh
Citation: [2022] Sing JLS 258
“Sustainability” is very much on the world’s agenda today. At the recently-held 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties, Sir David Attenborough warned that the stability of the Earth’s climate, which had for millennia enabled human civilisation to flourish, is being seriously threatened by human activity in recent times. It is more urgent than ever that humanity must, in Sir Attenborough’s words, “rewrite our story to turn this tragedy into a triumph”. The notion of “sustainability”, however, is not strictly confined to climate or environmental issues. Embedded in most definitions of sustainability are concerns for social equity and economic development. And in this latter regard, the world has had to grapple with the COVID-19 Pandemic, which has profoundly impacted human life on earth over the last two years. As the United Nations (“UN”) noted, “[the Pandemic] is much more than a health crisis. It is a human, economic and social crisis. The coronavirus disease … is attacking societies at their core” (UN Sustainable Development Group, Shared Responsibility, Global Solidarity: Responding to the socio-economic impacts of COVID-19).