Global Stories

The biennial report, Burning Issues: The Global State of Tobacco Harm Reduction (GSTHR), published by UK-based public health agency Knowledge Action Change, finds that currently there are nine Safer Nicotine Products (SNPs) users for every 100 smokers globally, most of whom live in high-income countries. The India section of the global report states policy reforms...

Sysco Corporation, a global foodservice distribution company, has published its 2020 Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Report, documenting the company’s progress toward its 2025 CSR goals and demonstrating its “Leadership In Extraordinary Times.” Sysco’s industry-leading CSR strategy sets a clear path for the future and demonstrates the company’s enduring commitment to caring for people, sourcing products...

Aspire Impact, a social enterprise focussed on leadership and ecosystem development in the social and environmental impact space has announced its flagship Impact Future Project (IFP) to be launched at the Sankalp Global Summit 2020. What is Impact Future Project? Impact Future Project is a thought leadership platform which brings together over 250 business and investment...

Eminent business leaders from across the Asia-Pacific region have expressed strong support for multilateralism and regional cooperation as well as increased public-private partnerships to build back better and more sustainably. They also underscored that as countries recover from the COVID-19 pandemic impacts, this is no time for nationalism and protectionism, at the Asia-Pacific Business...

LanzaTech, Total and L’Oréal have together premiered the world’s first sustainable packaging made from captured and recycled carbon emissions. The successful conversion process takes place in three steps: LanzaTech captures industrial carbon emissions and converts them into ethanol using a unique biological process. Total, thanks to an innovative dehydration process jointly developed with IFP Axens,...

The last year has seen an incredible and exponential uptick in global demand for sustainable funds. Inflows, having already shattered records in 2019, grew tenfold in the last twelve months. Unfortunately, non-financial data has failed to keep investors informed of the true impact of those funds. To address this alarming trend, Util has unveiled...

The United Nations is marking its 75th anniversary at a time of great disruption for the world, compounded by an unprecedented global health crisis with severe economic and social impacts. The regional UN75 commemoration jointly hosted by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and the Office of...

Capgemini announced today that its new carbon reduction targets have been approved by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) as being in line with the level of reduction needed to limit global warming to 1.5°C. This is an important milestone towards the Group’s ambition of becoming a net zero business by 2030. Validation of its...

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet on Tuesday appealed to the Government of India to safeguard the rights of human rights defenders and NGOs, and their ability to carry out their crucial work on behalf of the many groups they represent. Bachelet expressed regret at the tightening of space for human rights...

Countries in the Asia-Pacific region have endorsed an action plan pledging to collectively step up regional cooperation for social protection – a timely move as governments are striving to protect people from unprecedented economic and social development setbacks wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic. The action plan was endorsed at the Sixth Session of the Committee...

An estimated one in six children or 356 million globally were living in extreme poverty before the COVID-19 pandemic began, and this is set to worsen significantly, according to a new World Bank Group and UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) analysis. 'Global Estimate of Children in Monetary Poverty: An Update' notes that sub-Saharan Africa, with its...

Over the next decade, one of Asia's largest diversified real estate groups CapitaLand aims to spur ESG initiatives within the company. By 2030, the company intends to secure SGD 6 billion through sustainable finance such as sustainability-linked loans, green loans and green bonds. This is triple the SGD 2 billion it has raised to...