Comment: Sustainability is under unprecedented attack. Here’s how we can fight back
10 February 2025 - Those working for a sustainable future are under attack. Progress is being dismantled and a new reality is hitting hard. And yet there’s no shared plan for what comes next. The time for passive observation, or for relying on vague calls for “courage” or “digging deeper” is past. We need a new strategy – fast. Eliot Whittington writes on the Reuters website.
We’ve been here before. Fifteen years ago, the climate movement faced a similar reckoning. The Copenhagen summit collapsed, the financial crisis forced governments and businesses to retreat, and climate action fell into disarray.
Yet, within five years, a new strategy emerged, one that built business engagement, navigated political realities and delivered the Paris Agreement. Climate action shifted from aspiration to market reality. The world changed because the movement adapted.
Now, we face another defining moment. Economic and security pressures are limiting investments in transition and sustaining dependence on fossil fuels. Populist, nationalist politics is gaining ground, often coupled with outright rejection of climate action. Multilateralism is fragmenting. Governments are rolling back green policies. Businesses and investors are scrapping climate targets and sacking sustainability leads.
What’s more, much of this is being driven by the very lack of sustainability in the system that we’re trying to point to. The world is increasingly unstable and scary, and leaders seem to lack the tools to fix this – leading to growing support for authoritarian populist answers.
The headwinds are strong. But so is the demand for action. Citizens care deeply about climate and nature. Research from sources such as the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, shows that a majority of people want stronger climate action and see it as a priority for governments and business alike. Yet inertia prevails, and no one is levelling with the public about the real choices ahead, or the dire consequences of inaction.
We’re caught between the myth of an orderly transition, in which incremental improvements keep everything running smoothly with no disruption to near-term economics, and the delusional idea that we can simply adapt to a 3C world.
At the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership we’ve spent 30 years working with business, finance and policymakers to transform markets and systems. We know that incrementalism won’t cut it. But we also know that retreat is not an option.
And while we bring deep expertise, we don’t pretend to have all the answers. The response to this moment must be built on diverse ideas, perspectives and new thinking. And right now, that conversation is not happening clearly enough.
So where do we go from here? First, we have to hold the line. We cannot allow the progress made on clean energy, sustainable finance and corporate accountability to be undone. We can’t allow opposition to action on climate and nature to go unchallenged.
From our work with major business and investors we know they don’t want to retreat; their future commercial success is at stake. They want to move forward – to shape, and profit from, the businesses and economies of the future, not defend the broken models of the past. The pathway forward is not going to be uncontested, but we need to continue to push for movement, even against the forces of delay and inaction.
Second, we have to recognise the political and economic realities that we’re part of. Governments care about competitiveness, security and economic growth. Many actively want to hear from businesses and investors about solutions that deliver these – both now and in the future. We know this because we’ve spent 20 years working in the UK and EU, and more recently in South Africa and Kenya, engaging policymakers on transition pathways. Our Competitive Sustainability Index gained traction because it proved that sustainability isn’t an economic risk; it’s an economic necessity.
Circularity, for example, is a no-brainer for economies seeking to reshore manufacturing and create local industries. We need to push these arguments harder and more coherently.
Third, we have to reach out more, beyond the usual suspects. Too many efforts on sustainability focus on persuading the already convinced. That’s not where change happens.
We need to get better at talking to, and working with, people we don’t agree with. That’s going to mean being honest about trade-offs – acknowledging challenges, rather than ignoring them, it’s going to mean building uncomfortable alliances, it’s going to mean focussing on strategic goals not always individual battles.
Many people want action but don’t trust those delivering the message, or recognise the way it is delivered. That’s a failure of strategy, not substance. We need to fix that.
Finally, we have to do what’s necessary to drive real economic transformation. The renewables revolution reshaped energy markets. That didn’t happen by accident. It happened because innovators and policymakers disrupted the system and made clean energy cheaper, better and more competitive than fossil fuels.
We need to lean in to drive similar disruption across key sectors – transport, buildings, food and heavy industry.
Our Aviation Impact Accelerator (AIA) is working to transform aviation, one of the hardest sectors to decarbonise. At CISL, we are nurturing the businesses and industries of the future, supporting circularity, nature-positive business models and net-zero solutions. We are bringing these innovators together with investors, major businesses and policymakers to scale solutions and reshape economic growth.
Disruption won’t happen on its own. We have to make it happen. We don’t have 15 years to get this right. The world in 2040 will be shaped by what we do now.
Will we use this time to cut emissions, restore nature and build a resilient economy? Or will we look back at another lost decade, wondering why we were cowed into despair, stuck with failing approaches, remaining fragmented and misaligned when we had the chance to pull together to build real momentum for change?
This is not just a call for people to work with us at CISL. It’s a signal that we are open to working with others – across sectors, perspectives and ideologies – to develop the strategy this moment demands.
Let’s build a plan together. Who’s in?
First published by Reuters