There’s no sugarcoating it. If you ask Rasche, today’s sustainability climate can best be described as "schizophrenic”.
On the one hand, we’re making progress. The European Green Deal and the Clean Industrial Deal indicate strong regulatory and financial commitments to sustainability at a global level.
On the other, global conflicts, such as the war in Ukraine and the rise of protectionist policies, are constantly throwing wrenches into the works. The revival of fossil fuels under the banner of energy security, an intensified culture war in the US, trade wars between superpowers vying for hegemonic power, and backtracking on sustainability targets from major corporations like Unilever and Coke all represent significant challenges to sustainability.
As Rasche puts it, “CEOs attach less importance to sustainability these days.” He doesn’t attribute this to denial but to distraction: AI, geopolitics, and inflation have crowded sustainability out of the of the boardroom.
A potential solution to this could be better corporate governance and regulation.