ICC United Kingdom’s Official G20 Publication
Sustainable Development
› today to bring economy and environment together as one in all of our international rulemaking. The economy is often marginalized in international environmental agreements. Three months after concluding the Sustainable Development Goals, the United Nations concluded the Paris Agreement on climate change. The Paris Agreement is an historic achievement, but it will not work environmentally unless it also works economically. Equally, international trade can help spur the transition to a green economy by hastening the spread of new “climatefriendly” technologies worldwide. The trillions of dollars needed to finance “mitigation and adaptation” actions to address climate change – especially in the developing countries – will inevitably come mostly from the private sector. Yet, though the new global climate agreement speaks vaguely of “non-market approaches” to climate actions, nowhere does the agreement speak specifically of the “market.” We must reimagine economic and environmental agreements as Venn diagrams that acknowledge and address our economic and environmental concerns so that they are consistent with the SDGs. But how can we hope to accomplish any of these agreed global goals in the gloomy political context of today? How can we possibly hope for more international cooperation economically and environmentally at a time when so much of the world seems bent on joining in a raucous and rushed retreat from all further international cooperation – and when America, which led the cooperative global advance so proudly for so long, is now numbered among the first to flee? The right consensus statements at global gatherings are desirable and can be helpful, but the global solutions we seek for sustainability will not be found in any of the solemn proclamations from any of the forthcoming global summits. Solutions are not imposed from the top down. Solutions must arise from the bottom up. The solutions we seek for sustainability will only be found down in the vibrant and innovative enterprise of free marketplaces, and down in the practical problem-solving of the global explosion of creative and collaborative public, private, and public/ private coalitions, alliances, and voluntary networks at the catalytic “grass roots” of the world. Much involved in these “grass roots” endeavours are the many businesses of the world that are helping lead the way toward sustainability. Global solutions for sustainability will be found and scaled up much sooner if all of those around the world who say they 36 ❙ iccwbo.uk