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February 4, 2021
World Economic Forum appoints New Member to Board of Trustees
• Julie Sweet joins the World Economic Forum Board of Trustees.
• The Board of Trustees is the guardian of the World Economic Forum’s mission and values.
Photo: Impressions from the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2020 in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland, 20 January 2020. Image provided by & copyright © World Economic Forum / Valeriano Di Domenico.
Geneva, Switzerland, 4 February 2021 - The Chief Executive Officer of Accenture, Julie Sweet, will join the Board of Trustees of the World Economic Forum. Sweet’s track record of success and commitment to enhancing gender diversity in business will significantly contribute to strengthening the Forum in its mission of improving the world’s state.
The Board of Trustees, the highest governing body of the World Economic Forum, is responsible for its strategy and advancing its values. As a reflection of its multistakeholder status, membership is divided equally between representatives of the business community and leaders from government, international organizations, and civil society.
“The World Economic Forum is delighted to welcome Julie Sweet to its Board of Trustees. We look forward to working with her to deliver on the Forum’s commitment to advancing stakeholder capitalism and contributing to more resilient and equitable societies,” said Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum.
“Collaboration between the world’s governments, businesses, and cultural leaders has never been more critical,” said Julie Sweet, Chief Executive Officer, Accenture. “I am honored to join the board of the World Economic Forum and help advance its work to find shared and actionable solutions to our most pressing issues while shaping a more inclusive and sustainable future for all.”
Julie Sweet is CEO of Accenture and serves on the company’s board of directors. Before becoming CEO in 2019, she served as CEO of Accenture’s business in North America and as Accenture’s general counsel, secretary, and chief compliance officer for five years. Before joining Accenture in 2010, Sweet was a partner for ten years in Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP.
Outside Accenture, Sweet is a leader in innovation, technology’s impact on business, and inclusion and diversity. She serves on the board of directors for the Business Roundtable, where she is Chair of its Technology Committee. She also serves on the board of directors for Catalyst.
As of 3 February 2021, the Members of the Board of Trustees of the World Economic Forum are:
- Klaus SCHWAB - Chairman of the Board of Trustees, World Economic Forum
- Peter BRABECK-LETMATHE - Vice-Chairman of the Board of Trustees, World Economic Forum, Chairman Emeritus, Nestlé SA, Switzerland
- H.M. Queen Rania AL ABDULLAH of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan
- Mukesh AMBANI - Chairman and Managing Director, Reliance Industries, India
- Marc R. BENIOFF - Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Salesforce, USA
- Thomas BUBERL - Chief Executive Officer, AXA, France
- Mark CARNEY - Finance Adviser on the 26th Conference of the Parties to the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
- Laurence FINK - Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, BlackRock, USA
- Chrystia FREELAND - Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance of Canada
- Orit GADIESH - Chairman, Bain & Company, USA
- Kristalina GEORGIEVA - Managing Director, International Monetary Fund, Washington DC
- Fabiola GIANOTTI - Director-General, European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN)
- Al GORE - Vice-President of the United States (1993-2001); Chairman and Co-Founder, Generation Investment Management LLP, USA
- Herman GREF - Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, Sberbank, Russia
- Angel GURRÃA - Secretary-General, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
- André S. HOFFMANN - Non-Executive Vice-Chairman, Roche Holding Ltd., Switzerland
- Paula INGABIRE - Minister of Information Communication Technology and Innovation of Rwanda
- Christine LAGARDE - President, European Central Bank
- Jack MA - Alibaba Board of Directors, Alibaba Group, People’s Republic of China
- Yo-Yo MA - Cellist
- Peter MAURER - President, International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Switzerland
- Luis Alberto MORENO - President, Inter-American Development Bank, Washington DC (2005-2020)
- Patrice MOTSEPE - Founder and Executive Chairman, African Rainbow Minerals, South Africa
- L. Rafael REIF - President, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA
- David M. RUBENSTEIN - Co-Founder and Co-Executive Chairman, Carlyle Group, USA
- Mark SCHNEIDER - Chief Executive Officer, Nestlé, Switzerland
- Tharman SHANMUGARATNAM - Senior Minister, Singapore
- Jim Hagemann SNABE - Chairman, Supervisory Board, Siemens AG, Germany; Chairman, A.P. Møller-Maersk, Denmark
- Julie SWEET - Chief Executive Officer, Accenture, Ireland
- Feike SYBESMA - Honorary Chairman, Royal DSM, Netherlands
- Heizo TAKENAKA - Minister of State for Economic and Fiscal Policy of Japan (2002-2006)
- Min ZHU - President, National Institute of Financial Research, People’s Republic of China
Source: World Economic Forum
|GlobalGiants.Com|
Edited & Posted by the Editor | 11:32 AM | View the original post
February 3, 2021
IMF World Economic Outlook Update
Photo: International Monetary Fund. World Economic Outlook Update. Economic Counselor and Director of the Research Department, Gita Gopinath, delivers the World Economic Outlook at the IMF headquarters. IMF Photo/Joshua Roberts. January 26, 2021. Washington, DC, United States of America.
Photo: International Monetary Fund. Snow in Washington, DC. Pedestrians walk past the International Monetary Fund’s HQ1 and HQ2 buildings during the season’s first snow in Washington, DC. IMF Photo/Cory Hancock. December 16, 2020. Washington, DC, United States of America.
Washington, DC, January 31, 2021 / — Global growth is getting an upgrade. However, prospects for recovery are still highly uncertain due to the race between rolling out vaccines and mutations to COVID-19, the IMF says in its latest quarterly update to the World Economic Outlook report (January 20).
“We are living in highly uncertain times. We are projecting the world would grow this year instead of a severe collapse last year, but there is uncertainty. A lot depends upon the outcome of this race between a mutating virus and vaccines and how much policy support can hold up,” IMF Head of Research Gita Gopinath told reporters in a virtual briefing.
The IMF forecasts a 5.5% boost in growth in 2021, after a 3.3% drop in 2020 - the most severe hit to the global economy since the Great Depression.
But not all countries and regions are growing at the same pace, the IMF says.
The global recovery looks uneven, and the Covid-19 crisis won’t be over for anyone until it gets solved for everyone, Gopinath said. Countries need to cooperate and share resources to ensure an equitable and rapid distribution of the vaccine.
“The international community must act quickly to make sure that vaccinations and the logistics of delivery of the vaccine vaccinations are available globally to address what is currently a deeply inequitable distribution of access to vaccines across the world,” the IMF’s chief economist added.
“The health and economic arguments for this are just simply overwhelming. The new virus strain says, as we have made abundantly clear, that the pandemic is not over until it’s over everywhere. And we estimate there the benefit of more rapid progress towards ending the health crisis. It will add nine trillion dollars cumulatively to the global economy between 2020 and 2025, with benefits for all countries, including advanced economies of around four trillion dollars,” said Gopinath.
The IMF recommends that countries with fiscal space continue to use those resources to support those people and companies in need of help in the crisis.
One example many are watching: the Biden Administration and Democrat’s proposed $1.9 trillion support package could significantly boost growth. However, Gopinath said it was early days to assess its impact.
“For the U.S. economy, we have this can raise output, incomes or output in the U.S. by five percent over three years. That’s what we have estimated, including increasing growth this year by one and a quarter percent. But again, to be very clear, this is all still preliminary,” added Gopinath.
Source: IMF
|GlobalGiants.Com|
Edited & Posted by the Editor | 3:29 AM | View the original post
February 2, 2021
FIFA and WHO #ACTogether to tackle COVID−19
• Star footballers, competing team captains will promote equitable global access to vaccines, treatments, and diagnostics.
Photos: FIFA and WHO #ACTogether to tackle COVID−19. Images provided by & copyright © FIFA.
Geneva, Switzerland, Monday, February 01, 2021 — FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) is teaming up with WHO (World Health Organization) to promote the need for fair access to COVID-19 vaccines, treatments, and diagnostics. FIFA will encourage people to keep practicing life-saving, simple public health measures to prevent the coronavirus spread and protect health.
In conjunction with the FIFA Club World Cup 2020, being held in Qatar from 4 to February 11, 2021, FIFA and WHO are launching a public awareness campaign involving star footballers through TV and in-stadium messaging to further promote the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator initiative launched in April 2020, and to urge people to practice mask-wearing, physical distancing and hand hygiene.
“We all have to play our part in the battle against the coronavirus. We are also calling on the international community to #ACTogether to ensure a level playing field about access to vaccines, treatments, and diagnostic tests across the globe,” FIFA President Gianni Infantino said during a video conference before the kick-off of the FIFA Club World Cup.
Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, thanked FIFA and the players for helping raise awareness on life-saving interventions that all people can follow. FIFA would bring out the importance of intensified global support for the ACT Accelerator to ramp up development and equitable allocation of vaccines, treatments, and tests to combat the coronavirus pandemic.
“Fairness is the foundation of football and all other sports, and this also must be the same when it comes to health,” said Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “The rules of the COVID-19 challenge are simple: all people at risk from the coronavirus in all countries must have equitable access to life-saving vaccines, treatments, and diagnostics. In just nine months, the world has established these three powerful lines of defense against COVID-19. But our goal now is to ensure equitable access and continued refinement of these tools.”
Dr. Tedros added: “WHO is grateful to FIFA for teaming up with health partners worldwide to promote the need for the fair distribution of the tools needed to defeat the coronavirus.”
The new FIFA-WHO collaboration will amplify life-saving messages to a global audience with a series of promotional videos broadcast during the FIFA Club World Cup. In the videos, competing club captains reiterate the critical steps for everyone to follow to tackle and defeat the coronavirus by focusing on hands, elbow, face, distance, symptoms, masks, and opening windows.
“We mustn’t forget that health comes first,” said the FIFA President. “Only by following the advice of our medical professionals will we be able to eliminate the threat posed by COVID-19, and I call upon everyone to follow these steps in their daily lives. This advice not only protects you but also protects your loved ones and those around you. In delivering these messages during the FIFA Club World Cup, I appreciate the support given by the participating teams and their players, coaching staff, and other officials in respecting the tournament protocols and ensuring that we keep the football flame flickering brightly during these challenging times.”
The video awareness campaign will feature players and head coaches from the competing teams at the FIFA Club World Cup Qatar 2020 and FIFA Legends. It will get published on various FIFA, WHO, and digital channels, through broadcasters worldwide.
Sources: FIFA / WHO
|GlobalGiants.Com|
Edited & Posted by the Editor | 11:30 AM | View the original post
February 1, 2021
MIT Technology Review Insights Ranking highlights the Countries making the fastest progress to a low-carbon future.
Photo: Greenery. Image credit: Tom Blackwell.
Photo: The MIT Green Future Index Rankings World Map.
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Jan. 31, 2021 — The Green Future Index, a new study by MIT Technology Review Insights, in association with Citrix, Morgan Stanley, and Salesforce, ranks 76 countries and territories. The nations get ranked on the progress and commitment they are making toward a green future. The index indicates what they are doing to reduce carbon emissions, develop clean energy, innovate in green sectors, and the degree to which governments are implementing effective climate policies.
The MIT Technology Review index shows which countries are progressing fastest in global efforts to decarbonize and limit global heating in line with the Paris Agreement’s goals.
The key findings are as follows:
Europe will be a future green leader. Europe dominates the top of the index, with 15 European nations in the top 20. Many countries across the region have already made progress with curbing emissions, transitioning energy production to renewable sources, and investing in green mobility. Since covid, the EU has committed more than €200 billion in bold green economy investments, accelerating decarbonization even in the most fossil-fuel dependent states.
Iceland, Denmark, and Norway top the index. Iceland, in the first place, aims to be carbon neutral by 2040. The country has become a world leader in clean energy and carbon capture technology. Denmark (2nd) is the largest hydrocarbons producer in Europe to stop issuing new oil and gas exploration licenses. Norway (3rd) is also striving to decouple its economy from fossil fuels.
Costa Rica and New Zealand secure top 10 positions. Costa Rica ranked 7th, and New Zealand, ranked 8th, have made significant strides with renewables and have world-leading agendas for decarbonization across industry and agriculture. Canada (14th), Singapore (16th), and Uruguay (20th), the other non-Europeans in the top 20, have strategies for decarbonization, transitioning energy sources, and government-led initiatives to promote green living. For example, Singapore’s Zero Waste Masterplan aims to reduce landfill waste by 30% between now and 2030.
There is uneven progress across the world’s largest economies. The United States (40th) has reduced emissions over recent years and is responsible for nearly one-fifth of the world’s green patents. Yet, it is emerging from four years of climate denial and remains heavily dependent on fossil fuels and unsustainable farming practices. China (45th) is responsible for more than one-quarter of global emissions but has pledged to become carbon neutral by 2060 and is the world’s fastest-growing renewable energy producer. France (5th), Germany (11th), and Canada (14th) are the highest-ranked countries in the G20.
The countries at the bottom of the index risk losing competitiveness in the green economy. The laggards include South Africa (47th), Vietnam (49th), and Indonesia (57th), where economic pressures run counter to sustainable development. Japan (60th) aims to be carbon neutral by 2050, although government targets for renewable energy remain modest. The 16 “abstainer” countries at the bottom include petrostates such as Saudi Arabia, Iran, Qatar, and Russia. The latter’s Energy Strategy 2035 for expanding oil and gas production identified the trend toward carbon neutrality as an existential threat.
“Covid-19 has created a huge momentum for developing green industries and financing infrastructure that will be clean, technologically advanced, and climate-resilient,” says Nico Crepaldi, head of custom content, MIT Technology Review. “In the future, we’re likely to see ‘green’ being synonymous with economic competitiveness.”
• The Green Future Index Country Rankings
- Iceland
- Denmark
- Norway
- France
- Ireland
- Finland
- Costa Rica
- New Zealand
- Belgium
- Netherlands
- Germany
- Sweden
- Luxembourg
- Canada
- Austria
- Singapore
- United Kingdom
- Spain
- Switzerland
- Uruguay
- India
- Italy
- Kenya
- Chile
- Colombia
- Morocco
- Ethiopia
- Czech Republic
- Thailand
- Portugal
- South Korea
- Brazil
- Kazakhstan
- Poland
- Australia
- Mexico
- Greece
- Israel
- Hungary
- United States
- Cameroon
- United Arab Emirates
- Philippines
- Bulgaria
- China
- Taiwan
- South Africa
- Romania
- Vietnam
- Slovakia
- Zambia
- Angola
- Nigeria
- Uganda
- Dominican Republic
- Malaysia
- Indonesia
- Egypt
- Argentina
- Japan
- Saudi Arabia
- Ecuador
- Ukraine
- Hong Kong
- Kuwait
- Peru
- Pakistan
- Turkey
- Bangladesh
- Guatemala
- Ghana
- Algeria
- Russia
- Iran
- Paraguay
- Qatar
Source: MIT Technology Review Insights
|GlobalGiants.Com|
Edited & Posted by the Editor | 6:49 AM | View the original post