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Let’s move from One Hot World to One Young World

David Craig
David Craig
Group Head of Data & Analytics for LSEG and CEO of Refinitiv

Business and Government, the data is saying one thing: Act now. This was our message at the climate change summits in New York hosted by the United Nations (UN) and World Economic Forum (WEF) last month.

Refinitiv was there to support the application of data to help resolve the climate crisis.

The UN invited us not just because we are committed to sustainability as a global fintech with $6bn revenues, but as a business that enables investors to choose the best places to invest and track progress on sustainability through our world-leading data.

The WEF invited us because of our close collaboration with them on the development of our Sustainable Leadership Monitor – which can reveal at the touch of a button which public companies, countries and industries are polluting the most, and which are taking sustainability seriously.

One Young World

Honoured to be a One Young World Counsellor leading a delegation of Refinitiv colleagues to this conference that nurtures and learns from future and actual world leaders, I’m proud that we are working to make the markets more efficient with better data, which we believe will help transparency, infrastructure and our customers to make better investment decisions.

Learn more about Refinitiv’s role as a delegate partner at this year’s One Young World summit in London.

Those who listened to Greta Thunberg know how young people feel about inaction. We’ve seen global climate marches through the youth movement and how schools, colleges and parents are supporting the young people protesting.

But I have hope because we see that many of our customers are addressing this challenge – they realise that returns to shareholders are just one part of the equation. All stakeholders, employees, the communities they operate in, and the environmental footprint they leave are crucial to preventing the planet from overheating.

But as Al Gore said with passion at the UN Global Compact Private Sector Forum session last month, the problem is bigger than we think and getting worse than we thought faster than we thought. We have to act.

There is no plan B and no planet B. The world business leaders I spoke with about this in New York are taking action on plastic, energy, emissions and the communities in which they operate.

They are making it core to their strategies and realising that it is no longer acceptable for any company, country or individual to ignore the fact we are using the earth’s resources faster than they can be replenished.

So, we will push forward and be bold and focused on this issue – we will continue to develop and enrich our ESG (environmental, social and governance) data, the very data we provide to the market that also drives our Sustainability Leadership Monitor.

We will partner with WEF and the UN as their data partner to support companies to benchmark their activities and enable investors to understand their choices.

Refinitiv plans to be powered by 100% renewable energy by the end of 2020 and is committed to reducing annual carbon emissions every year by an average of 10% over the next five years, becoming a more sustainable business for the long term.

We can all play a role, we must all play our role. We want data to be just the beginning … and for the planet to be forever.

Find out more about our Sustainable Leadership Monitor which can reveal at the touch of a button which public companies, countries and industries are polluting the most, and which are taking sustainability seriously.

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