DUBAI – Sustainability targets will not be achieved without support and action from governments and the private sector, regardless of individuals’ actions, numerous experts asserted yesterday at a high-level panel discussion on day three of Expo 2020 Dubai’s Climate & Biodiversity Week.
When asked by moderator Eithne Treanor on how best to create more sustainable cities, in the context of urbanisation ramping up globally, Alderman William Russell, Rt Hon Lord Mayor of the City of London said: “We need private finance and public finance to come together.
“Without that finance, we will not get to the net-zero targets that we want to get to. It’s an opportunity of a generation to invest in the sustainable sector and make some very good returns at the same time. It’s an exciting time, but as we all know, we have to move quickly – and the City of London is ready to help with that.”
Russell’s comments came during Sustainability for All: Rewriting Our Narrative for Sustainable Living, a World Majlis event at the UK Pavilion.
Co-curated by Expo 2020 and the UK Pavilion, the open discussion sought to address some of the greatest sustainability challenges facing us all by uniting various thought-leaders, visionaries and change-makers.
Dr Amy Hochadel, Director of Global Business for Connected Places Catapult, the UK’s innovation accelerator for cities, transport and places, said: “In any type of community […] we are seeing people understand personal responsibility, good consumerism. And they understand their personal role and want to shape their communities in the future to do that.
“[But] our personal responsibility won’t matter if we don’t get governments and corporations on board to do what they need to do. If [these actors] aren’t doing their part, it won’t make a difference – it’s about everyone on all fronts.”
Joining the discussion virtually, Lisa McLean, CEO of NSW Circular, a New South Wales Government-funded body aimed at delivering a zero-carbon circular economy in the south-eastern Australian state, said: “It’s not enough for us just to cut carbon through the energy transition and through energy efficiency. Our focus has very much been around the circular economy and how we actually de-couple economic growth from virgin-resource use. This is just such a critical component of our transition.”
Abdulla Bin Damithan, CEO & Managing Director for the UAE Region & Jafza at Expo 2020’s Global Trade Partner DDP World, also highlighted how the multinational logistics giant’s sustainability efforts are aligned with the Government of Dubai. The emirate aims to generate 30 per cent of its power needs by green energy by 2030.
Other panelists included Hungarian academic Diana Ürge-Vorsatz and Sophie Howe, Future Generations Commissioner for Wales.
Climate & Biodiversity Week runs until 9 October, and is the first of 10 Theme Weeks under Expo 2020’s Programme for People and Planet, an extraordinary schedule of events, experiences, thought-leadership and public conversations that aims to find solutions for some of the most pressing problems facing our world.
© Press Release 2021
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