The 2019 Bloomberg Global Business Forum gathered global business and government leaders to discuss threats from global warming to economic prosperity and examine the opportunities for solutions.
“When international relations are frayed by politics, businesses can help to mend and strengthen them through trade and investment, and through public-private partnerships that tackle issues even the most powerful governments cannot solve by themselves.”
The rise of environmental and economic instability represents the greatest threat to global prosperity and the most pressing challenge of our time. Yet solutions for government and business to jointly combat this threat are within reach and need to be embraced to avert greater harm.
Preventing severe impact from climate change and enacting free trade are challenging, but realizing global prosperity without these critical tools is impossible, and uncertainty now stands as our greatest risk. As record temperatures rise, more frequent droughts, water shortages, and agriculture shortfalls destabilize more societies around the globe, further driving refugee and migration crises. Those who turn away from the international climate consensus sacrifice their ability to influence and lead on an issue considered an immediate threat to more than 50 percent of the world’s population. This growing volatility jeopardizes global alliances that help spread stability to all segments of society and threatens to escalate trade wars into real wars.
The third annual Bloomberg Global Business Forum convened the most important global leaders from the public and private sectors to address these threats from global warming to economic prosperity and examine the opportunities for solutions. There are remarkable examples of progress being achieved through partnerships and investments across the globe and this forum will assess where success can be replicated, with innovative ideas explored through dynamic leader-to-leader conversations and hands-on working groups.
How we respond to today’s challenges will determine the fate of global stability for generations to come. With the crisis of global warming and the uncertain application of significant technologies on the near horizon, time is critical. Global engagement through trade has been an overwhelmingly positive force for both advanced and developing economies but faces an uncertain future. This one-of-a-kind platform for leadership, relationship building, and collaboration moved beyond analysis and provided participants with a chance to shape an economy that meets our collective challenges and creates the opportunity for all.
New business models need to be created to finance economic development that has a net positive impact on society. We believe that all actors – especially governments, institutions, corporates and NGOs – need to come together to co-create solutions, and build coalitions of investors, development agencies and local partners to finance them. These innovative models can channel much-needed investments towards sustainable projects to help close the SDG funding gap.
Participated in the 2019 Bloomberg Global Business Forum.
[/ultimate_heading]
