The second quarter of 2022 is already underway and the deadline for world leaders to meet the United Nations 2030 Agenda gets tighter and tighter. To understand whether the world will be able to meet the 169 goals set in the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) -- or at least some of them -- is an exercise for futurologists, but what many market experts are saying is unlikely.

Among the skeptics is Fabio Alperowitch, founding partner of Fama Investments who, in an interview with DINHEIRO, said that "meeting the targets was already a challenge in the pre-war period when the signs showed that it would be difficult to limit global warming to 1.5 °C." More than two months after the start of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, obeying the deadline becomes even more complex.

Earlier this week, however, a move by Rede Brasil of the Global Compact brought a breath of hope to the most optimistic. In ceremony with the presence of 250 CEOs of companies from various segments on Monday (25), the entity launched the movement Ambition 2030. This is a call for private enterprise to engage definitively in its commitment to advance the agenda with on seven major fronts: Mind in Focus, They Lead 2030, +Water, Living Wage, Race is Priority, Net Zero Ambition and 100% Transparency.

The proposal is a revisit of the SDDs, but gives a greater sense of urgency by functioning as a renegotiation of the presidents with the deadline set. Of the total number of people attending the event, 150 companies had already signed public commitments with the Global Compact initiatives.

Carlo Pereira, executive director of the Global Compact, was adamant: "Changing business strategies is crucial and we, as business leaders, are part of the problem, but together we are also the solution," he said.

It must be acknowledged that several global and national companies are in fact committed to ESG. In the middle of the wheat, however, there is the tares. Greenwashing remains very present in the action and communication of companies that use the social and environmental agenda more as a marketing tool than of transforming society.

The big problem in these cases is that the punishment for the practice will come to the planet that runs the imminent risk of overheating, and to all populations that will suffer the side effects that the phenomenon will cause.

It is to help companies on this challenging journey that Agenda 2030 and Ambition 2030 serve, but each one needs to take responsibility and do what is their son in this latifúndio that is planet Earth.

Source: ISTOÉ Dinheiro