Batteries are used in products from smartphones to electric vehicles, and there is no sign of demand diminishing, with sustainability goals influencing every market segment. Lithium-ion batteries are leading the battery industry, and investment in the space is set only to soar, driven by the march toward meeting clean-energy targets.
COVID-19 has reinforced the dividing line between the developed and developing worlds. Recovery in developed countries, with high vaccination rates and generous fiscal stimuli, is impressive. But the situation is the opposite in developing nations. The future is as unpredictable as the virus, but experts are forecasting what may happen.
The pandemic has ignited banks’ digital transformations and stressed People as our key priority. Leading from the heart, closing the digital-skills gap, translating corporate purpose into action, undertaking a transformation that is strategically anchored and risk-balanced and maximizing customer experience, will propel banks into a better shared future.
Data is a valuable commodity in today’s economy, with most industries depending on it. Commodities are traded, but sharing data between relevant parties is not easy because of numerous safeguards. Only a coordinated effort from private and public-sector stakeholders will ensure data flows to where it is needed securely but efficiently.
With corporate responses to climate change burgeoning, how can companies start re-evaluating how they interact with nature to tackle a less frequently addressed but more complex and interlinked environmental threat: biodiversity loss? How can firms protect natural resources, and what are the reputational and financial risks of inaction?
The COVID-19 pandemic has afflicted not only human beings but human economies. It has also revealed serious flaws, especially in supply chains, that predated the pandemic but have been exacerbated by it—especially the global dependence on China as the source of goods and materials. Fortunately, possibilities to adapt for the better exist, and it is likely that one long-term benefit of the virus will be prompting advantageous supply-chain changes.
Today’s professional accountant is expected to do more than juggle numbers; he or she increasingly participates in achieving sustainability objectives, which aim to ensure that a company’s resources are used to create not only monetary value but sustainable value today and into the future. To achieve this requires concerted multidisciplinary effort toward enhanced corporate reporting that addresses financial and sustainability concerns, guided by international accounting standards that incorporate sustainable value creation.
Financial Institutions are often deliberate targets and unwitting participants in crimes, from money laundering to market manipulation. A relatively recent addition is Green Crime, which includes transgressions against the planet’s natural resources, such as environmental and wildlife crime. Fortunately, Refinitiv’s recent survey results show that the majority of those surveyed want to end ecocide atrocities such as illegal wildlife trafficking, recognizing the risks to not only to the health of the environment but also the financial system.
If you are based in Singapore, you might have seen a dog-like robot patrolling some of the city-state’s parks earlier this year. Called Spot, the four-legged robot created by US-based Boston Dynamics is equipped with cameras and sensors to detect the concentration of group sizes gathering in parks while also reinforcing social-distancing rules
Greenfield is a new concept in banking and means establishing a new operation in the field. The approach has proved attractive to traditional retail banks as they take advantage of all of the benefits of digital banking by starting new operations alongside their old ones, soaring to new heights without being constrained by their cumbersome legacy infrastructure. The time is ripe for corporate banks to also enjoy the greenfield effect.