Perspectives

Recent articles and reports

By Cassandra Kelly & Nigel Lake

Nigel is a contributor to Earth for All, co-author of one of the supporting deep dive papers, and part of the campaign team responsible for story development

Beyond the Metacrisis:
Delivering Earth for All

“Millions of people around the world are suffering deeply as a result of climate chaos,
environmental degradation and perverse inequality. For way too long, the multilateral
system and civil society have defined and described those multiple crises as separate,
each with their own unique set of solutions, often in competition with each other. In
fact, they are different aspects of what we might understand as the metacrisis.

Earth for All shows how we address these crises together, and that’s what makes
it such critical reading. There is a path of possibility, infused with stubborn, urgent
optimism.” Christiana Figueres

Almost every month for the last two years, I’ve leapt out of bed in the small hours of the morning and been deep in concentration at my desk by 4am. Those that know me will appreciate that this is entirely unprecedented. At last, I can share why. <<Read on>>

For Nigel Lake's deep dive paper: Planetary Turnaround: an investment banker's perspective on climate change action, please visit the Club of Rome website here.

“An extraordinary book at an extraordinary time” Ban Ki-Moon
“Essential reading” Thomas Piketty
“Thought-provoking analysis” Kate Raworth
“A road-map that cannot be ignored” Sharan Burrow
“Collapse is still avoidable. Here's how” Bill McKibben

Earth for All is published in English on 20th September - order from your local bookshop or online.
The German edition is already a best-seller - Chinese, French, Japanese and Korean versions will be released shortly.

A brief introduction to Earth4All,
narrated by Per Espen Stocknes.

Launch event livestream, New York
19th September/20th in APAC

Earth for All - Public policy briefing
20th September/21st in APAC

Zooming to Zürich, by John Sheehy

I have a ticket on the 15:41 train from Hannover to Zurich and it’s a good thing I’m running 20 minutes early for my departure. For the last four days, Hannover’s usual population of around 500,000 has swelled to more than 750,000 thanks to the city’s prolific – and the world’s largest – annual industrial trade fair. It’s a busy day for intra-Europe train travel.

Samsonite suitcases and surgical masks are the order of the day. Many of my fellow passengers look like seasoned train travellers and they match perfectly with that very orderly vibe you get when travelling in Germany and other parts of Europe.

Please click the thumbnail to the right for access to the full version of the Pottinger Perspective.

Click to view

Ending Accidental Time Bias, by Nigel Lake

Conventional business decision-making places a huge emphasis on the short term, thanks to the mathematics that is hard-wired into discounted cash flow valuation methodologies. This approach is, however, fundamentally flawed. By lumping all risk into a discount rate - rather than explicitly evaluating each risk - the future is made to disappear. This dramatically undervalues both long-term risk and long-term reality. If you want to stress test this idea, just ask any any sophisticated futures and options trader how they assess value. For more on this, please read our white paper on how to "End Accidental Time Bias" (click image to download).

Just A Little Bravery, by Cassandra Kelly

Every business leader – indeed most employees in most businesses – must face up to significant change at some point in their careers. Whether this comes through a financial crisis, or through the creeping effects of increasing competition or technological change, the same imperative remains: don’t shy away from change.

The lexicon of 21st century business is awash with excuses to ignore change, allowing leaders to “defer a decision until the landscape becomes clearer” and enabling them to be “too risk averse to act… That’s why the decisions to be made in 2022 are so important. There are huge opportunities to be seized as three parallel revolutions unfold with increasing pace. Read on>>>

For the full Pottinger Perspectives series, please click here.

Dawn Patrol, by Nigel Lake

A year has passed since the effects of the COVID-19 outbreak first began to be seriously felt in the West. For most, it has been a challenging year both at work and at home, and plenty of uncertainties still lie ahead. Nevertheless, technological development has continued apace, not least with the development of multiple vaccines in record time.

Meanwhile, the immediate pressure on businesses and governments to deliver short-term results remains as high as ever, making it hard to find time to position your business – or country – for what lies ahead in 2022 and beyond. That said, powerful technological shifts are happening in several major industry sectors, creating opportunity for those that can find the time to think through the implications and begin to act.

In Dawn Patrol, Nigel Lake share’s his perspectives on what is unfolding and how best to ride the technological waves as they build momentum.

Read on>>>