The Net Zero Journey: What Board Members Need to Know – Part 1

The urgency of climate change calls for a creative, yet articulate and precise approach to counter it. Adopting a new mindset , setting targets and engaging with policy makers will enable a company to respond decisively to this challenge.

In our webinar “The Net Zero Journey: What Board Members Need to Know”, hosted on the 13th of July, we were joined by Alizan Mahadi, Faroze Nadar, and Wee Ching Yun, who shared their perspectives on the importance of factors such as the impact of policy making, science based targets, and the circular economy model in the plastics industry.

Although there are many policies in Malaysia adjacent to Paris Agreement 2015, Malaysia does not have an explicit commitment to achieving Net Zero by 2050. However, Alizan explained that we are missing some broad-based targets and instruments that would help the country to achieve Net Zero.

At company level, these explicit targets are more effective if they are set based on scientific findings, which Faroze elaborated through demonstrating how companies can sign up with UN Global Compact to receive assistance and guidance to setting science-based targets in the interest of a long term, gradual reduction in carbon emissions.

CY then shared her insights as to how the plastics industry has embraced circular economy concept, and the importance in keeping the value of plastics within the economy, rather than allowing it to leak into our natural environment - a train of thought that could be applied to many other sectors and implemented in their own ways.

The webinar ended with a Q&A session, whereby our panelists answered questions from the audience. You can access the video of the session at this link.

We also include the answers by the panellists to the few unaddressed questions as follows-