Keynote Session delivered by Mofifoluwa Olawumi

1. Decoupling and
Divestment for
Sustainability
Mofifoluwa Olawumi
July 8, 2022
Eko Climathon 1.0

2. Content
• Introduction
• Difference between Decoupling and Divestment
• Business and Sustainability
• Impact of sustainability innovations on financial performance?
• Climate-tech innovation for the business of the future
• Summary
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3. Introduction
• Global development depends on the
natural environment from land, water,
biodiversity, minerals, and energy.
• Our global natural resource use has
tripled since 1970 and is still on the rise.
• The exploitation of natural resources is
no longer necessary to achieve growth;
sustainable technologies are abundant,
efficient, and affordable.
• Resources must be at the centre of
climate and biodiversity policies if we
are to reach international sustainability
targets
• Investments in development must
ensure that greater consideration is
given to the depletion of these
resources.
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Societal
well-being
Economic
growth
Natural
Environment

4. Decoupling vs Divestment
Decoupling (Eco-environmental)
Striving for economic growth without
creating corresponding environmental
impacts, costs or demands.
• Typically used for nations in reference
to GDP
• Economies can achieve more growth
with relatively lower environmental
costs – as they become more resource
and technologically efficient.
• The ongoing shift to green energy
contributes to ‘relative’ decoupling.
• Arguments for and against the
feasibility of decoupling to deliver
substantial benefits.
Divestment
Business commitment to pull assets and
capital investments from non-
sustainable sectors - e.g. fossil fuel
companies
• In 2018, the sustainability divestment
movement increased globally with the
rise of various ESG guiding principles,
regulations, stakeholder pressure, etc.
• This has led to a lot of public
commitments and targets (e.g. Net
Zero BankingAlliance, PRBs, ABLC,
etc.)
• Many businesses are taking action to
align their investments with more
sustainable practices e.g. clean tech.
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5. Business and Sustainability
• The global sustainability movement
best represents the current global
modernization era.
• The world is changing, and
businesses of the future are those
focused on transitioning in line with
global goals.
• ESG should be a common practice for
all industries and corporations in the
developed world today
• It just makes sense.
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6. Sustainability Innovation and Financial
Performance
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• Green innovation and corporate financial performance have a linear
relationship.
• Eco-innovation drives resource efficiency and improves firms'
financial performance.
• It incorporates technological improvements that save energy,
prevent pollution, or enable waste recycling and can include green
product design and corporate environmental management.

7. Climate-tech innovation for the business of the future
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• This is the era of climate innovation
• We need to transform entire systems collaboratively
• Inclusion and equity must be at the heart of climate action.
• Good policy drives innovation
• Climate tech investment is booming
• *carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS)

8. Summary
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• Energy transition is one of the biggest business opportunities we have
today.As ‘climate’ continues to propel innovation, we can reinvent business
models, disrupt the status quo and drive solutions at scale.
• Ultimately, we are the change-makers
Government
Policies
Environmentally
sound
technologies
Sustainable
financing
Capacity-building Partnerships
Product design
and standards
Large-scale reuse,
recycling and
remanufacturing
Models built
around circular
economy
Consumer
Behavior

9. Thank you.