Roundtable Discussions
In a world of increasing uncertainty
and elevated risk, government leaders
and ofcials are striving to make their
organizations more resilient to future shocks
and disruptions. To this end, IBM launched a
multi-year Future Shocks initiative, bringing
together representatives and experts from
governments, business, academia, and
non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to
identify and reinforce the capabilities and
capacities societies need to thrive.
As part of the Future Shocks program, IBM and the American Chamber of Commerce in Finland convened
a roundtable event in Helsinki in November 2023 to discuss and share insights on climate resilience and
sustainability. Comprising senior leaders from Finland’s public and private sectors, the roundtable explored
how governments—in partnership with other organizations—can take concrete steps to scale action on climate
change and build foundations that support climate-resilient societies and economies.
Participants saw a greater focus on addressing climate change but not as much emphasis on adapting to
changing climate conditions. For example, people often think of global warming in terms of its impact on other
species, such as polar bears struggling with the loss of sea ice.
Government has a key role to play in building and maintaining momentum on sustainability and climate resilience.
But to fulll this role, its leaders must shift their thinking in how governments operate. They need to break down the
silos between departments to achieve integrated action for a sustainable transition. This step needs to cover both
the environmental and social aspects of sustainability.
Sustainability can be framed as a win-win for society and business. For example, Finland is viewed as a sustainability
leader and could serve as a recommended example for other countries. Moreover, Finland brands itself as a
green, modern, innovative, and digitally advanced country. This trait could be used to rally the nation for action on
sustainability and then use that consensus as a selling point to attract investments and export Finnish innovations
and solutions. In other words, Finland turns sustainability into a unique selling proposition for Finland, based on
differentiation. “We have all the ingredients. It’s a matter of getting organized.”
In their own words: How CEOs are forging paths to sustainability
The Power of AI: Sustainability
Preparing governments for future shocks: Roadmap to resilience
In her opening remarks, Cristina Caballe Fuguet,
senior partner and global government leader for IBM
Consulting said, “I am delighted to experience the
great progress that Finland is driving on the digital
and green agenda. For the third time in a row, Finland
ranked rst in the UN Sustainable Development
Index in 2023. The Finnish government also set
the ambitious target of becoming carbon neutral by
2035—a full 15 years before most other European
countries and the EU as an entity.
1
And many Finnish
cities have set their goals even higher.”
“How many more
deaths are we willing
to accept as a result of
the climate crisis and
because we are not
acting fast enough?”
“We don’t yet associate climate change with human
survival issues. The alarm bells are not yet ringing for
us individually.” This distinction is particularly striking
as some estimates predict that, in coming decades,
Europe will experience 90,000 fatalities per year
related to climate-change impacts.
Some of the toughest questions are coming from the
younger generation as they ask for more research
into innovations that can help people adapt to climate
change. “If we can’t reduce emissions fast enough,
maybe we need to think about what else we can do.”
“Helsinki strives to be
carbon neutral by 2035.
The world is looking to
Finland as a leader in
climate resilience.”
Governments can provide platforms for cooperation
among public, private, and non-prot sectors, and
they can launch campaigns that engage citizens and
stakeholders in making a difference, such as the One
Degree program in Finland. Nevertheless, participants
agreed that every country is different and needs to
nd specic solutions.
Sustainability is already a branding differentiator
for Finland. According to the 2023 World Happiness
Report, Finland ranks as the happiest country in the
world for the sixth year in a row.
4
The study outlines
how happiness is intimately related to Finnish values
and respect for nature and biodiversity.
While it is easy to be despondent about climate crises,
participants pointed to reasons for optimism. It is still
possible to achieve ambitious climate goals. “A bounce
forward has happened in a very short time. For example,
renewable energy is moving forward much faster than the
targets set by governments.”
However, momentum needs to be accelerated. To
complicate matters, in countries such as Finland, “low-
hanging fruit” has already been harvested. The key
question remains: “Is there the political courage to move
forward with the more difcult decisions and political
measures required?” In this context, participants agreed
that “business and private sectors share a crucial role in
pushing decision-makers forward.”
Taking the next steps is a major challenge because
sustainability is often crowded out by other priorities.
The situation is exacerbated when businesses and
governments struggle to make the value case for
sustainability investments, given sustainability
investments typically take longer to break even than
the two-to three-year payback period required for most
investment decisions.
Data can power collaboration and new ways of
operating sustainably in public and private sectors
by fueling new knowledge and perspectives. “You get
what you measure, so how can we measure?”
Many jurisdictions, especially cities, already collect
vast amounts of data. The challenge is converting
that wealth of data into actionable insights. “We need
to start using that data.”
As a rst step, governments can integrate data
that already exists. This integration will create
opportunities to apply AI and other technologies
to develop more nuanced and timely insights and
pinpoint options for improvement. Governments
can enable these efforts by applying essential data
governance, unied standards, and frameworks.
In fact, government entities could curate
sustainability data and use it to drive collaborative
innovation and action.
Perspectives on climate resilience
and sustainability: Helsinki
Prioritizing sustainability at the government level
Cooperating in new ways
Moving from ambition to action
As climate change related impacts increase,
organizational leaders are making sustainability a
central focus. Research from the IBM Institute for
Business Value showed that in 2022, CEOs ranked
sustainability as a top priority 37% more frequently
than in the previous year.
2
Urgency of action was
a key theme. However, a clear gap exists between
addressing sustainability challenges and taking
effective action.
For example, while 95% of organizations had an ESG
proposition, only 10% had made signicant progress
executing against ESG propositions. The top barrier to
progress continues to be the inability to fully analyze
data in support of decision-making. As many as 73%
of organizations said their sustainability efforts are
held back by the manual processing required when
working with large amounts of data.
3
In addition to better data management, ecosystem
partner engagement is another key to success. No
organization can achieve sustainability objectives
working alone. With these ndings as context, here
is what the participants had to say.
Making sustainability a unique selling proposition
Related IBV
reports
and resources
Addressing climate change and climate adaptation
“There aren’t really
any best practices in
the world because
practices are not easily
exported. Practices are
tied to the culture and
values of each society.”
Using data and transparency as key enablers
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Published in partnership with the IBM Center for The Business of Government
1 Carbon Neutral Finland 2035
https://www.treasuryfinland.fi/investor-relations/
sustainability-and-finnish-government-bonds/
carbon-neutral-finland-2035/
2 In their own words: How CEOs are forging paths to sustainability
https://www.ibm.com/thought-leadership/institute-business-value/
en-us/report/ceo-sustainability
Notes and sources
3 The ESG data conundrum
https://www.ibm.com/thought-leadership/institute-business-value/
en-us/report/esg-data-conundrum
4 2023 World Happiness Report
https://worldhappiness.report/ed/2023/
90K
fatalities per year
in Europe related to
climate change impacts.
of organizations said their sustainability
efforts are held back by the manual
processing required when working with
large amounts of data.
73%
IBM Institute for Business Value
Future Shocks
