CORPORATE SUSTAINABILITY AND ENVIRONMENTAL RIGHTS IN ASIA

Closing Plenary: | 5 OCTOBER

DATE AND TIME

5 October 15:30 -16:30 hrs (ICT)

Conference Room 3, UN Conference Centre Bangkok, Thailand

Overview:

After an exploration of efforts undertaken so far by states and business to address Asia’s environmental priorities, the closing plenary will afford an opportunity to reflect and set the agenda for opportunities for action to address environmental priorities. These include, mitigating greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, addressing adverse climate impacts, protecting nature, eliminating and reversing biodiversity loss, and mitigating air and water pollution, among others. In so doing, the plenary will explore the advantages for business in adopting policies which promote and protect the right to a healthy environment. The plenary discussion will identify gaps and space for collaboration between partners on wider, more controversial subjects. A mix of exchanges on environmental rule of law topics, and deeper dives in regulatory practice will motivate a constructive dialogue among different stakeholders on opportunities for business to deliver on environmental commitments.

Objective:

Reflect on the outcomes of conference, and outline way forward for future CSERA conferences.
Outline key recommendations for business in addressing these environmental priorities with a focus on the triple planetary crisis of pollution, biodiversity loss, and climate change.

Day1 programme

Moderator and Speakers

Jessica Cheam

Founder and Managing Director at Eco-Business

Jessica is the Founder and Managing Director of Eco-Business, Asia Pacific's leading independent media and business intelligence organisation dedicated to sustainable development. She is recognised as a sustainability pioneer with two decades of experience in media, sustainable development and ESG issues globally. She serves as an independent, non-executive director for two Singapore-listed companies Wilmar International and ComfortDelGro. She is a regular columnist for national newspapers, is an ESG committee member of the Singapore Institute of Directors. She is accredited with INSEAD’s Certificate of Corporate Governance and the CFA Institute Certificate in ESG Investing. Jessica specialises in advising the Boards of a wide range of government and multi-national organisations on ESG strategy and governance. Jessica is the Founder and Managing Director of Eco-Business, Asia Pacific's leading independent media and business intelligence organisation dedicated to sustainable development. She is recognised as a sustainability pioneer with two decades of experience in media, sustainable development and ESG issues globally. She serves as an independent, non-executive director for two Singapore-listed companies Wilmar International and ComfortDelGro. She is a regular columnist for national newspapers, is an ESG committee member of the Singapore Institute of Directors. She is accredited with INSEAD’s Certificate of Corporate Governance and the CFA Institute Certificate in ESG Investing. Jessica specialises in advising the Boards of a wide range of government and multi-national organisations on ESG strategy and governance.

Sean Lees (Moderator)

Business and Human Rights Specialist, United Nations Development Programme, Asia-Pacific

Sean Lees is a Business and Human Rights Specialist at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Asia/Pacific, serving in this role since 2017. In this capacity, Sean promotes responsible business action in India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Thailand. He advises companies on the most salient sustainability risks, drafts standard-setting guidance, and promotes policy development that advances business engagement in environment and human rights issues. Sean joined UNDP in 2007 and worked on human rights and rule of law issues in Afghanistan, Fiji, Iraq, and Sudan. Sean also served as a policy officer at the Executive Office of the UN Secretary-General in New York City. Prior to his work with the UN, Sean was a legal advisor to both the US Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security.

Mrinalini Rai

Director, Women4Biodiversity

As a Director of Women4Biodiversity, Mrinalini is a passionate advocate for women's rights and environmental justice. Her expertise lies in policy, advocacy, and research addressing human rights, gender, and environmental governance. She has spent several years advocating for the rights of indigenous peoples, local communities, women, and youth in various local and global environmental-related processes. She firmly believes in the power of the ground-level up movement, and the strength of communities' lived experiences and voices. She has supported community-led conservation initiatives in the global South for many years. She has a keen interest in working with strengthening synergies and recognizes the need for enhancing those synergies among Multilateral Environment Agreements, and other environmental-related policies and processes. She focused on integrating human rights and gender equality in the decisions and outcomes of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (UNCBD) and realising the need for a space for women and girls' engagement in the work of the Convention established the CBD Women’s Caucus in 2014.Among other contributions, Dr. Seck is co-editor of Global Environmental Change and Innovation in International Law (CUP 2017), co-editor of a 2019 special issue of the Canadian Journal of Women and the Law on resource extraction and the human rights of women and girls, and co-editor of Cambridge Handbook on Environmental Justice and Sustainable Development (CUP 2020).

Renaud Meyer

Resident Representative, UNDP Thailand

Renaud Meyer started his assignment as UNDP Resident Representative to Thailand on 26 March 2019, coming from Nepal where he was the UNDP Country Director since January 2015.

Prior to that, Renaud served as Senior Deputy Country Director for UNDP Afghanistan from November 2012 to December 2014. UNDP Country Director in the Philippines from August 2008 to October 2012 and Deputy Country Director of UNDP China from August 2004 till August 2008.

Before serving UNDP in Asia, Renaud served four years in Headquarters as the Special Assistant to the UNDP Associate Administrator in the Executive Office in New York from 2002 to 2004 and as Special Assistant to the Director of the Bureau for Development Policy starting in 2000.

Renaud started his UNDP career as a Programme Officer (JPO) in Lebanon in 1998.

Before joining the United Nations, Renaud Meyer worked in Tunisia for the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Liza Murphy

Head,Conservation Management Assurance Team, IUCN

Liza believes strongly in the development of business models that bring benefit to all, from producers to end users, and in those that encourage appropriate and sustainable use of our natural resources.

She has successfully worked to develop a wide variety of partnerships, tools and policies that strengthen the market recognition and reward for sustainable behaviors throughout global supply chains. She has found success in building and expanding markets for sustainably sourced products.

Appropriate capitalization on these engagements is something she has worked to embed in organizations she has worked with.

Closing Plenary: | 5 OCTOBER

DATE AND TIME

Overview:

Moderator and Speakers

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Closing Plenary: | 5 OCTOBER

DATE AND TIME

Overview:

​

Moderator and Speakers

Contact us

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