Global leaders from business, civil society and universities meet in New York, United States, today for the UN Global Compact Leaders Summit. They will debate what the organisers call the "tremendous market opportunity for businesses ... to invest, innovate and collaborate to create a more sustainable future for all".
I can't help balking at the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) being pitched as a business opportunity. Free market policies and privatisation appear to have made the world less sustainable and more unequal over the past few decades. Look no further than the structural adjustment programmes of the 1980s, and consequent underinvestment in state services, for an example of this in developing countries.
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