The 2025 Osaka World Exposition opened over the weekend, featuring more than 150 pavilions from countries, regions, and groups around the world. The theme of Osaka Expo 2025 is 'Designing Future Society for Our Lives'; exhibits and features focus on technological innovation, sustainable development, and the benefits of global cooperation. Planners are expecting more than 28 million visitors over the exposition's six-month run. Gathered below are some of the scenes from Osaka on and before opening day. A man walks past Myaku-Myaku, the mascot of Expo 2025 Osaka, during a media preview day on April 9, 2025. Designer Kohei Yamashita spoke with Nikkei Asia about his five-eyed amorphous character, saying "Rather than smart or good-looking, I thought people would like a clumsy character." # Kawasaki Heavy Industries Group exhibits the Corleo, a concept model of a four-legged personal mobility vehicle that would offer off-road capabilities, at the Future Life Expo pavilion on April 13, 2025. # Signage that reads "Not for sale" hangs above items displayed inside the Ukraine pavilion at Expo 2025 Osaka on April 13, 2025. Ukraine's "Not for sale" pavilion features "18 items each symbolizing a human value'freedom, dignity, resilience, and so on." #...
Developing countries are facing multiple crises ' including climate change, crushing debt burdens, and growing food insecurity. The world's 17 U.N. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) ' once the bright north star for the international community ' sometimes seem dim and unattainably distant, just five urgent years from the deadline. The financing gap for achieving the SDGs is estimated at $4 trillion per year. One tool to help developing countries navigate these crises and build a promising future is the International Development Association (IDA), the concessional lending arm of the World Bank. It is a crucial lifeline to those who need it most. As we near the IDA's donor conference in December, its three-year replenishment hangs in the balance. IDA's centrality in funding development and climate resilience is undisputed. IDA is the largest source of financing for low-income countries and the world's largest fund for climate adaptation. It provides concessional loans (with low interest rates and long repayment periods) and grants to the poorest countries. It is essential to the fight against climate change and poverty....
This newsletter is a special one. It highlights the book I co-authored with a number of remarkable individuals over the course of 2024. My contribution includes Chapter 6, titled "Scaling Sustainable Finance: The Role of Asset Owners." The book's title, For the World's Profit, clearly reflects its purpose while emphasizing the urgency of taking action. We find ourselves at a defining moment where the paths of capitalism and sustainable development converge. For centuries, private enterprise has been a driving force in reducing poverty, fostering economic growth, and addressing societal issues. Through the mechanisms of profit-driven activities'such as resource allocation, innovation, competition, and production'businesses have delivered countless goods and services that enhance quality of life. Yet, while markets have succeeded in many ways, they have also fallen short, often amplifying or even causing some of humanity's most pressing challenges and environmental crises. This book gathers insights from leaders across the corporate, investment, governmental, academic, and nonprofit sectors to explore how business can better align its efforts with societal and environmental needs. It examines how businesses can collaborate with governments, financial institutions, and civil society to manage risks'not only those facing their enterprises but also those threatening people and the planet. The book also delves into mobilizing private resources, innovation, and networks to generate value by addressing critical social and environmental issues. Equally, it considers what forms of accountability are necessary to establish clear boundaries, ensure oversight, and incentivize responsible business behavior....
The amount of waste generated by the construction sector underscores an urgent need for embracing circularity ' a sustainable model that aims to minimize waste and maximize material efficiency through recovery and reuse ' in the built environment: 600 million tons of construction and demolition waste was produced in the United States alone in 2018, with 820 million tons reported in the European Union, and an excess of 2 billion tons annually in China. This significant resource loss embedded in our current industrial ecosystem marks a linear economy that operates on a 'take-make-dispose' model of construction; in contrast, the 'make-use-reuse' approach of a circular economy offers an important opportunity to reduce environmental impacts. A team of MIT researchers has begun to assess what may be needed to spur widespread circular transition within the built environment in a new open-access study that aims to understand stakeholders' current perceptions of circularity and quantify their willingness to pay....
