SUNNY Verghese, chief executive of Olam Group, aptly summarised the mood for many speakers and participants at last week’s (Apr 15 to 17) Ecosperity sustainability conference. “We don’t need any more goals, and we don’t need any more on what we need to do,” Verghese said. “We (should) focus on specific, actionable, granular plans”.

The urgent need for action and implementation was brought up often during the conference, which was organised by Singapore investment company Temasek and in its 10th edition.

Ecosperity started off in 2004 as a half-day event attended by regional leaders. During last week’s event, global players met over three days to discuss everything from phasing out fossil fuels in South-east Asia to the pricing of nature through carbon credits.