Organiser
Despite geopolitical fragmentation prompting some governments to recalibrate away from sustainability, investments in the space continue to grow – signalling strong market-led momentum.
Capital continues to flow into areas such as transition technologies and adaptation, supported by improving commercial viability, while financiers reprice physical climate risks due to their growing materiality.
Asia Pacific, in particular, is leading the way in sustainable finance with debt issuance, excluding asset-based securities, reaching US$274 billion in the first seven months of 2025 alone – countering trends in markets such as the US and Europe.
Sharpening the ESG Focus – Eco-Business Intelligence’s annual outlook briefing – provides an essential “pulse check” for the region’s sustainability community, offering an early-year checkpoint on how global forces in geopolitics, finance and the environment are redefining corporate strategy and risk.
In the Kuala Lumpur-based edition, the briefing will provide an exclusive industry deep dive into Malaysia and Asia’s next phase of sustainability, including strategies to stay ahead of the curve, covering the following themes:
Space is highly limited and subject to review and confirmation by Eco-Business.
Geoeconomic conflict has overtaken climate as the top concern for the world’s leaders, intensified by disputes between major economic powers and technological anxiety, a recent World Economic Forum report showed.
With the global situation continuing to temper the outlook for sustainability, this session assesses the most material risks facing Malaysian businesses and sustainability professionals today. This includes how trade developments in Europe (e.g., EUDR, CSRD), coupled with changes to China’s solar export rebates and US tariffs, will impact business operations which are already being strained by energy price shocks and extreme weather events. Furthermore, have COP30 developments created greater clarity for global alignment, or have they fuelled further uncertainty? And what can Malaysia expect in 2026 as it navigates these emerging risks?
By convening leading experts in their fields, the fireside chat will provide an in-depth and exclusive outlook for the year ahead, serving as a compass from which Malaysian businesses can steer strategy towards.
Senior Lecturer, Asia School of Business (ASB)
Chair of Council, Climate Governance Malaysia
Assistant Editor, Eco-Business
Founder and Managing Director, ESGpedia
Associate Partner and Regional Head, Southeast Asia for Cognitud
Associate Director for Asia, Carbon Trust
