Environment Social Governance (ESG)

This edition of Citi Perspectives for the Public Sector celebrates progress and highlights opportunities for improvement.

“Embracing Demographics” The empowerment and engagement of demographics, crucial to economic success.

Our guests express cautious optimism for opportunities and progress, but they acknowledge the significant work required to decarbonize these industries, recognizing the challenges but importance of the journey ahead.

GLP-1 ‘wonder-drugs’ have crashed into the collective consciousness in recent months. Claims about easy weight loss have clogged our social media feeds. A tribe of followers has emerged. A hype cycle has developed. What’s the substance behind the hype around these drugs--which have in fact been around for several years? And what impact could they have on the global battle against obesity and beyond, in places you might not have thought about yet? In this Citi GPS report we’ll look at some of these questions, laying out the scale of the global obesity problem, describing how GLP-1 drugs work, and examining their potential to be part of the long-term solution.

The value of individual philanthropy to the global economy is difficult to measure and therefore woefully underestimated. But its impact is undeniable. In this Citi GPS report, we focus on aspects of individual giving that we can measure – time and money – and estimate that global individual giving reaches $1.3 trillion every year. This can be broken down into $770 billion in monetary donations and $560 billion in the economic value of hours volunteered. To put this figure in context, individuals give time and money making up more than 1% of global GDP every year and 6x the official development assistance committed by OECD countries in 2023.

Despite media reports to the contrary, sustainable investment looks here to stay: an estimated $35 trillion in assets have a sustainable investment mandate. Why should investors care about extreme weather events, pollution, or food security? Because natural ecosystems underpin the functioning of a healthy economy and provide insights into key sectors dependent on natural capital.

The recent Draghi Report on European Competitiveness warns that a lack of innovation and investment across digitalization, decarbonization and defense is weakening Europe’s competitive position. We take a deeper look at the Report and its conclusions in a new Citi Research note.

The modern treasury and finance operation has so much more to offer any forward-looking business, beyond its traditional core competencies.

Hard-to-abate sectors such as steel, cement, shipping, and aviation are today responsible for more than one-third of energy-related greenhouse gas emissions when allocating emissions to different sectors.