The 2025 Global Sustainable Leaders Conference was held from October 16 to 18 in the Shanghai Expo Area of Huangpu District.
The conference, jointly hosted by the World Green Design Organization (WGDO) and SINA Corp, with support from the Beijing office of the International Financial Reporting Standards Foundation (IFRS Foundation) and the local government, focuses on the theme "Joining Hands to Face Challenges: Global Action, Innovation, and Sustainable Growth". This event gathers global wisdom to explore new pathways for sustainable development and injects vigorous "Chinese momentum" into global sustainable governance.
This year's conference is an upgrade from the previous four "ESG Global Leaders Conferences". The organizing committee has invited approximately 500 prominent guests, including around 100 international figures, such as current and former government officials, representatives from international organizations, Nobel laureates, Turing Award winners, and leaders of Fortune 500 companies. The discussions will delve into nearly 50 topics, covering detailed areas like energy and "dual carbon" initiatives, green finance, sustainable consumption, technology, and public welfare.
Chen Kai, Chairman of Ernst & Young China and CEO of Ernst & Young Greater China, was invited to the conference and delivered a video speech during the forum on "The Future of Sustainable Business — Trends, Challenges, and Opportunities."
Chen remarked that the digital wave driven by artificial intelligence (AI) presents both new opportunities and challenges for sustainable business development. He noted that AI technology significantly improves the efficiency of collecting, analyzing, and processing Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) data. To leverage AI for ESG management, it is crucial to transition from "governance" to "intelligent governance", positioning AI as a core engine for driving high-quality sustainable development in businesses.
He mentioned Ernst & Young’s global initiative, "All in AI", aimed at accelerating global innovation from strategic design to platform implementation and real-world applications. In April of this year, Ernst & Young launched the industry's first innovative product that integrates cognitive intelligence with professional knowledge — the Ernst & Young Intelligent Q&A (EYA.ai and ESG.ai), pioneering a new paradigm for intelligent ESG services. AI's broad application prospects in various industries are promising.
To harness AI for ESG development, Chen shared several recommendations: first, utilize AI to optimize corporate ESG management, assisting in assessing the scientific and rational aspects of management decisions, enhancing decision-making processes, and improving transparency; second, leverage AI for ESG risk warning, through data integration, real-time monitoring, predictive modeling, and cross-domain analysis to identify climate risks and other potential ESG risks efficiently; third, use AI to explore pathways for green transformation by analyzing ESG data to pinpoint peak carbon emission stages, crafting strategic plans that include short-, medium-, and long-term reduction targets; fourth, enhance the quality of information disclosure using generative AI technology, which addresses data lag issues while ensuring compliance with local standards and provides ESG ratings to benchmark against industry best practices.
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