'I don't see us slipping back': Paul Polman on COP27, the energy crisis, and why net zero is winning the argument

Michael Holder
clock • 11 min read
Paul Polman stepped down from Unilever in 2018 to co-found Imagine
Image:

Paul Polman stepped down from Unilever in 2018 to co-found Imagine

Former Unilever CEO and leading green business campaigner talks to BusinessGreen about the huge challenges facing corporate climate efforts

"I help politicians, and I have a lot of time for them, but I'm a little bit of a political orphan." Paul Polman is ruminating on whether, after a long and distinguished career in business, venture...

To continue reading this article...

Join BusinessGreen

In just a few clicks you can start your free BusinessGreen Lite membership for 12 months, providing you access to:

  • Three complimentary articles per month covering the latest real-time news, analysis, and opinion from Europe’s leading source of information on the Green economy and business
  • Receive important and breaking news stories via our daily news alert
  • Our weekly newsletter with the best of the week’s green business news and analysis

Join now

 

Already a BusinessGreen member?

Login

More on Management

'A report has to be read to drive change': How to build an award-winning sustainability report

'A report has to be read to drive change': How to build an award-winning sustainability report

Finalists from the UK Green Business Awards' Sustainability Report of the Year category explain how they struck a balance between eye-catching and credible

Stuart Stone
clock 30 October 2026 • 17 min read
Mandarin Oriental's Kandé Camara: 'Developing a strategy can be a long and sometimes lonely process'

Mandarin Oriental's Kandé Camara: 'Developing a strategy can be a long and sometimes lonely process'

Kandé Camara sheds light on Mandarin Oriental's new sustainability platform, and how setbacks arise when well-intentioned initiatives are too idealistic to implement

Stuart Stone
clock 27 October 2026 • 8 min read
Study: Almost all firms setting sustainability targets - but fewer than half explain poor performance

Study: Almost all firms setting sustainability targets - but fewer than half explain poor performance

While sustainability strategies, materiality assessments, reporting, and targets have ‘matured considerably’, they’re not yet shaping business decisions, WBCSD claims

Stuart Stone
clock 22 October 2026 • 4 min read