For PH envoy, sustainability is more than a ‘buzzword’
Discussion on sustainability used to be met with so much anticipation, but as targets fell short and the impacts of climate change continue to persist, the term has become just another “buzzword.”
“In my previous assignment, I was part of the team at the United Nations in New York. I was a negotiator for the SDGs, the Sustainable Development Goals, and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change,” narrated Maria Angela Ponce, Philippine Ambassador to Malaysia.
Speaking during this year’s Asia ESG Summit held Nov. 5 to 7 at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Ponce shared that back in 2015, it was a year filled with multilateral agreements, and at that time, “there was so much enthusiasm, there was so much hope, and there was so much anticipation.”
“There was so much humanization of the process, discussions, and negotiations,” Ponce said. “They set the goal for 2030, for something to happen to achieve all these SDGs that were identified, and then they set the details of implementation and the roadmap on how to get there.”
Lost connection
However, midway around 2020 to 2021, Ponce recalled how “everyone was in desperation, because especially for climate change and for the oceans, what they were looking at, what they were seeing was, you’re not going to reach goals by 2030.”
“Along the way, SDGs became really a buzzword that lost its connection to the human aspect of it,” she said.
Now, with the Philippines taking on chairmanship of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) and the holding of the Asia ESG Summit, where at least 35 experts from both the public and private sectors discussed sustainability trends and shared best practices across various industries, Ponce hopes that the “human aspect” of the SDGs can be brought back.
“ESG (environmental, social, and governance) is not just greenwashing, but something that the private sector and corporations [can] really integrate into their systems. We hope that the work can continue on that,” she said.
Ponce also stressed how important it was for the private sector to “see that being sustainable in your practices and in your systems… makes good business sense,” and that collaboration with the government is important in achieving sustainability goals.
“The government cannot do it alone, [the] private sector cannot do it alone… They need to really work together in order for an accomplishment to move forward, to see that by 2030, if we have not accomplished our goals, at least we move closer to them, and then we reevaluate what’s working and what’s not working,” she said.
Pressing challenges
The Asia ESG Summit seeks to deepen understanding of ESG principles and inspire organizations to implement initiatives that would address pressing sustainability challenges in Southeast Asia, while also emphasizing the region’s role in achieving a net-zero future.
Speakers included experts, sustainability managers, and business leaders from technology, real estate, and telecommunication industries, as well as the academe, think tanks, and nongovernmental organizations.
The event’s topics included climate change mitigation, renewable energy, circular economy models, diversity and inclusion, ethical business practices, and stakeholder engagement.
The summit concluded with the Asia ESG Positive Impact Awards 2025, which gave recognition to businesses and organizations from the Philippines, Malaysia, and Indonesia that implemented some of the best sustainability programs in the region.
These companies had emerged as the gold winners of the ESG awards in their respective countries—the Philippine Daily Inquirer’s ESG Edge Impact Awards in the Philippines, The Star’s ESG Positive Impact Awards in Malaysia, and KG Media’s Lestari Awards in Indonesia—and now advanced to the regional stage.
The awards served as a recognition for ESG excellence while also inspiring industry-wide transformation and setting new benchmarks for sustainability leadership in Asia.
