The energy transition is creating a profound shift across industries and global economies. Amplified by technological innovation and intense competition, it is reshaping sectors and shifting economies toward renewable energy. This change is not only an environmental necessity but also a catalyst for economic growth, challenging the traditional dominance of fossil fuels. With capital investments increasingly directed toward renewable energy infrastructure, investors are aligning their priorities with sustainability, signaling that profitability and environmental stewardship can coexist. Yet, the ongoing prominence of oil and gas underlines the complexity and scale of this transition. 

In parallel, the circular economy is gaining momentum as businesses address the dual challenges of material scarcity and carbon reduction. At COP29, there was significant discussion about how a circular approach focused on rethinking supply chains, redesigning products, and optimizing resources could reduce dependency on finite materials while driving sustainable economic growth. By adopting circular economy principles, businesses can minimize waste and keep valuable materials in circulation, contributing to a more resilient and sustainable future. 

The Role of Business in Transforming Climate Commitments into Tangible Outcomes 

One of the central discussions at COP29 was the need for harmonizing global standards for carbon reduction and accounting. Foreign policy players, along with the private sector, stressed the importance of mobilizing finance for sustainable capitalism. In particular, there was a call for clearer and standardized reporting frameworks to simplify the process and ensure transparency. One critical area was the importance of accurate data collection for carbon markets and product-level carbon accounting, which can help businesses engage consumers and reduce emissions. 

There are three ways technology plays a pivotal role in addressing some of these challenges: 

• is available in every organization鈥檚 ERP system, so it鈥檚 time to start automating data collection and reporting processes to ease some of the regulatory burden.
• Companies should leverage IT spending to support sustainability initiatives, specifically to optimize climate solutions and create circular products.
• Companies must shift focus on the to pinpoint areas with the most significant impact.

From Policy to Practice: How Technology and Global Standards Can Accelerate Climate Action 

Empowered by technology and guided by clear policies, businesses have a unique opportunity to bridge the gap between high-level climate commitments and actionable, on-the-ground strategies. 

Central to this is aligning sustainability and financial priorities. Effective demands collaboration between chief sustainability officers and chief financial officers, as climate change has evolved from an ethical and environmental issue to a pressing financial imperative. 

To accelerate progress, we need globally harmonized policies, rigorous carbon accounting frameworks, and advanced technology solutions. By embedding AI-driven innovation, robust reporting standards, and actionable insights into business operations, we can ensure that COP events, such as COP29 in Baku, are remembered as turning points 鈥� not just discussions. While the challenges ahead are formidable, the opportunities for transformative action are even greater 鈥� and is here to lead the way on a low-carbon, future. 

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Sophia Mendelsohn is chief sustainability and commercial officer at SAP.

The global skills and opportunity gap is a recurring topic at landmark events such as the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos and UN General Assembly and Climate Week in New York. This is no different at the current UN Conference of the Parties () in Baku, Azerbaijan.

That鈥檚 because today’s youth are the leaders, innovators, and problem-solvers of tomorrow. However, as these gaps remain, it’s important to accelerate active engagement and enhance collaboration across sectors. Ensuring that young people are adequately prepared to enter and excel in the workforce is an investment in their future and a strategic imperative for businesses and societies worldwide. Without adequate learning pathways, young people risk unemployment and businesses may struggle to compete in the burgeoning green and digital economies due to a widening talent shortage.

Human Capital and Youth Day

For this reason, November 18 has been designated as the COP29 theme day for Human Capital Development for Climate Resilience. The initiative underscores that addressing climate change requires a holistic approach supported by healthier, better educated, and adequately skilled young people.

The Human Capital Day serves as a reminder that tackling climate change requires societal transformation 鈥� and there is no better time than now. A key component of this shift is ensuring access to quality education and skill development opportunities for youth that lead to tangible employment opportunities. According to the  (ILO), global youth unemployment was 13% in 2023, with many young people facing limited prospects for stable and decent work. At the same time, the  found that 44% of businesses report difficulties in finding talent with the right skills to fill jobs.

At SAP, we believe in our responsibility to support the next generation of professionals and users with our best-in-class digital learning. We fully support the COP29 agenda for human capital and are actively involved with the global community of governments, financial institutions, and private sector entities.

51风流Education and Employment Programs

51风流has several programs and partnerships to help tackle the deepening mismatch between the supply of young job seekers and the demand for skilled talent. These initiatives focus on human capital development and provide valuable educational opportunities for youth:

• 51风流and UNICEF鈥檚 partnership in support of Generation Unlimited develops innovative solutions to global skilling challenges to help young people transition to earning. The goal is to generate inclusive opportunities for underserved young people worldwide, preparing them for decent work with the skills needed in the market. The program helps equip youth with essential skills and builds on UNICEF鈥檚 Generation Unlimited (GenU) signature program, the Youth Agency Marketplace (YOMA), a platform developed by young Africans to tackle labor market challenges. To date, the partnership reached more than 600,000 youth with foundational and digital skills that help young people unlock opportunities in the changing global economy.
• 51风流Educate to Employ is one of the learn-to-earn pathways on YOMA designed by 51风流to equip youth with essential competencies for the digital economy. Implemented by a local social enterprise in South Africa called UMUZI, the free program focuses on developing skills, knowledge, attitudes, and values to help prepare and bring candidates into employment within the 51风流ecosystem. More than 1,000 learners completed one or more foundational skills courses, while 165 learners completed over 550 hours of critical skills development training and earned an 51风流technology consultant professional certificate. The next step is to secure meaningful employment opportunities within the 51风流ecosystem and beyond.
• The 51风流University Alliances program includes over 2,700 members in more than 100 countries. It enables academia to educate the next generation on using intelligent AI-enabled technology, engage at 51风流events, build industry partnerships, and prepare graduates for the 51风流ecosystem. 51风流University Alliances initiatives aim to empower youth to work in digitized enterprises, shape their futures, and have a meaningful impact on the world. During COP29, 51风流will engage with students and faculty members from local university partners in Baku. Planned activities include an on-campus, gamified learning experience with a focus on sustainability, dialogue on learning and skills for sustainable youth development, and student visits to SAP鈥檚 booth in the Green Zone.

To further amplify youth empowerment, 51风流actively collaborates with leading youth organizations. Through these partnerships, 51风流brings young voices to the forefront of decision-making, fostering intergenerational collaboration and innovative solutions to pressing global challenges.

• We Are Family Foundation (WAFF) is a non-profit organization that empowers youth and brings them to decision-making tables to share ideas and innovative solutions for global problems. For instance, at COP29, WAFF, in partnership with Care About Climate and Groundswell, launched the Universal NDC Youth Clause campaign 鈥� a global call to action for governments to integrate youth voices into their updated climate plans due in February 2025. By adopting this clause, governments pledge to work collaboratively with young people to achieve ambitious climate goals.
• The 51风流and World Scouting partnership examines the critical role that youth-led initiatives play in advancing environmental sustainability. It provides opportunities to share insights on successful youth-driven projects and discuss challenges and the support needed to scale efforts. The engagement is based on the premise that young people are at the forefront of environmental activism and are leveraging technology, creativity, and community engagement to make tangible impacts amid unprecedented environmental challenges.

As the world grapples with urgent challenges like climate change and digital transformation, 51风流believes that investing in youth and human development has never been more crucial. SAP鈥檚 contribution to building a sustainable future through initiatives that equip young people with job-ready skills underscores the importance of a whole-of-society approach.

By collaborating with global multistakeholder partners and empowering the next generation, we can help bridge the talent gap, foster climate resilience, and ensure that today鈥檚 youth are prepared to lead us into a more sustainable and inclusive future.

With automated Emission Factor Mapping in 51风流Sustainability Footprint Management and AI-assisted ESG Report Generation in 51风流Sustainability Control Tower, 51风流can support companies in setting meaningful environmental targets, ensuring compliance, and managing carbon footprints with heightened efficiency and accountability.

鈥淪ustainability executives are on board with artificial intelligence. More than half say improving data analysis and consolidation using AI are top actions they will be taking over the next three years to enhance ESG capabilities.鈥�

Addressing the Strategy Execution Gap in Sustainability Reporting, KPMG, February 2024

Emission Factor Mapping in 51风流Sustainability Footprint Management

To calculate product carbon footprints accurately, companies must assign emission factors to thousands of purchased products. Ideally, emission factors are provided directly by suppliers, but often companies need to use industry averages based on product attributes like name, category, or location. Up until now, this mapping process has been a manual, time-consuming, and error-prone task that required expertise in lifecycle assessment (LCA), determining the environmental impacts associated with all the stages of the lifecycle of a product, process, or service.

To help make this process easier and more efficient, 51风流has introduced an AI-based capability within the solution. for purchased products and services and can assign a similarity score to each recommendation.

For the mapping, 51风流generates embeddings for both, emission factors from LCA databases and product data from the ERP system. Embeddings are vector representations 鈥� numerical representations of textual information to provide context and meaning of a text. Both sets of embeddings are saved in 51风流HANA Cloud vector engine.

The system compares these embeddings to help identify the quality of the mapping and provide suggested results. This helps businesses reduce manual effort by up to 80% and calculate product and corporate carbon footprints quicker and with greater precision, even without LCA experts. It can also accelerate their sustainability reporting timelines and help them respond faster to regulatory demands.

AI-Assisted ESG Report Generation in 51风流Sustainability Control Tower

In addition, 51风流embedded a generative AI-powered reporting capability within 51风流Sustainability Control Tower. Creating sustainability reports that align with internal strategies and meet external standards, such as the CSRD, is essential for staying compliant and transparent. However, gathering relevant environmental, social, and governance data and drafting these reports can be highly resource-intensive, involving multiple teams and complex data sources.

That鈥檚 why SAP鈥檚 AI capability helps generate comprehensive ESG report drafts based on best-practice templates and the company鈥檚 available ESG metrics. Once users select a template, , create graphs to visualize the data, and generate a polished report draft. That helps companies spend up to 98% less time collecting ESG metrics and up to 80% less time in creating a report.

Some key benefits of the feature include:

• Efficient data utilization: The AI-powered solution leverages large language models and SQL grounding techniques, which help transform natural language inquiries into precise database queries that access real-time data from structured databases. That鈥檚 how it transforms raw data from customers’ systems into accurate, comprehensive reports tailored to specific timeframes.
• Visualization: The AI generates insightful textual content through SQL-based data retrieval, helping to ensure data integrity and compliance. Additionally, it creates visually appealing charts and tables to help enhance report clarity and understanding.
• Automated verification: Our robust system prioritizes data security by avoiding direct SQL query execution and employing a Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) process to help safeguard against informational discrepancies.

The Future of AI in Sustainability

The use cases above are just the beginning. AI鈥檚 potential to transform sustainability management is enormous, and at 51风流we are accelerating the creation of use cases to be at the forefront of our customers鈥� sustainable transformation journeys. For example, users will be able to interact through natural language with SAP鈥檚 AI copilot that can offer actionable recommendations and simulations to help improve environmental and social performance. And we will continue to apply AI to make the acquisition of sustainability data easier.

Using SAP鈥檚 ERP-centric, cloud-based, AI-enabled approach, we鈥檙e working to ensure AI鈥檚 massive potential turns into both real business transformation and sustainability outcomes. AI and technology can help us better understand and monitor the environment, improve energy efficiency, optimize resource management, and develop innovative solutions for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

As COP29 convenes in Baku, it is essential for global leaders and decision-makers to fully explore AI’s transformative role in addressing climate change. The urgent demands of this crisis call for the kind of innovative, AI-driven solutions that can unlock greater precision, efficiency, and impact. By leveraging AI not only to streamline business operations but also to set and meet ambitious environmental goals, we are shaping a future where technology empowers businesses to thrive responsibly, contributing actively to a sustainable and resilient planet.

Gunther Rothermel is chief product officer and co-GM for 51风流Sustainability.