We are already in “extra time” as far as this particular match is concerned, and the score is currently not favourable to us. This sense of urgency is widely shared. The COP25’s slogan “Time for Action is now” clearly reflects this. In addition, less than two weeks ago, the European Parliament declared a climate and environmental emergency, calling for reductions in global emissions to be stepped up and demanding more financial support to fight climate change.3 Today we are honoured to have with us Lord Nicholas Stern, who has been a prominent advocate of this urgency for quite some time. It is well known that one of the main research developments in this field was the 2006 report, commissioned by the British government and led by Lord Stern.4 The report concluded that the benefits of strong and early action far outweighed the economic costs of not acting.5 Two of the main findings of the report were that the costs of stabilising climate were significant but manageable, while delayed action was dangerous and much more costly. Importantly, the report concluded that there was still time to avoid the worst impacts of climate change, if we took strong action. 1  Source: World Meteorological Organization, 3 December 2019, January to October. https://public.wmo.int/en/media/press-release/2019-concludes-decade-of-exceptional-global-heat-and-high-impactweather 2 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (2018). 3 European Parliament, press release 29-11-2019. https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/pressroom/20191121IPR67110/the-european-parliament-declares-climate-emergency 4 http://www.lse.ac.uk/GranthamInstitute/publication/the-economics-of-climate-change-the-stern-review/ 5 https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20100407163608/http://www.hmtreasury.gov.uk/d/Summary_of_Conclusions.pdf 2/5  Of course, it is worth repeating that these conclusions were flagged already in 2006, more than thirteen years ago.

32 Đ Đ I wish you a fruitful general assembly and annual meeting in Singapore. Thank you. [1] The IMF’s 2019 global growth forecast was lowered to 3.2%, as cited in the World Economic Outlook, July 2019. [2] IMF World Economic Outlook, July 2019 [3] The world’s best performing developing economies are defined as those that have averaged at least 3.5% annual per capita GDP growth over 50 years or 5% annual growth  over 20 years, as cited in the McKinsey Global Institute Study on Outperformers Maintaining ASEAN Countries’ Exceptional Growth Report in 2018. [4] Population projections from the UN. The relative market size of ASEAN is cited by the US-ASEAN Business Council in its growth projections for ASEAN in 2050. [5] DBS Bank and the UN Environment, Green Finance Opportunities in ASEAN 2017 [6] ASEAN Green / Social / Sustainability Bonds / Sukuk for October 2019 [7] GCIO Sustainability Reporting in ASEAN Research Report 2018 [8] Nasdaq and Celent July 2018, Global C-Suite Study on Capital Markets Infrastructure Technology [9] Global private equity valuations has grown more than 700% since 2002 in 2017, outpacing public equity market valuations, McKinsey Global Private Markets Review 2019, Private markets come of age. [10] CFA Institute Nov 2018, Capital Formation: The Evolving Role of Public and Private Markets [11] Wall Street Journal Jan 2018, Fewer Listed Companies: Is That Good or Bad for Stock Markets?