Picton Property Income Limited Sustainability Report 2022
Introduction
07
Environmental Focus
Stakeholder Engagement
Governance
Appendix
Global trends driving sustainability
The sustainability landscape continues to evolve, bringing both new challenges and opportunities. There are severe risks we face on a global scale and many of these are interconnected in nature. This year the war in Ukraine brought a new humanitarian crisis and has added millions to the number of refugees globally. The Covid-19 pandemic is evolving towards its endemic phase but its legacy in terms of health, education, social care and vaccine inequality live on. These global events, coupled with the ongoing climate change emergency, are amongst the largest drivers of environmental and social disruption the world is facing.
Geopolitical tensions According to United Nations and the UN Refugee Agency, the number of ‘forcibly displaced people’ worldwide has reached 100 million for the first time on record. This number includes refugees, asylum seekers and those displaced within their own countries as a result of war, conflict, human rights violations and persecution. Since Russia’s first attack on Ukraine in February 2022, more than 14 million people have fled their homes, resulting in a humanitarian crisis. The conflict in Ukraine is having a cascading effect throughout the world, as Ukraine and Russia produce significant proportions of the world’s food, oil, energy and fertiliser, causing disruption through shortages, soaring prices, instability and unrest.
Developing countries have been particularly affected, as a larger proportion of their income is spent on food and energy, leading to food insecurity and potentially undernourishment. In addition, the inflationary environment has caused many central banks to increase interest rates, leading to higher debt servicing costs for developing countries. The International Monetary Fund has downgraded projections for global economic growth in the short to medium term. With already high levels of stress and uncertainty resulting from the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine is exacerbating an already inflationary environment, and in the UK caused the level of inflation to reach a 40-year high, signalling a cost-of-living crisis. Businesses are also facing cost pressures, together with labour shortages and supply chain disruption.
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