By Dr Ahmad Ibrahim
The world economy faces at least two major risks. Climate change will disrupt all forms of the economy. Whilst, a shortage of key resources like energy, water, and raw materials will have no mercy on all businesses. We obsess over melting ice caps and dwindling minerals, yet ignore the rotting foundation beneath both. I am referring to a global leadership crisis so profound, it paralyzes humanity’s ability to solve any crisis. Resource depletion and climate change are catastrophic, but they are symptoms of a greater economic upheaval. The disease is a collapse of governance, courage, and vision at the highest levels. Evidence reveals why leadership failure is not just another risk. It is the multiplier dooming all other possible solutions.
Some refer to it as the paralysis of short-termism. Climate scientists warn we do not have much time to at least halve carbon emissions as we fight global warming. Geologists caution that critical minerals like lithium and copper, just to name a few, face supply crunches in a matter of a few years. Yet leaders operate on electoral cycles, quarterly earnings, and the X news cycles. The result is disturbing. The 2023 production gap report found world governments plan to extract more fossil fuels by 2030 than the 1.5°C target allows. Why does leadership fail? Politicians trade decarbonization for votes (U.S. gas tax rollbacks), while CEOs prioritize shareholder returns over material circularity. The long-term is sacrificed at the altar of the immediate.
Then there is what many call the subsidy suicide pact. Resource depletion accelerates because leaders subsidize extraction. We extract more than what we need. Climate change worsens because leaders fund fossils. Some call climate change a hoax. This is not ignorance—it is active sabotage. The IMF estimates global fossil fuel subsidies hit $7 trillion in 2022—enough to build global renewable energy grids twice over. There is no sign of that retreating. Why then does leadership fail? Extensive lobbying is rampant. It corrupts policy. G20 nations spend $30+ billion/year exploring new oil fields while pledging net zero carbon. The bottomline is, leaders serve oligarchs, not the biosphere.
Institutional cowardice is also rampant. Global frameworks exist to fight climate and resource crises—from the Paris Agreement to UN Sustainable Development Goals. Yet leaders hollow them out with empty pledges. The reality is 90% of net-zero commitments lack credible plans (Net Zero Tracker). There is deliberate dysfunction. At COP28, oil lobbyists outnumbered delegates from the 10 most climate-vulnerable nations 20:1. No wonder the inequality engine persists. Leadership isn’t just passive—it actively weaponizes inequity. There are reports which say the richest 1% emit as much as the poorest 66%. When elites hoard resources and power, the consequence is dire. Resource wars are real, from Sudan’s water conflicts to rare earths battles in the South China Sea.
Then there is climate apartheid. Billionaires build bunkers while Pacific Islanders drown. Not to mention, the innovation cemetery. We have the technology for circularity and decarbonization, including green steel, AI-driven material recovery, and regenerative agriculture. But without leaders to fund, scale, or regulate them, they die in labs. The evidence is all there. Clean energy R&D funding in 2023 was 1/8th of fossil subsidies. Another compelling reason why leadership fails is that venture capital flees hard tech for crypto and apps. And Governments subsidize coal plants but tax solar farms.
Many admit leadership is not the answer, it’s the battlefield. The climate and resource crises are physics and chemistry. The leadership crisis is moral. It is far deadlier. Physics can be bent with technology. But moral decay resists all innovation. Resource depletion could be reversed with circular design. Climate change could be capped at 1.5°C with renewables. But without leaders to implement these, they remain powerpoint fantasies. What then is the path through the wreckage? One is to treat leadership as the meta-crisis. The world must demand accountability. Prosecute climate perjury, such as lie-based lobbying and mandate binding circularity targets. And reward courage. Elect leaders who tax resource extraction, not labor. Also invest in young activists over corporate puppets. There is the need to build parallel power. Cities, courts, and citizens’ assemblies must bypass failed states.
The reality is, we are not being outmanoeuvred by nature. We are being betrayed by cowards. Until we fix leadership at the highest level of policy and government, resource depletion and climate change will march on—not because solutions don’t exist, but because those in power profit from the crisis. The world must get serious with the circular economy. We must elect the right leaders, especially those with the courage to change the status quo! The time is now.
The author, Professor Dato Dr Ahmad Ibrahim is affiliated with the Tan Sri Omar Centre for STI Policy Studies at UCSI University and is an associate fellow at the Ungku Aziz Centre for Development Studies, Universiti Malaya. He can be reached at ahmadibrahim@ucsiuniversity.edu.my.
The views expressed here are solely the author’s and not necessarily that of Weekly Echo’s.