17th March 2021 Leadership and “individual courage” are the crucial missing pieces in overcoming climate change and global poverty, according to the influential former boss of Unilever. Paul Polman, who was CEO at the consumer goods giant from 2009 until 2019, said the “stars [were] aligned” more than ever now, with citizens, investors and governments – including the new US administration – all ready to back a better, greener economy. What was now missing, “above anything else”, he said, was leadership. Speaking in an interview last week with Scotland’s FutureX, which supports socially-conscious business leaders, Polman (pictured) said the world was “forewarned and forearmed” like never before – and it was now down to “individuals and individual courage”.