Key Takeaways
- The moral case no longer moves people the way it did: Sixty-nine percent of sustainability experts say moral arguments are less effective than they were five years ago, and only 8 percent disagree, while the rest are uncertain.
- Crisis has become the engine of progress: Sixty-four percent say sustainability progress is now being driven by crisis and disruption rather than planned collective action, against 12 percent who disagree. Progress is still happening, but increasingly as a reaction to events rather than as the result of deliberate collective choices.
- Experts are divided on whether progress is now more difficult: A relatively smaller proportion of 43 percent say progress is harder now than it has ever been, with 32 percent neutral and 25 percent disagreeing, the most divisive of the three statements. The consensus is that the old arguments have stopped working, not that the work has become impossible.
When Being Right Stopped Being Enough
Over the past two weeks, we have explored a sustainability agenda under growing pressure. Experts in GlobeScan, ERM, and Volans’ Sustainability at a Crossroads 2026 survey are calling for revised approaches, as backlash against sustainability and ESG persists. This week, we look at how experts see moral arguments having lost their power to progress the agenda, with crisis and disruption increasingly tending to be a driver of change.
Results of the research show that as many as sixty-nine percent of experts agree that moral arguments are less effective at driving sustainability progress than they were five years ago, with just 8 percent disagreeing. Sixty-four percent say progress is now being driven by crisis and disruption rather than planned collective action, against 12 percent who disagree. Forty-three percent say progress on sustainability is harder now than it ever has been, though here opinion is more divided, with 32 percent neutral and 25 percent disagreeing.
In the past, sustainability professionals have often tried making the case that companies and governments should act because it is the right thing to do, an argument that they say has now lost its force. If progress is now increasingly driven by crisis and disruption, then floods, heatwaves, energy shocks, and supply-chain failures may be doing the persuading that moral arguments once did. That has an obvious cost, as crisis-driven progress is reactive, unevenly distributed, and arrives only after damage is done. It also makes progress hostage to the news cycle, advancing when disruption is visible and stalling when it is not.
If the moral case is failing and backlash is entrenched, one might expect near-universal agreement that the job is harder than ever. Although more than four in ten experts agree that this is the case, the remaining proportion either disagrees or remains neutral, suggesting practitioners see the terrain as changed rather than closed. Some of what has become harder, notably public advocacy and voluntary commitment, coexists with things that have become easier, including the economics of clean technology, the maturity of regulation in some markets, and the business relevance of climate risk.
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?
Sustainability leaders have long recognized that moral arguments alone are unlikely to be enough. What is striking now is the strength of the consensus, with nearly seven in ten experts saying these arguments are less effective than they were just five years ago. The practical implication is not that values no longer matter, but that they need to be accompanied by a case for action rooted in the priorities shaping decisions today, from competitiveness and resilience to affordability, security, innovation, and risk. The finding on crisis and disruption makes this even more urgent. The answer cannot be to wait for shocks to force change, but to make the consequences of inaction tangible before crisis does the persuading. That means translating long-term sustainability challenges into immediate business, economic, and societal interests.
Find out more about how sustainability experts see the future of the sustainability agenda and download the Sustainability at a Crossroads 2026 report.
How This Insight Was Generated: This analysis draws on insights from the Sustainability at a Crossroads 2026 survey, completed by 610 sustainability experts across 57 countries between June and August 2026.
Survey Question: Please indicate if you agree or disagree with each of the following statements. [Moral arguments are less effective than five years ago; Sustainability progress is being driven by crisis and disruption rather than planned collective action; Progress on sustainability is harder now than it ever has been]
