Al Gore Pushed His Own Buttons
+ Climate Optimism in Climate Tech!
When I return from a conference, I always have a list of nuggets I want to share. Bullet points of smart and insightful things people said that I wish more could learn about. So this newsletter will be a compilation of those gathered at Techarenan in Stockholm last week, a major tech+climate event where I had the honor of moderating a few panels.
What else? I got to meet with Al Gore and *finally* (I’ve been dreaming of this) tell him the story of how his film set me off on a 15-long journey of climate anxiety, from which I later healed, and sparked all the inspiring work I do today.
Big moment? You bet! Read on for some positive outlooks in the world of climate tech and other insightful nuggets.
Impact Investing
Impact investing (investments made into companies, organizations, and funds with the intention to generate a measurable, beneficial social or environmental impact alongside a financial return) is on the ups. There are lots of new trends and capital is beginning to flow into climate tech, especially with the rise of AI. But even if the outcome of financial returns + safe and healthy future seems like a no-brainer for any investor, there are still challenges with this “good money”, especially when it comes to nature-based investments.
Carbon Tax?
For one, the risk barrier is still large, especially since the need for big sums of up-front capital is high, paired with fairly long return-of-investment windows. Francois Gaudet, Head of Unit, Cleantech Equity & Growth Capital Division at European Investment Bank, believes we won’t see a real uptick in nature-based investments until we have a global carbon tax. We need stronger incentives and “pushes” from the other end, which a carbon tax would provide us.
What are your thoughts?
Nature-Based Investments
But there are still investments of this nature in action, along with a line of exciting opportunities to give nature a real chance, as showcased in both Katapult VCs and Regeneration VCs portfolios.
The need now, aside from the hopes of a carbon tax, is enhanced traceability and transparency. A recurring theme throughout the four panels I moderated was that we must work with technology to build further efficiency in supply chains, as well as create a digital language that allows for circularity and reuse of important minerals and other materials.
The willingness to seek out this efficiency, along with increased collaboration vertically and cross industries, is key in the years to come.
Climate Optimism: Rising trends of impact investing and new technology that enables further traceability and transparency. This is good for both circularity, energy efficiency, and smarter supply chains — a digital language helps make climate-smart moves and decisions.
Sustainability As The Status Quo
Gone are (soon) the times when we push consumers to go the extra mile to seek out the most sustainable option. Although an empowering act (I’m all for finding those sustainability hacks that make life exciting) we must begin to strive for a mass-market that provides products and services that we know are good for the planet.
When you walk to the shelf in any store, you should be happy knowing that whatever you choose, you’re not damaging our treasured Earth.
But how do we accomplish this?
The road to that new kind of normal is long, but upcoming sustainability regulations could play an important role. Michaela Bessell, Head of Venture Ecosystem & Partnerships at Henkel, believes we could be looking at a paradigm shift in the years to come where we move away from competition as the only baseline, and towards a more holistic and collaborative approach to doing business. And these new regulations should help!
What do you think?
Climate Optimism: A paradigm shift is underway where collaboration, traceability, and sustainability as the status quo are making headway. Are we looking at a future where business can be good for money, people, and the planet?
Corporates Funding Start-Ups To Accelerate Climate Tech
Technological innovations are ever more important as a new kind of climate reality unfolds. The window is closing, but it’s not too late to act, which leaves both responsibilities and possibilities on the table. How do we recognize these seemingly challenging times as opportunities for innovation and positive change?
This growing urgency has prompted large corporations to play a pivotal role in driving technological innovations aimed at environmental sustainability.
With deep pockets and even bigger market shares, there’s a certain kind of opportunity (and responsibility) at major corporations to help fuel the innovations that will drive us forward.
Luckily, companies like H&M, Coca-Cola, and Arla Foods (all of whom I had the honor to interview on stage) are recognizing these opportunities and are investing in startups looking to change the industry for the better.
Erik Karlson, Head of H&M Group Ventures, shared that a climate solution worth investing in is one that shows signs of scalability.
“When partnering with startups, we aim for solutions with the potential to significantly scale impact. It’s not a worthy solution if it can’t help change the industry at large, and that’s what we look for when adding companies to our portfolio.”
Climate Optimism: Big companies are strategically investing in startups with climate-smart innovations and technologies. They may have been part of creating the problem, but are now (at least to some degree) recognizing their opportunity (and responsibility) to help fuel the solutions. This, too, ties into the previous point about making sustainability the status quo — we need entire industries to change, not just a few “perfect” zero-waste brands that few people are finding.
“The number one best thing people can do is to be very vigorous and active in the public discussion to get politicians at every level of government activated to move faster to reduce emissions. We’re in a climate emergency, let’s act like it!”
— Al Gore
Al Gore pushed his own buttons, as he pointed out himself, when he took the main Arena Stage and talked to all of the almost 8,000 attendees about the importance of stepping into our roles as climate heroes. He got fired up, and the entire room could feel it. This, I thought, is the kind of speaker the world needs — one that isn’t afraid to get passionate about what’s important!
“The time is now, and all of you here have an incredible opportunity to fuel a climate-just future in the work that you do. If you’re building technology — build it ethically, and build it to do some good!”
(The quote has been edited slightly for clarity)
When I later had the chance to meet with him at a privately held mingle (I had to apply and got accepted!!) he also shared the three things he believes need to happen next:
Stop Fossil Fuel Subsidies (A no-brainer? I think so!)
Get a Carbon Tax — We must deal with the demand side of the problem!
Allocation of Global Capital and Resources. We must create access to resources for developing countries to go green. He shared that interest rates for a developing country to build out renewable grids are seven times higher than ones in developed countries, which shouldn’t be the case. We need to allocate funds strategically and allow the entire world to get on board!
Inspiring Quote:
“Courage is not the absence of fear; it is the making of action in spite of fear, the moving out against the resistance engendered by fear into the unknown and into the future.”
Climate Reality Check:
Half of the Amazon may be pushed to climate tipping point by 2050
But there’s still time to act. The forest is resilient and will bounce back if we let it!
This newsletter was a bit different from my regular issues, but I hope that some more business-oriented and concrete climate optimism trends were fitting this week! I’ll be back soon with some deeper reflections and thoughts on climate healing.
Reward is said (with proof) to be more effective than ‘punishment’ in changing behaviour. I understand that a lot of the ‘punishment’ that we have to face is just the natural consequences of our behaviour and that ‘rewards’ may not be noticeable immediately. But let’s see if we can engineer a few more tangible ‘rewards’ to tide us over until the real advantages start to appear.
Thank you for this, Anne Therese! I was in Al Gore's second training for the "Gore Corps"--now Climate Reality Project. He was my hero!
I was so disappointed stayed stuck in the "net zero will save us" paradigm for a very long time. It sounds like now he's all for climate tech.
In researching our book Climate Restoration—The Only Future That WIll Sustain the Human Race, it became really clear that shiny new industrial tech is simply too expensive to do more than make a dent. Maybe help us get to net zero. It's good business. But to actually restore a safe climate, the only measures that work--permanently, safely, scalably, affordably--are those the follow Nature's lead. Particularly boosting photosynthesis in the ocean. Synthetic limestone. Maybe seaweed farming. Accelerating methane removal.... All in our book. And our newer paper comparing CDR strategies for potential and cost-effectiveness: http://bit.ly/49XbRGj.
The real climate restoration solutions are from biomimicry, they're low tech and ridiculously inexpensive. And nobody's funding them! (The billions from the iRA are going to tech that could barely make a dent.)
How do we change this? Would love you and your readers' ideas. Thank you!