FROM 51 BILLION TO ZERO

In a typical year, the world emits over 51 billion tonnes of greenhouse gases and as we keep doing that, the consequences for human life will be catastrophic. To get from 51 billion tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions to zero, we need to change the way we make just about everything in the next 30 years. This is the greatest opportunity for innovation in human history. We have to build the next trillion dollar global industries of tomorrow. Some of the solutions we need like wind and solar power are already starting to compete with the fossil fuel incumbents they're designed to replace. But for many of the newer technologies, we need to bring down the cost and demonstrate that they work in real world situations and so, we have to invest in large-scale commercial plants which are often too risky for traditional investment. We need to innovate not just in the technologies but in how the public and private sectors come together to build this scale. Tragically, billions of people, who are least responsible for greenhouse gas emissions, will suffer the most from climate change. If we are serious about addressing climate change, we have to invest aggressively in two goals. Firstly, advancing the technology and policies to get to net zero emissions by 2050 and secondly protecting the livelihoods of families in danger of losing them, to an already rapidly changing climate. Entrepreneurs and investors have to build new businesses and change existing businesses to get these solutions deployed. This will be one of the greatest challenges humans have ever taken off, greater than landing on the moon, greater than eradicating Covid-19 and even greater than putting a phone in every hand. A lot of human activities generate greenhouse gases: generating electricity, transportation, growing food, heating buildings, and making materials like steel and cement. We can compare the cost per unit of the current way of doing it to the approach that creates no emissions. The actual extra cost, called the ‘green premium,’ for instance is very high for green jet fuel. The green premium is a tool that gives us a way of looking at how far away we are from making it easy. And where this green premium is the highest, that’s where we need to put resources behind solving that particular area. We need a lot of research and development, a lot of innovative companies, to help us get the green premium down. Our basic optimism about climate change comes from our belief in innovation. It’s our power to invent that makes us hopeful.