How youth can reignite climate hope

[Music]

let me paint you a picture of what

january 2020 looked like for me

the east coast of australia had been

burning for weeks

and there was a lingering sense of dread

as fire threatened to enter my city

we had suffered through weeks of smoke

actually

and we’d recorded the worst air quality

in the world

worse than new delhi worse than beijing

and that smoke it was thick

and almost sweet and it reminded us

that we were breathing in the vapors of

burning nearby towns

one day in early january i got a call

from my brother

to say that our family’s property was

under

ember attack and because our rural

firefighting service was stretched i

went to help him defend the property

now we were safe

but many weren’t our property survived

and we

survived but many others in australia

lost their lives that day

many lost their homes as well and these

fires continued to burn for many weeks

i returned home to pack my bags to head

to the world economic forum in davos

i was there to tell world leaders and

the business community

that there is climate hope

and one of the solutions was coming from

the embers of a burning australia

each year in recognition that dialogues

with world leaders

would benefit from having youth voices

in the room

50 young people or global shapers from

all over the world

are selected to attend the world

economic forum

i was there to show the world the

technology that my team is working on

this cement brick is made from

industrial co2 emissions

turning waste greenhouse gases into

building materials

this cement brick can be sold it’s part

of a circular economy

and it was a piece of hope in my pocket

basically since the start of the

industrial revolution we’ve been spewing

too much

co2 and greenhouse gases into our

atmosphere

it’s been pretty much free to pollute

and al gore describes it as treating our

atmosphere

like an open sewer now the world

economic forum itself

is filled with many of the world’s most

powerful people

many of them run the companies and the

countries that emit the most

these people have the ability to enact

great change

and globally though we’ve seen

stagnation and stalling from governments

when it comes to climate change policy

repealing emissions trading schemes

withdrawing from the paris climate

accord

and calling into question the loss of

competitive advantage from climate

action

are some examples that come to mind

there are oil gas and fossil fuel

companies that are determined to

continue with business as usual

or profits as usual

and i spoke to one large oil and gas

executive

who said that his company really wanted

to

curb their emissions but they were

waiting for governments to legislate

so that there would be a minimum

standard

they didn’t want to be at a disadvantage

over their competitors

they only wanted to do it if their

competitors were doing it too

now imagine if there was a way to make

profits directly from climate action

that’s a way to gain a competitive

advantage over your competitors

so what is interesting is that

sophisticated businesses are starting to

take the lead in this space

bhp and rio tinto have made net zero

pledges before our government has

microsoft have committed to net zero by

2030

with further negative emissions pledges

amazon apple and mckinsey have all set

forward ambitious emissions targets

for their operations they have assessed

that their customers

and employees and shareholders want this

action

they’ve assessed that they can make

money and lower emissions

but how exactly do you lower emissions

let me tell you about some of the

realities we are facing here

a lot of the carbon dioxide in the

atmosphere has been dug

out of australian soil in the form of

oil and gas

of coal and gas that co2 has allowed us

to develop

our economies it’s allowed us to lift

nations out of poverty

it’s allowed us to innovate we have

created

vibrant industries and jobs from the

processing

bulk handling and export of these

materials to the rest of the world

and we’re really good at it

however that carbon dioxide is now

making us sick

it’s making us unstable and fragile to

weather events

and it’s destroying progress

weather events like australia’s horrific

summer

are predicted to become more frequent

and overlapping

we have to change the way we do things

in order to clean up our act we have to

decarbonize

our entire economy if you look at energy

there is a clear path to decarbonization

with wind solar hydrogen

and other renewables providing viable

options

the past decade has seen remarkable

growth in this sector actually

and we need to further support the

transition to 100

renewables there are other parts of the

economy however

that have less clear low emissions

options

in order to make steel you need to use

metallurgical coal did you know that

there are no other viable renewable

options right now

cement and chemicals also rely on

thermal

similar thermal processes

so economies don’t just start and stop

and

transition is important coal-fired power

stations running in australia right now

will run until the end of their lives

that’s around 20 or so more years

so as we start to wind down heavy

industries

we need a plan for jobs and the just

transition

and we need a plan for the emissions too

the steel cement and chemical industries

are required that

are required to build our future

infrastructure

and these technologies need

decarbonization options

this is the kicker right now if all of

our industries that were emitting co2

were capturing their emissions

we actually wouldn’t have enough places

to put it

when it comes to co2 you can either emit

it

you can store it away or you can use it

now many of you might have heard of

carbon capture and storage

or ccs before that’s the underground

injection

storage and monitoring of co2

there has been a lot of r d spent around

the world developing this tech

and it has a large potential to scale

but it needs a lot more support and

breakthroughs

to mature carbon storage

has enjoyed the lion’s share of

attention

and government funding compared to

carbon capture and utilization

or carbon transformation tech which is

what i’m working on

so a crucial thing to understand about

this is the key difference is that

carbon storage stores co2 underground

like throwing it in the bin with a

lifetime of storage costs

whereas carbon utilization transforms

co2

and recycles it as a new raw material

this creates valuable products and

generates profit

turning waste into value just makes

sense don’t you think

but this is the important thing there is

no one technology

or silver bullet for climate change

there will be a portfolio of solutions

that will work

in different places and different times

so my team and i at mineral carbonation

mci

are turning carbon dioxide into valuable

materials like this cement brick

we use the earth’s natural process of

storing carbon

called mineral carbonation you can see

here

the white cliffs of dover this is an

example of where the earth has stored

co2

over millions of years through a process

called weathering

we have simply taken that process from

millions of years

to a matter of hours in an industrial

setting

and the process is extremely scalable

with enough mineral deposits in the

world

we have enough mineral deposits in the

world to lock away

all of the co2 that has ever and will

ever be emitted

by fossil fuels

and it’s on the kind of time frame we

need to as

carbonate is thermodynamically favorable

it is the most stable way to store

carbon dioxide

and that means we’re storing something

like this for 10

000 years preventing the co2 from being

emitted into the atmosphere again

so check it out this cement brick

represents a way

that we can turn waste emissions and

industrial wastes into profits

this plasterboard it represents a way

that we can create new industries and

jobs in green construction

and sustainable manufacturing in fact

this plasterboard has stored away

more co2 than was used to create it

so it’s a negative emissions building

material and this is the way of the

future

let me talk to you a little bit more

about negative emissions

even as we reach 100 renewables

and we have significant behavior change

the projections of the ipcc

still indicate that we are likely to

need to use technologies

to draw co2 down out of the atmosphere

in order to not overshoot our 1.5 degree

targets

and these technologies are called direct

air capture tech

here’s an example of a direct air

capture facility in zurich

these guys are sucking co2 out of the

air with these big filters

and pumping them into greenhouses to

grow tomatoes and lettuce

and then they’re selling those products

in the local market at a premium

now this is a really neat illustration

of the circular economy at play

the carbon dioxide is drawn down from

the air

then it’s embedded into a tomato the

tomato is then eaten by a human

and then it’s excreted back into the

atmosphere

but what’s really compelling is when

direct air capture is partnered

with mineral carbonation technology or

carbon utilization

that’s when we can draw co2 down from

the air

and embed it straight back into building

materials that create the cities of the

future

technologies many of them partnered with

ambitious targets

leadership market certainty and consumer

will

will get us to where we want to go we as

technologists need to be better at

communicating the potential of our

technology

now it would be remiss of me to

um to not mention that there is a

technology that already exists that

sucks co2 out of the atmosphere and

locks it straight back into building

materials that can be used in advanced

manufacturing and construction

and that’s wood so we think wood is

fantastic we should be planting as many

trees as possible

it’s a wonderful way to store co2 but a

tree however

requires land water and

it will store co2 from around 20 to 100

years

and if that tree rots or burns then it

will release all of the co2 that it has

ever stored away

so this is my point is that different

technologies work in different areas and

at different times

now when i first started working in this

field seven years ago

i met a lot of technologists and

scientists complaining that their

technology

didn’t get grant funding and support

from governments

they complained that policy wasn’t

supporting the potential growth of their

innovations

but i realized that when you’re stuck in

a lab all day

you’re not really focusing on

communicating the potential of your

technology

and that’s crucially important

how are policy makers and legislators

meant to know about the potential of

your tech

if you’re not talking about it so i

realized that policy doesn’t only

influence technology

but technologies can also influence

policy development

and in recognition of that i set up an

advocacy group with some colleagues

called co2 value australia so this

advocates for all technologies that use

co2 as an ingredient

you know there are technologies that

transform co2 into synthetic fuels

into chemical feedstocks for everyday

items like mattresses

and advanced manufacturing materials

many of these companies just like mci

are at pilot phase or so

but the industry has been estimated to

be worth more than one trillion dollars

by 2030.

so how do we get to a decarbonized

future

we need governments to set ambitious

targets that will signal industry

creation

when john f kennedy declared that

america would put a man on the moon by

the end of the decade

the technology didn’t yet exist by

making the ambitious statement

private and public investment aligned

and they reached their goal which was

achieving a first for humanity

closer to home too the act government

declared in 2015

that we would be at 100 renewable

electricity by 2020.

that ambitious target allowed us to

attract the best new innovators

and renewable energy businesses and this

created a vibrant renewable ecosystem

and that’s another thing that happened

on the 1st of january 2020.

we achieved our target governments can

set

forth visions show leadership and create

and achieve ambitious climate targets

we are capable of so much

now i ask you what part will you play in

helping us to create a sustainable

future

here are a couple of ideas spread the

word

remember what i’ve told you today carbon

dioxide can be turned into useful

products

now we can turn waste into opportunity

and into profit

now you know please tell everyone tell

your mum

tell your dad your dog and tell your

local politicians

demand ambition from governments at all

levels

in this constantly changing world we

should be better at communicating our

priorities to our representatives

so they remember if you’re unsure of

whether your representatives have the

same stance on climate change as you

it’s worth writing to them

use your money wisely your

superannuation and bank of choice

has ultimate power to invest in

initiatives that care more about

that care about more and environmental

and social impact

you can achieve more than just profits

with your money

in fact every time you spend a dollar

you are making a political statement if

there’s an option

to purchase circular carbon embedded

sustainable everyday goods then do it

it’s critically important that we make

these changes if we

and if we don’t we’re going to be living

through more horrific summers like the

one we just experienced

while we’re painfully aware of the risks

of climate change

there are also opportunities for

creating new sustainable industries and

jobs

this brick is proof that we’re already

on our way

we can be supporting many different

technologies and creating

profitable pathways to decarbonization

we all have a part to play and what role

are you going to play

in creating a greener cleaner future

[Music]

you