The hidden power of companies to change the game on climate
[Music]
i’m going to talk about
what i’m calling the hidden power of
companies to change the game on climate
you heard from hal and john and i would
agree with what they said about what
what’s needed it’s a whole bunch of
things i’ll get more into that
um i do have what may be a somewhat
unusual perspective so i’m going to
start with a little background on me
priya just gave some of it so i’ll rush
through this so as she said i started my
career as a professor in computer
science at mit
i moved out west in the mid 90s i worked
at digital
in their research labs on computer
hardware and software
then i moved to akamai where i was chief
architect and then cto where i began to
learn a lot about the business side not
just the
technology side of things and then about
15 years ago i
started to freak out about climate and
this was me
all too often at 3 a.m in the morning
when i couldn’t sleep
i wasn’t worrying about or stewing about
you know some hard technical problem or
people problem at work or occasionally
it was kids who couldn’t sleep or
whatever but
this was me thinking about climate
change and what it meant for my future
and my kids future and everyone’s future
and i was putting solar in my house i
bought a prius which was the pinnacle of
clean cars back then
but it was clear that much more needed
to happen than i could do as an
individual in my own life
and that i i decided to change careers
to see if i could find a way to
contribute not just in my personal life
but professionally
on climate i was lucky enough in 2006 to
land a job at google
with the charter to figure out what they
were going to do on climate which was an
incredible
opportunity they took a big risk on me
and and vice versa and i led climate and
clean energy work at google for about
six years
and then i moved to facebook in a
similar role for about six years
and i had the good fortune at both
companies to dip my toes into
a number of the things that are needed
to solve the climate crisis
including research and development
venture investing to fund early stage
queen tech startups project finance
where over time
google starting when i was there but
much more since
they provided billions of dollars in
debt and equity to finance clean energy
projects
using our purchasing power to move
markets
and then collaborating through industry
groups like the renewable energy buyers
alliance re 100 and others to use our
collective purchasing power to move
markets at a much much
bigger scale and i’m really proud of
what i achieved at google on facebook
and
what the sustainability teams at those
companies and many others i’ve worked
with continued to do
and yet i’m still freaking out about
climate
three years ago i was coming to a
difficult realization
that for all the great things that
companies like google and facebook and
many others
not just tech companies are doing we’re
not moving fast enough on climate i mean
i knew that but
you know three years ago as i think
about what you know what do i do next
what does facebook do next what should i
do next
it was really beginning to hit home and
this year it’s even more real this is a
picture my wife took
about a month ago in san francisco
that’s where i live this is what the
skies look like in the middle of the day
in early september
because of smoke from the wildfires we
found out here
and we’re in the midst of an
unprecedented wildfire season in the
western u.s
in unprecedented hurricane season along
the east coast and the gulf coast we’ve
seen many other natural disasters around
the world
in part fueled by climate change and
it’s only going to get worse as as
temperatures
rise so like many of you my roots are in
technology
i started working in technology i
switched at google and facebook to
facilitating and
and scaling technological solutions to
climate change
and we do need new technology to solve
this problem and john doerr made this
point we don’t have all the solutions we
need
he said he thinks we’ve got the
technologies today to get about 70 or 80
percent of the way there
i don’t know what the exact number is
there i think 70 to 80
is probably a good guess we are not
deploying that technology fast enough
and we do need new technology to solve
some hard to decarbonize sectors and to
make the ones we do know how to
decarbonize make that easier cheaper
faster and so on
and we do need companies to step up and
read voluntarily as google
facebook hundreds of others now have
been doing
but what i began to understand several
years ago as i step back and thought
about
where i wanted to go and where facebook
needed to go and where the world needed
to go i really understood that
technological innovation and companies
leading voluntarily in kind of natural
market forces
it wasn’t enough we were winning we are
winning but we’re winning too slowly and
with climate
winning slowly is the same as losing the
ipcc 1.5 degree report from two years
ago
lays out the likely consequences of
warming of two
three or four degrees c and it’s
probably
pretty horrific we know there are
tipping points though we don’t know
precisely where they are which makes the
risk of
kind of not doing not working faster
the uncertainty is high and we know we
have a carbon budget which we are
rapidly blowing
through as we kind of hope for some
solution in the future that will just
suck all that carbon back
out we need to move quickly on climate
really quickly as hal
and john said we need to cut emissions
in half by 2030 and to net zero by 2050
and i really like to focus on that 20 30
number
because 2050 is vital but if we don’t
cut emissions in half or very close to
it by 2030
we’re in deep deep trouble and that’s
what we should be focused on which means
we need to be moving
now so we can create a much cleaner
brighter future but it’s going to take
some work
and as john said and i’ve heard how
harvey say this many times
it’s all about speed and scale it’s
about moving fast and doing it at
enormous scale companies can play a key
role
not just tech companies to be clear
that’s the sector i’ve been in
for my whole life but companies in all
sectors and especially big companies
but they need to do more than they have
been doing all of us
need to help them do it so this coming
to this realization is why in 2018
i decided to leave facebook and earlier
this year i founded a non-profit
climate voice to encourage companies to
step up to the leadership
we need from them in the coming decade
not just what they’ve been doing for the
last decade not just what they
they’re willing to do and find
relatively easy
but what we need them to do
and i said it’s not just technology it’s
not just companies voluntarily cleaning
up their own operations
we need much more than that to solve the
climate crisis
so i like to think of it as kind of like
improv it’s yes and
so we need basic science we need tech
innovation
we need finance lots of money is going
to have to move
what we wanted to do and we’ve seen that
this year with with the various recovery
or stimulus or
or whatever you want to call the the
government
uh uh expenditures um
vast amounts of money but we need to
spend it in a way
that actually drives the solutions we
need not just builds more of the stuff
we’ve been doing
these are all needed to get the massive
deployment
that we need to get clean energy
everywhere to get queen transportation
clean buildings to clean up industry and
so on
and we need behavior change and
voluntary action by individuals
and probably culture change too to make
some of this happen
when most people think about what
companies can do to help with climate
change
it’s these kinds of things innovating
cleaning up their own operations using
their market powers major purchasers to
drive scale and drive down costs
investing in r d
in startups and huge clean energy
projects that’s most of what i and my
colleagues did at google and facebook
and what people have been doing at
hundreds of other companies that are
beginning to really
act on climate but that alone isn’t
enough
to move at the speed and scale required
as hal
said we need public policy smart policy
can underpin
and turbocharge all these other things
it can reduce risk
it can drive much faster investment
innovation and deployment
and one really important point that i
think a lot of people certainly in the
the research world don’t understand i
didn’t until
you know maybe a few years ago
deployment drives
cost reduction because deployment
enables
innovation not of the kind that happens
in the lab necessarily
but the kind that happens as you learn
by doing and as you have the money to
invest in
in improving processes and that is a big
part of what has driven the massive
reduction in costs
in wind and solar in the last number of
years even in batteries which aren’t
cheap enough but they have come down an
enormous amount
but sadly emissions are still rising
maybe not this year with the pandemic
but the overall trend is nowhere close
to where it needs to be and even in the
places where emissions are beginning to
drop
they’re not dropping fast enough as john
doerr said
emissions need to drop on the order of
eight to ten percent a year for the next
decade and then continue that
after that and the reason emissions
aren’t dropping
as fast as they need to is largely
because we don’t have strong enough
policies in place
innovation is happening maybe not at the
pace we need to
deployment is happening definitely not
at the pace we need it to
behavior changes happening nowhere near
fast enough and honestly i think
you know people i don’t believe people
will just change their behavior and
that’ll solve this problem we need
everything and this is absolutely true
in the us
we don’t have strong enough policies in
place it’s also true
in almost all other countries we are
seeing
encouraging signs in some countries in
the eu with the european green deal i
think that’s incredibly encouraging
and in some states in the u.s but we
need to move much faster
everywhere so why don’t we have the
public policies we need and this is
really where i want to focus because i
think how harvey is absolutely right
and i think cal and john are both right
but we need public policy the question
is
why don’t we and here
it’s a little uncomfortable maybe to
talk about this it begins to sound
political
but public policy is about power and
influence
and the dominant business voice on
climate and energy policy today
comes from the fossil fuel industry and
by and large certainly for the last 40
years
they have been fans of going slowly or
not at all
on climate action they’ve promulgated
lots of misinformation to try to
confuse things and make it harder to
pass real climate
policies they want to preserve the
status quo this is beginning to change
with a few of the fossil fuel companies
but most of them are still working
pretty hard to preserve the status quo
and they are really powerful and have
been incredibly successful at stop
meeting progress on climate
now for decades to make this a little
clearer
studies have shown that the fossil fuel
industry in the last
well from 2000 2016 outspent pro climate
advocates
by a factor of 10 in the u.s and we’re
not talking small amounts of money
according to the studies the fossil fuel
industry in that time period spent about
2 billion that’s billion with a b
lobbying on climate almost all of that
to
stop or weaken or delay
useful climate policies and there are
many forms of influence in politics it’s
not just about money spent on lobbying
there are campaign contributions there
are
other ways occurring favor with
politicians and making it clear to them
that they should vote the way you want
because otherwise you can
maybe get them booted out of their seat
but we’ve got the fossil fuel interests
outspending pro-climate advocates 10 to
1 and doing
lots of other things to influence the
conversation
while most other companies are sitting
on the side
so imagine instead a time in the near
future where the influence of the fossil
fuel companies is balanced by other
powerful forces where this is a fair
fight
where that lonely pawn is not just a few
environmental groups actually lots of
environmental groups
and millions of young people around the
world and
and not so young people fighting for
this and people voting but it’s not
enough to counter what the fossil fuel
companies are doing
who could actually get off the sidelines
and make this a fair fight
most companies aren’t invested in the
fossil fuel economy
and many of them are innovating on
climate solutions many of them are
cleaning up their own operations and
their supply chains they’ve been leading
on climate
and that includes tech healthcare
hospitality
biotech consumer goods many other
sectors
they all have influence but most choose
not to use it
or to use it very rarely and we need
them to get off the sidelines in this
chess game
and help counter the powerful forces
that are dragging us
in the wrong direction that means being
strong consistent advocates for policies
that ensure we decarbonize
rapidly across the entire economy
more broadly it means being all in on
climate in
everything they do across their
operations their supply chain
their products and especially their
advocacy for public policy
they should be asking for everything
they do not just what’s the impact on
the financial bottom line but what’s the
impact on our collective climate bottom
line
they’re not asking that question today
the fossil fuel companies to be clear
all in
have been all in now for decades mostly
on the wrong side of the climate issue
though as i said we have seen some
positive signs from some of them
including bp and shell
you might be wondering why all these
other companies that have been good on
climate they’ve been leading why they
aren’t speaking up in favor of bold
action on climate
and the short answer is they’re afraid
they see risk and honestly the risk is
real
climate has been so politicized i think
very intentionally
especially in the us there is real risk
of political backlash
if a company takes a strong stand on
climate policies
and over the last few decades as a
result many companies have decided they
should be apolitical
unless a policy issue directly affects
them actually not just on climate but on
many issues companies have decided
politics is not for them unless they
really need to be in there
so they stay silent and they like to
think of that as neutrality
they say they should stay out of climate
politics because
they’re not an energy company or a
transportation company or construction
company so most climate policies don’t
affect them directly in the near term
and they say that they want them to
focus on where they can do the most good
to use their superpower in their
operations their products their supply
chain
we absolutely want them to use their
superpowers but it’s not enough and i
think that’s been clear from the last 10
or 20 years as companies have been using
their superpowers
emissions is still being owned up given
the extreme imbalance of power in the
climate policy debates
their silence is really complicity
with the powerful forces working
desperately to maintain the status quo
companies especially big companies have
a lot of influence
we need them to use it for the
collective good not just for their own
benefit
this is their hidden power they have
influence we need them to take it out of
hiding they all have it
they choose mostly not to use it we need
them to step up and use it
for our collective future so you might
be thinking gee could this work you know
how do we make companies do this we have
seen situations before in
in the us and i think in other places
but i’m most familiar with what’s
happened in the us where companies were
motivated to speak up on public policy
even when it didn’t directly affect
their own operations and their bottom
line
and one recent and really inspiring
example comes from the lgbt rights
movement
a decade ago there were hundreds of
companies with progressive
internal policies promoting equality for
lgbt employees
but the companies were mostly silent in
debates on public policy around that
in the u.s that changed
and changed over two or three years and
it changed in large part because
employees and students sent a very clear
signal to companies
that it was time for them to speak up so
what did employees do
they organized internally they spoke out
in all hands meetings with executives on
internal messaging boards
in direct conversations with executives
they coordinated with outside groups
the outside groups threatened to make a
public stink about the companies being
complicit through their silence if they
didn’t start to speak up
and the result was amazing companies
spoke up on marriage equality at the
state and then federal level
they spoke up on the religious freedom
restoration act in indiana
and got it repealed they spoke up on the
bathroom bill
in north carolina and got it repealed
and many other state policies other
religious freedom acts other bathroom
bills in other states
and they helped change the outcomes and
they spoke up
because for them lgbt rights went from
being an issue that didn’t matter to the
bottom line
to one that did because continuing to be
silent could affect recruiting
and retention the result was companies
went from
being bystanders we don’t discriminate
to what an anti-bullying literature
people call
upstanders we advocate for equality and
against discrimination everywhere
we actively intervene to change the
system not just being good people
ourselves and we’ve seen a similar
dynamic this year as companies have
moved from being
not racist to trying to figure out how
to be actively anti-racist
in the face of massive protests against
racial equality and oppression
so this is why we started climate voice
earlier this year
companies care about their key
stakeholders their customers their
investors
and especially their employees we’re
mobilizing the workforce to commit
convince companies that now is the time
to speak up
because workers have influence and when
we speak up
especially together we have power
we need companies to make the same
transition on climate from we don’t
pollute
to being actively anti-pollution that
they’ve made on other issues
and to be strong consistent advocates
for public policy on climate
everywhere they operate together we can
make that happen
it’s beginning to work earlier this
spring
in virginia the virginia clean economy
act was signed into law
clean energy companies support it no
surprise there but so did many companies
not in the energy sector some of them
listed here where this law had little or
no impact on their own operations and
bottom line
it’s part of a state-level trend to move
aggressively toward meeting carbon
reduction goals
in the u.s this is the first southern
state with a law like this
and it was our first policy victory it’s
one example of quite a few where we’re
starting to see more companies getting
off the sidelines
and speaking up in favor of climate
policy and it’s making a real difference
i believe this can be a game changer
this can be
one thing that can really start to tip
the balance in getting the kinds of
policies we need
to drive things at the speed and scale
that are needed
so one really important point you might
be thinking well i live in virginia or i
live in
paris or i live wherever why do i care
about policy
halfway around the world it’s not just
people in virginia who should be raising
their voice about a bill in virginia or
in paris about policies in france or the
eu
we need climate action and climate
policy everywhere
it’s not going to be the same everywhere
but we need it everywhere
climate voice can give your voice power
everywhere
because let’s say i worked at google if
you’re a google employee
anywhere in the world you can motivate
google to speak up in north carolina
or anywhere else they operate similarly
if you’re a student
anywhere and google’s interested in
hiring you you can motivate google to
speak up
anywhere they operate so regardless of
where you are
if a company you work for or interested
in working for is too quiet on policies
anywhere it operates you can help change
that
the key is to do this in large enough
numbers they don’t have to be huge but
they have to be large enough for the
companies to notice and care
so we are working to educate the
workforce current and future employees
about the need for companies to get off
the sidelines about the role they
including you can play in making that
happen
and we’re working with groups like
influence map in the uk
which is scoring companies on how they
use their influence on climate
to ensure that employees and students
have information about which companies
are speaking up and which are silent
and then we’re giving them tools to
raise their voices together
so just to wrap up what can you do first
thing is
talk about it you have more influence
than you might think
and there are almost certainly people
around you who feel the same way
together you can change things so talk
to colleagues talk to your box
boss talk to other executives where you
work if you’re a student
talk to other students and make clear at
job fairs and in job interviews
that this is an issue that matters to
you don’t be
silent just like we don’t want the
companies to be silent
we all need to get off the sidelines or
the fossil fuel companies will continue
to dominate the conversation
don’t accept that the situation is
broken and we can’t change it
the business’s usual path is pretty
bleak we can choose a much brighter
future
but we have to choose it and enlist
others to join in making it happen
second ask questions of your employer
or potential employers about what
they’re doing on climate in their
operations their supply chain their
products
and especially in using their influence
on public policy
and here it can get uncomfortable you
need to be persistent
don’t be surprised especially if you’re
talking to a company that’s been leading
on climate if the initial
response feels a bit like a brush off
hey we’re leading we’re doing all this
stuff we’ve spoken out on these three
things
we’re great i would say they’re good we
need them to be great
be polite keep asking push on what they
need to do not just what they’ve done
which may be really good but it’s not
enough
encourage your fellow employees and
students to do the same
third organize with fellow employees to
encourage your company lobbying for
climate
earlier this year we saw over 150
companies sign a joint letter to the
european commission
encouraging them to invest recovery
money in building the foundation for a
low-carbon economy
not just to rebuild what we had before
and we’re seeing signs of hope in the us
with over 30 companies sending a similar
letter to the us congress this summer
and as i said some companies have been
speaking up on state level policies that
can really move the needle
like the one in virginia now is really
the time if we’re going to cut emissions
in half in the next decade
we’ve got to get policies in place in
the next one to two years to
really move the needle especially in the
u.s where i think 2021 will be an
absolutely critical year for policy
change on climate
regardless of the outcome of the
election in november we need to bend the
curve on climate
quickly and we need much more aggressive
public policy to make that happen
fourth and this is a little more effort
take the time to get educated about the
climate policies being debated both
where you live
and in other places where your company
or a company you’re interested in
operates and push your company to
support the decent policies
we don’t want companies so we use
electricity we’ll be involved in
electricity policy but we’re not a
transportation
company so we don’t we’re not going to
get engaged there they need to get
involved in climate
policy all the different sectors and all
the different kinds of policies
and it’s important that the companies
and you
should you shouldn’t be overly
ideological about what policies to
support
climate is complex politics is messy
we need decent policies not perfect ones
a decent policy that drives progress and
that can be improved later
is far far better than no policy at all
which is
not exactly where we are but we’re
moving far too slowly we have way too
little
you can learn more about the kinds of
policies companies should be supporting
in our policy guide for business leaders
if you go to climatevoice.org and click
on resources
scroll down you’ll find it it’s a short
read about eight pages
including the table contents so great
for the beach or wherever else you like
to read you can
get to it i think pretty quickly and
then finally
this is the big call to action add your
voice to thousands of others
calling on companies helping to raise
the bar for companies
to get them to unlock their hidden power
to change the game on climate