Reversing Global Warming: Speeding Up in the Right Direction

If you were teaching a teenager to drive a car (notwithstanding that young people are trending away from learning to drive), how would you react if your young charge was driving along a highway that you knew ended in a steep, unsurvivable drop off a cliff?
Specifically, which of the following would you be most inclined to say?
A. âPlease slow down!â
B. âI hope they build a really good bridge before we get there!â OrâŚ
C. âLetâs take the next exit and go in a different directionâŚâ
There is little room for debate on this unless you have a death wish. The obvious choice is C.
Curiously, however, itâs still somewhat rare for companies and other actors in the climate change arena to explicitly state efforts to reverse global warming (i.e. the equivalent of C in the above analogy), as opposed to talking about mitigation (a paraphrasing of B) or even just generally âaddressing climate changeâ (a vague attempt at A).
Some will argue that we need to slow down to change direction. This may have some validity in some sectors (though not in most). However, if it isnât explicitly stated to what end the slowing is aimed, then the goal appears to be stuck in âless badâ mode which is, simply put, not good enough. Itâs as if many donât feel they have permission to talk about something so ambitious as reversal.
Encouragingly, as I collect my thoughts after an intense Climate Week last week here in New York, there is one theme that stands out for me: itâs not only okay to talk about reversing global warming, itâs also necessary and happening more and more.
Let me back up a step.
Earlier in 2017, as part of a basecamp event exploring how we might reimagine carbon using the principles of carbon productivity as a theme, we heard from author Paul Hawken about the necessity of at least naming this goal. He humbly reported that the book he editedâââDrawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warmingâââcame by the name honestly since there simply isnât another comprehensive plan to reverse global warming, making this one the most comprehensive.
During the basecamp event, several organizations shared compelling stories of commercialized efforts that set them on a path to draw down more than they emitâââincluding Carbon Clean Solutions, Covestro and Interface. These were inspiring stories, yet they ran the risk of feeling unusual as opposed to the kind of ânew normalâ weâll need if we donât want to end up where weâre headed.
With this ambition gap in mind, we set out to engage more corporate leaders in advance of this yearâs Climate Week, to identify both leaders with an openness to dialogue on reversal initiatives, as well as existing examples. In other words, we set out to show those who werenât yet saying âreversalâ that itâs not only okay to talk about, but that many are already capitalizing on it.
While we did sometimes hit the proverbial wallâââhearing comments like, âIsnât reversing a rather high bar?ââââincreasingly we heard that without this bar in place weâre certain to fall short. We also heard repeatedly about the financial opportunities abounding for those who had opened their eyes (and R&D departments) to the scope and scale of the need.
For example, the private capital flowing into carbon innovations through efforts such as the NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE, explained in more detail in a white paper launched through the Circular Carbon Initiative event during Climate Week, illustrate the expanding possibilities in value creation that directly contribute to a reversal pathway.
And this shift in capitalâââand mindsetsâââappeared just as often in conversations with large, incumbent businesses as with the insurgent start-ups and hybrids noted above, although insurgents have their work cut out for them to truly change direction versus merely slow down. During last weekâs UN Global Compact Leaders Summit, the âBreaking Throughâ panel featured executives from Covestro, SAP Ariba and 3Mâââcompanies striving to stretch their business models into new forms of value creation that seek to deliver on the Sustainable Development Goals. Their progressive action will be critical to the reversal agenda if we are to succeed.
We also heard throughout the week that stronger market pull needs require focus and policy support, and in response we learned of governments already driving the agenda to increase the pace of these market shifts, for example with Canadaâs Clean Technology Accelerator, with the countryâs recently appointed Ambassador for Climate Change, Jennifer MacIntyre, on point.
And while the clean tech developments are inspiring andâââletâs face itâââsometimes downright cool, one of the most important âinnovationsâ to reverse global warming, according to The Nature Conservancyâs Justin Adams, is natureâââincluding soils, forests and oceans.
The array of Natural Climate Solutions (NCS) is what he refers to as a sleeping giant, and one we would do well to wake up. By leveraging new and improving research on soil and ocean carbon sinks, and by drawing on improved soil management techniques as we produce food, feed, fiber and fuel, we can significantly increase the amount of carbon sequestered by nature.
Another key element in NCS is the reduction of deforestation, something of high relevance to numerous industrial value chains, including food, pharmaceuticals, mining and construction materials among others. During Climate Week, Adams moderated an event launching a 10-point plan from the Tropical Forest Alliance (a World Economic Forum initiative) to halt deforestation, supported with presentations by a number of organizations including WWF and the Consumer Goods Forum, and long-time forest advocate Michael Jenkins, CEO of Forest Trends.
There are surely more emerging examplesâââalongside well-established onesâââin this fast-moving space. We invite your suggestions of where we and others can look for more compelling ideas about commercial traffic thatâs already heading in this new and far preferred direction.
If there really were only one path ahead for us to choose fromâââsay, the one leading straight off a cliffâââthen slowing down would seem better than speeding up, and hoping for a technological miracle might ease anxieties. But since we do have a better option, one where we head towards a different horizon altogether, and we have sufficient evidence and examples indicating how to shift toward this new direction of travel, we have what we need to change course.
Itâs time to not just signal awareness of the cliff, but to stop moving towards it at any pace, to get pointed the right way, and to hit the accelerator.
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This piece first appeared as a Medium article in September 2017 as part of Volans Project Breakthrough platform.