Everyone loves a good TEDTalk. Here’s one of ours:
In this insightful interview, Al Gore discusses how the steadily declining cost of wind and solar energy will transform manufacturing, transportation and agriculture, offer a cheaper alternative to fossil fuels and nuclear energy and create millions of new jobs.
To meet the global climate goal established by the Paris Conference of net zero CO2 equivalent emissions by 2050, Gore argues we need to cut emissions in half by 2030, which is about a seven or eight percent reduction a year. As a comparison, CO2 emissions this year will probably go down by 8 percent due to the global pandemic
In a post-pandemic world, Gore says we have the opportunity to make some dramatic changes in solar and wind electricity generation, moving away from the internal combustion engine to electric vehicles, and retrofitting inefficient buildings.
For example, five years ago, electricity from solar and wind was cheaper than electricity from fossil fuels in only one percent of the world. This year, it's cheaper in two-thirds of the world, and five years from now, it will be cheaper in virtually 100 percent of the world. EVs will be cost-competitive within two years, and then will continue falling in price.
In addition to cheap sources of green energy, Gore says we need to price carbon. There are 43 jurisdictions around the world that already have a price on carbon such as Europe and China. US States like California are also doing it.
Businesses also have to be part of the solution. Many businesses are beginning to play a very constructive role. Customers, investors, boards, executive teams, and their families are demanding that businesses become more sustainable. The rising generation is demanding a brighter future.
Finally, according to Gore, capitalism itself also needs to be reformed. Capitalism is at the base of every successful economy, and it balances supply and demand, unlocks a higher fraction of the human potential, but it needs to be reformed, because the way we measure what's valuable now ignores so-called negative externalities like pollution.
It also ignores positive externalities like investments in education and health care, mental health care, and family services. It ignores the depletion of resources like groundwater and topsoil and the web of living species. And, it ignores the distribution of incomes and net worths. Unfortunately, higher GDP is usually accompanied by vast increases in pollution, chronic underinvestment in public goods, the depletion of irreplaceable natural resources, and the worst inequality crisis we've seen in more than a hundred years that is threatening the future of both capitalism and democracy.
Al Gore believes we will rise to the occasion this environmental crisis demands, and create a bright, clean, prosperous, just and fair future.
To watch the full interview, click here.