Advocacy News – July 13, 2023
This week TED, the organization that hosts the famous TED Talks and TEDx technology summits, held a conference on climate change in Detroit. This invite-only gathering brought together a group of thought leaders from around the world and used its signature style to highlight the state of climate progress and explore challenges, solutions, tools and partnerships.
While the event covered a broad array of climate-related topics and speakers, here are some of the key takeaways specifically impacting the business community:
- Leadership in Government. City of Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan gave an impactful talk about addressing climate change through human behavior. Unlike other cities that have tried to accomplish their climate goals by building renewable energy outside of the city, Detroit is implementing a plan to build renewables within the city and create synergies with other efforts to re-locate households in sparsely populated neighborhoods. The city also plans to make investments into their Community Benefits Fund alongside any renewable development that takes place.
- Finance is increasingly tied to climate risk. David Blood, managing partner of Generation Investment Management, and Nili Gilbert, vice chair of Carbon Direct, spoke of the pivotal role private capital is playing in climate change and clean energy. According to the speakers, there is over $150 trillion dedicated to companies and initiatives focused on climate change and unlike other approaches, they do not face regulatory barriers. In 2022, the International Energy Agency found that investment in renewables matched investment in traditional fossil fuels, but by 2030 that investment will need to quadruple to match de-carbonization goals. Over the coming years, the speakers underscored the need for focused capital infusion into hard to abate sectors, such as cement and steel production, aviation and shipping.
- Industry is leading the charge. While there is a great deal of work to be done, some industry leaders conveyed key progress in sustainability like:
- In the maritime shipping industry, Morten Bo Christiansen, SVP of A.P Moller Maersk, spoke about green methanol that is now being used to make some of their ships emissions free, as well as electrifying their terminals and fleets, and retrofitting existing vessels. Unsurprisingly, cost was the biggest barrier to their progress as green methanol results in fuel costs 2-3 times higher than fossil fuels. According to Christiansen, this leads to increases in freight rate in the range of 10-15%.
- Steve Presley, CEO of Nestle North America, spoke about his work in overseeing a strategic portfolio transformation and efforts to make the company net-zero by 2050. This has involved a multi-platform approach to de-carbonizing its product line including efforts to accelerate the transition to regenerative agriculture in its ingredient supply chain, expand renewable energy use in its facilities and better design its packaging for recyclability.
- Amy Powney, fashion designer and owner of Mother of Pearl clothing line company, spoke about fast fashion and generational changes in the over-consumption and waste in the fashion industry. Amy stated that consumers buy three times more clothes than they did in 1980, and wear them for half as long. Buying local, fiber sourcing, responsible forestry and better tracking of the fiber to final carbon footprint are key to making the sector more sustainable in the long run.
For more questions, contact Mike Alaimo at malaimo@michamber.com