Refinitiv Newscasts - Bill Gates, John Kerry speak at Davos on climate innovation 1

Alma Metals

19/01/2022 19:46

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Source: Reuters

Description: Bill Gates, U.S. Climate Envoy John Kerry and others speak during
a virtual Davos dialogue session on climate innovation and zero-emission
technologies.
Short Link: https://refini.tv/3AmvE1C

Video Transcript:

>> Good afternoon from Geneva. >> Good morning in the United States. Good
evening in Cairo. And we have a great pleasure to welcome you to what I think
is maybe the most important discussion this week is how we are going to stop
our planet from being on fire. We saw it in the World Economic Forum's risk
report that was presented a week ago, that also leaders now look at climate
change as the most important and the most really scary challenge and risk that
they are faced with. But all concluded that cost of inaction far exceeds the
cost of action. And why are we not moving? We will have a great opportunity to
discuss this today. And we know that there are clear solutions there. When we
went into Paris and Secretary Kerry will know that, we were on the four
degrees track. After, Paris, we saw a three degrees track. After Glasgow,
we're closer to two degrees, but now we have to get down to 1.5 degrees zero.
We have an incredible course here with leaders with us today working at the
forefront of the climate agenda. With them, we hope to first review the state
of play in climate, innovation, and priorities because we need to see
breakthroughs when it comes to use and application of technology. Two, we also
would like to discuss exciting developments in the climate innovation from the
first-movers coalition to the capitalist program. Three, hear about key
actions that governments and businesses are taking to ensure that momentum and
climate carries into COP 27 hosted by Egypt. We also see that the private
sector is really now playing and more and more proactive role. Two years ago,
we had very few companies that were committed to a net zero. Now we have
hundreds of them and increased with three times only the last years, and we
have the climate leaders group at the World Economic Forum with more than 120
companies really committed. The panelists, as you can see, I think you know,
most of them are from before, they're really great. We have secretary Kerry
with us, he is formerly a secretary of state of the US, but now the climate
lead for the US. Her excellency Yasmine Fouad, Minister of Environment of
Egypt, and Egypt is holding its hands around COP 27. We have Anna borg,
President and CEO of Vattenfall Sweden, also a real climate leader, and last
but not least, Bill Gates, among a lot of other things, founder of the
breakthrough Energy Foundation. A warm welcome to the panel. Let me start with
you, Secretary Kerry, there, John. Good to see you there. You played such a
pivotal role both in Paris but also in Glasgow to get an agreement. I would
like to hear from you, where do we stand at the beginning of 2022? What and
how can we achieve what we had set out, and how are we going to use also the
COP 27 to build on the successes from Glasgow. Welcome, John. >> Well, thank
you very much Borge. Thank you for [inaudible 00:30:40] and the leadership
that you've shown on this issue particularly, but on a number of critical
topics that we face. And I'm really delighted to be part of this panel with
Anna who is a key member of our first-movers coalition, and also Bill Gates
who's been spectacular in his breakthrough catalyst efforts, and there's also
the primary intermediary with respect to private sector on the first-mover
coalition. And of course, Yasmine Fouad, thank you for your leadership already
shown and yet to come as we go to COP 27. So Borge I would say that I think
most people are aware of this because mother nature has been sending us pretty
dramatic and sometimes violent messages about the intensity that is now
reaching us with respect to the climate transformation. So everybody is aware
that this is happening, and it's happening at record pace, and the dangerous
mount, they don't completely diminish. But I think most people would agree
that in Glasgow, there was a very significant increase of ambition on a global
basis. Did it reach the level that we absolutely need? No. But it was a very
significant increase, we have 65% of global GDP now committed to real plans
that are judged to be real, if people do the things they say they're going to
do, to hold on to 1.5 degrees as a possible achievement in terms of the rise
of temperature on the planet. And in addition, we had a 109 countries sign up
to a methane pledge to reduce the levels of methane globally by 30%, that's
not each country but globally. And if those 109 countries do what they said
they're going to do, it would, as the IEA has pointed out, be the equivalent
of every automobile in the world, every truck in the world, every plane in the
world, every ship in the world, all getting to zero emissions by 2030, that's
a gigantic reduction. It's equivalent of saving 0.2 degrees of warming in and
of itself. So in addition to that, we had an agreement that we come back next
year and those who didn't raise their NDCs or haven't submitted NDCs, their
national determined contributions, have to set targets and reduce them. In
addition, we had an unprecedented level of private sector engagement in this
issue and in the process. And in the end, I think most of us feel very
strongly that no government in the world has the amount of money we need to
effect this transition, this has to happen by virtue of the private sector
being engaged. And it will be private sector investment and private sector
discovery more than anything else, together with government helping to set the
construct, and particularly on research. >> But that's what's going to get us
out of this hole. We also had an agreement on something called the rulebook.
It's archaic, but it actually is critical because it sets the rules for
transparency, for trading, for carbon pricing, so to speak, in a broader way,
though it doesn't sound a price, but it sets the rules for how that can be
managed. And we also came up with a major decision led, I think, by the G7
initially, that the external funding of coal is going to end. So we're going
to accelerate the transition for coal despite the fact that there is a
temporary move now because of the pricing problem in gas in Europe and so
forth. But I think that is temporary, frankly. So in the end of the US-China
agreement, so China agree for the first time to accelerate the efforts to
reduce coal consumption by 2026 and sooner, if possible, to work with the
United States in a joint working group towards that effort, and also to submit
this year a major climate action plan to reduce methane. And that has to be
submitted to the COP 27. And that's just scratching the surface. There's a
myriad of individual initiatives like the first mover coalition and
deforestation and other things that came out of Glasgow. Bottom line, Glasgow
was a huge step forward. But we also know no one is moving fast enough. The
world has to really pick up the pace. That conversation is going to be
augmented by what we're talking about here today. Because the good news is
that there was a record level of private sector VC investment about $40
billion during 2021, there was also, I think the climate tech companies
actually created more shareholder value than the Nasdaq index. And the US
federal government is investing some $20 billion in clean energy technology
demonstrations. The bad news is that governments are investing far too little
in clean energy technology itself, in the research, the development, and the
demonstration. And most technologies, whether it's transportation or battery
storage or direct carbon capture. I mean, there are a host of technologies.
But the fact here is that if 46 critical technologies that will play a role in
50% of the reductions of emissions we need to get in the next ten years, 44 of
them are not moving fast enough. And that's the core discussion that we're
going to share on this panel and I look forward to it. >> Thank you. Thank you
so much, John. We will definitely come back to that. And I would also like to
use the opportunity to underline your leadership both in Paris and in Glasgow.
I saw it myself, both places. And if it wasn't an agreement between you and a
special envoy chair from China at the last moment, I think we wouldn't have
seen these kind of agreement in Glasgow. But then let me move over to you
Minister Jasmine for what you will have the leadership of the COP 27. Is it
possible to race the ambitions further, and what is the goal of the COP?
Because now it's really about how to deliver on the commitments that we took
on. Minister. >> Thank you. Thank you very much. It's a pleasure to be on this
panel in a very critical circumstances that the world is still facing with the
COVID. Pleasure to be here with the State Secretary, Kerry, once again. Us
being mentioned, Glasgow did had huge steps moving things forward with the
Paris agreement either on achieving issues that were long discussed such as
starting work program on the global board on adaptation from Glasgow to
[inaudible 00:38:27]. That's one thing that Egypt would like to continue
working on, especially with the UK, Egypt collegial on adaptation and
resilience. And how can we ensure that the finance that has been focusing on
adaptation will be accessed on the ground. Secondly, the agreement on the
collective goal on finance and starting that discussion. Continuing on,
discussing with different partners in contrast to the convention on the
submission of the NDC, the ambitious one, Egypt is now updating its tangency
that will be registering the first half of this year as a submission to the
upcoming COP 27. Finally, what we see is really important is to continue
raising the ambition on the different fronts on submission of NDC. Getting
more efforts towards mitigation and more efforts towards adaptation, as well
as discussing how further the commitments and the pledges that is much
appreciated from the partners that has been announced in Glasgow would be
really materialized and go further into the COP 27 and much more, how can we
accelerate that action with the full participation of the youth and the
Federalist Society and the private sector. Needless to mention that it's
always welcomed after Parist have that PRE-COP with half of that informal
consultations with fellow ministers under discussion of the upcoming COP, and
half of it is for the youth. Egypt is keen and was keen since the World Youth
Forum in it's 4th edition took place a week ago to have that session on
climate change. And before that there was a two day session with a workshop
with the youth around the world to discuss how innovation technologies can be
presented in the upcoming COP 27. What are the ideas that the youth can do
even at the level of a startup of projects that would be important to be
tackled, especially at the level of the local community and the most
vulnerable one? And thirdly, trying to prepare for that two-days workshop and
one-day session where our Prime Minister, in his capacity as the head of the
National Council for Climate Change, as well as the head of the Organizing
Committee for the COP, would take that over to the pre-cop. These are some of
the steps that Egypt would like really to look and take over to the COP 27.
Keep the momentum going, but keep it as strong and as quick as we can all
collectively work together. Over to you. Thank you. >> Thank you so much,
administer. Thank you for your leadership. We're moving now into the segment
of how technology and innovation will play a major role. It's a prerequisite,
and who is better to speak on that than Bill Gates. Bill, you have shown
global leadership on vaccines in the past; now, it's about breakthrough
energies, and how are we going to make commercially-available the technologies
that will bring us down to 1.5. Over to you. >> So we can look at emissions in
terms of the sector of emissions: electricity generation, industrial
transport, and in many of those areas, the cost of being green, avoiding
emissions are still extremely high in which we call a high-green premium. And
as John said, Glasgow was exciting, not because we actually solved the
problems, but because the breadth of private sector companies showed up with
the willingness to get involved in solving those problems. And as we draw
people into this First Movers Coalition, those are companies that are willing
to both help design projects that will scale these things up and bring the
cost down, be customers of those green products. We need all the leading
companies to come into First Movers, and then we have to fund projects
starting actually literally this year in the hard areas that includes green
hydrogen, direct air capture, fuel for aviation, and long-duration storage. So
I think the World Economic Forum is a place where governments and leading
businesses can come together, particularly the ones that are committed to
these climate goals, and as was said, that's more and more of these companies.
In the end, it really does come down to economics. The dirty way of making
things is very mature, whether it's steel or cement or aviation fuel, and we
have to make it far more economic. As John said, the investment now in those
breakthroughs is at an all-time high. We went from 2015 where there was very
little money going into these things, now we have over 10 times as much. And
so pairing those new technologies up with the big companies that have skills
to build those things at scale, I see that as the urgent agenda. That's where
Breakthrough Energy Catalyst is working with each of the members of the First
Movers Coalition to say, "Okay, what projects can we start and fund that will
bring those costs down?" So we've got now a framework for how to draw them in.
>> And thank you so much, Bill, for joining the First Movers Coalition in
Glasgow. And John, for me, with you and President Biden, that are taking the
lead together with the forum and companies using the purchasing power of the
big buyers of the world to green their supply chain and say, "If we're going
to buy your products in the future, you will have to reduce your CO_2
footprint, or we will not buy." This is using, really, the power of the big
purchasers. So John, thank you for that, and I guess you have more ideas on
how to mobilize the private sector in the years to come. >> Well, Borge, thank
you. Look, the challenge is very, very clear. The emissions have gone up,
actually. In 2021, the world used 9% more coal than we did in 2020. And nearly
300 gigawatts of new coal power is in the construction pipeline right now, and
coal is the dirtiest fuel, and in most places, it's unabated. So we're feeding
the very problem that we're trying to solve at the same time, and we've also
been subsidizing it, I might add. About $2.5 trillion over the last five years
has gone into subsidize the problem because that's what goes to fossil fuels.
Far more money, by multiples, over what's gone into renewables. So we've got
to change this. We need a dramatic shift in how governments are behaving and
how the world is behaving. And what Bill and others have done. Anna Borg,
who's here, with Vattenfall, have set an example about the ways in which we
can move. If we have 65% of global GDP on board ready to move to the 1.5. And
by the way, the IEA showed that if you did all of the promises made in Glasgow
and they are, in fact, carried through to 2050, you'd actually have lowered
the Earth's temperature to around 1.8 degrees, so close to two, yes. But the
goal is 1.5, so we have to do more and move faster. That means bringing the
other 35% of global GDP on board. Twenty countries equal 80% of all emissions.
Twelve of those countries are among that 65% that says we're going to get on
track to do 1.5, so our target universe now in terms of shifting rapidly is
frankly about eight countries. And we know that China, as we've heard from
President Xi in the last days, and he's committed to continuing to work
globally to try to deal with this, and we've entered some sort of a
partnership to begin to do it, but we have to help countries be able to wean
themselves from coal. It's not enough just to sit here today and say, "Hey,
you got to get off coal." How? How are they going to do that? How do South
Africa or Indonesia or India, where they have a huge percentage of their
energy-based comes from coal, how do we move them more rapidly? Well, in the
case of India, India has made its own decision. Prime Minister Modi is
committed that they're going to try to deploy, in the next 10 years, 450
gigawatts of renewable energy. And we have formed a partnership with India,
with other countries, to come to the table and try to bring finance and
technology to the table to try to work together as partners to effect that
transition as fast as possible. So what do you put in the place of the coal?
You can't ask any country. They're not going to. You can ask them, but they're
not going to just shut down their economy. >> You've got to find a way to
transition rapidly. That's what, Bill, is working on. He's pushing the limits
of how fast could they find out whether there is a small modular reactor or a
different form of reactor that is emissions free, that could be built in
standardized fashion and deployed around the world rapidly to take the place
of coal within this 10-year framework. But many countries, Borge, could
quickly be deploying far more renewable energy. And many countries are now
getting up to 70% of their entire energy-based, 80%. 90% in some cases, is
coming from renewable energy. And as battery storage or other kinds storage or
other kinds of energy comes online, we have an ability to be able to keep
economies humming even as we make the transition. So the First Mover Coalition
is a really interesting concept, whereby people in the marketplace are making
decisions voluntarily that they're going to set an example by predetermining
demand by saying, if you are ready to provide a certain amount of clean energy
fuel for aviation, for instance. Boeing and Delta and United, and Apple and
Salesforce have all decided that there is a ready market to buy that fuel that
is providing an 85% reduction in emissions. And what we need are more
companies. Anna Borg, will talk about what they've been able to do with
Vattenfall. There's one plant in Sweden producing green steel, and now Volvo
has agreed they're going to buy 10% of the steel they put into their
automobiles will come from green steel. So someone making the green steel
says, okay, I've got a willing buyer. That's what happened with COVID, with
vaccinations. The government said, "You make it, we'll buy it." And that's
been happening. SpaceX. We have an ability to go into space commercially
because the government said, "If you could provide that ability we're willing
to pay the freight for it." So we're now warming up to that. Maersk, the
largest container shipper in the world, has made a decision that the next
eight ships will be carbon-free. So we have 34 leading companies, including
the ones I've named and Amazon and others, who have stepped up and they're
sending the biggest demand signal in history for innovative technologies in
order to decarbonize the hardest to abate sectors in shipping and trucking,
aviation, and steel. And then we're going to come to other sectors as we build
this out the next day. So the Energy Agency tells us that 50% of the emissions
we have to stop over the next 10 years, are going to come from technologies
that are not yet capable of coming to scale. So we need a massive effort of
investment by governments and by the private sector to send the message that
will accelerate bringing these technologies to scale. And we believe that the
WEF, the World Economic Forum, is a partner in this, and it can help
enormously to accelerate this transition that we need to make. >> Thank you,
John. Thank you, Secretary Kerry. Anna Borg, CEO of Vattenfall. I don't think
you could get a better introduction than you just got from Secretary Kerry.
Vattenfall one of the leading energy producers in Europe. And you have set
this clear ambition of net zero, but that also means implementing the new
technologies that, Bill Gates, also mentioned and innovation. So how do you
see the way forward and still being profitable? >> Well, I actually think that
it's a lot in our own hands because it comes down to realizing that reality is
changing. And you only have to look around you to see that the market
prerequisites are changing dramatically. So for us to commit to being a net
zero in 2040 and also follow the one-and-a-half degree trajectory from the
Paris Agreement, is very much about our competitiveness. It's not our
sustainability strategy, it's clearly our business strategy to do that. And I
think there is a tendency to underestimate the risk of not changing when the
world around you is changing. So for me, the connection to the businesses is
very clear. And I think that what we need to do is, of course, to look at our
own business and face out our fossil fuels. We are well on the way, but we
need to make sure we get all the way. We are investing heavily into fossil
free electricity production, mainly offshore wind will be our one of the main
players, and we could, of course, have stopped there. Let's say, okay, so
we're energy company we produce electricity, there's going to be a lot of
demand for it, let's focus on fossil free electricity. But we decided to go
beyond and really make sure that also collaborate with our suppliers and our
customers in order to innovate the entire business value chain. And I would
like to give a couple of examples of that. The first one is already mentioned
here, that's the HYBRIT initiative with our SSAB, LKAB and Vattenfall. So
steel making, mining and energy went together in order to think about, how can
we make steel without fossil fuels? And found a process where green hydrogen
is used and the footprint, the CO2 footprint is basically erased. And it's not
only a good idea or an R&D project, it's actually steel. It's made, produced,
and sold, as you said, to the Volvo Group. So you can see a piece of it here.
It would definitely have been possible for SSAB to sell a lot more of it if it
had been there. So the next step is to make sure we can scale up and go to
full commercialization. The second example is a cooperation we have together
with the Shell , Scandinavian Airlines, and LanzaTech about sustainable
aviation fuel using captured carbon from a bio fired heat plant in combination
with green hydrogen, again, in order to produce electric fuels. A third
example is a partnership with the chemical industry BASF, where we joined to
build the world's largest offshore wind farm, and they will use part of that
output in their business. And then, of course, we're also very happy to be one
of the founding members of the First Movers Coalition, which very much leads
into the total value chains and fosters demand and cooperation around
responding to that demand. So of course, there are things needed in order to
get this going as well. It's not going to happen automatically. >> Think of
what is needed in something like for 2 plus 2. The first two ones are about
the what and the second two ones are more about the how, because it needs to
happen in reality as well. And the what is to make sure that the frameworks
are not hindering us on this journey. And what I mean with that is at a lot of
the current legislation and regulatory framework is set up in order to manage
an existing system, which is quite done in balance and where you optimize on
the margin, and that's not what we're talking about now. We're talking about
major transformation in energy, industry, transportation at the same time. And
the regulatory framework need to facilitate this and make sure we don't
exclude any fossil free technologies beforehand, like small modular nuclear
reactors, for example, which can play an important role here. Secondly, the
price of CO_2 is fundamental for how the pricing of emitting CO_2 is not only
shifting the relative competitiveness, but it's also sparking innovation of
low emitting technologies and the trading market for CO_2 that is in place in
Europe is one example of how that could be set up. And the second to
prerequisite that would be needed in order to get how Rowling has to do with
supply chains. Because all of these transformations will require a lot of
input. It will require raw materials. If you're going to produce fossil-free
steel, you need green hydrogen. If you're going to get green hydrogen, you
need green energy, and if you're going to need energy, you need steel in order
to build it and that steel needs to be fossil-free then. So there is a
circular way of thinking about the supply chains that needs to be in place.
Also supply chain when it comes to people and competencies, because a lot of
people with new competencies will be needed in order to make this happen. And
lastly, but maybe most importantly, we will need acceptance from people,
communities, and societies where this transformation will happen. Because
otherwise we still have technical capability, the knowledge, and to some
extent also the capital funding this. Because although the transformation is
massive in numbers it equals up to somewhere around 2% of growth GDP, and that
is doable. Acceptance for the change is needed and then I think its our chance
to make it happen. It's not something that we need to really have the
possibility to create it. >> So much. Let me go back to you, Bill Gates
because in this topic of breakthrough energies, because we have in the last
decade seen that for example, the price of solar has fallen to one-tenth. The
price of wind has fallen to one-seventh. So in many markets, these are
competitive with traditional energy sources, but we really have to scale up
this and your book is also focusing on this and hope, are we really going to
make it from the fossil-based fuels society into a renewable society. Where do
you see the new real breakthroughs? And how are we going to make sure that we
set the price on the externalities? How do we internalize the externalities
that we are currently seeing in the global energy mix. >> Well the rich
countries have to play a central role, both funding R&D and having policies.
In some cases, carbon taxes will be used to drive the demand for these clean
products. And only by doing that in an aggressive way, will the economic costs
be brought down enough that we can turn called the middle-income countries and
say, okay, change your whole cement industry changers or steel industry, and
yet it's not holding you back from your economic growth. The number of
companies working on these things is very exciting. And some of them will
fail, a lot of them will fail. But we only need a reasonable number, a few
dozen of them to make it through. And that's what we have to accelerate. In
the power generation area, reliability is very important. When you have a
heatwave or a cold snap, when there's a typhoon in Japan, you still want
electricity. And so it's a little more complicated in that case than just the
cost for renewables. That's super enabling. It's fantastic but we need to
model out those grids because reliability will be super important. So that
area still needs work just like many of the tough areas, particularly
industrial processes. But human ingenuity is great. We create the right
incentive system, get the private sector companies engaged in this in a deep
way. That's what the solution looks like. One of the hardest things mankind
has ever done but worth doing. >> And I guess, since putting a price on carbon
is quite controversial, even if you can argue it's common sense, it's not as
common in this context. I also then think that this first-movers coalition, if
he can mobilize the purchasing power of the really big players in the world,
like we started with the first-movers coalition in Glasgow. How can you see
this develop? Can we see a snowball effector? >> Well, a lot of these products
with very high green premiums, you have, how do you get started problem and
who's going to buy aviation fuel that's twice as expensive? The answer is that
rich country governments with carbon taxes and rich companies with their
social commitments can bootstrap those markets. And when it's model's volume,
that will drive it forward. And that model's volume is what will drive the
innovation so that we can see the price reduction. So as he'd said in some
areas, that's happened in some other areas , it's been harder. But that
purchasing power is part of how we avoid the dilemma that there's no market
for things with high green premiums. >> Back to you, John, you mentioned this
facing out of subsidies. Today many countries are using billions of US dollars
on subsidizing, have a fossil fuel that is no part of the agreement from
Glasgow. We also know because of the current electricity crisis, for example,
in Europe, and also in India and China, we're seeing that coal has increased
the demand. Who are we going to deal with this increasing energy prices in
this situation where we know the cost of not transforming into more green
technology and reducing CO2 is so high? John. I think you're muted. You have
to unmute yourself. >> The host was able to mute me, but I have to unmute
myself. >> You're so tech-savvy. >> There you go. I was saying that the
situation with respect to Ukraine and Russia obviously has, together with
COVID and the lack of supply, and last year's longer winter, colder days in
Europe used up more of the gas and it wasn't refilled partly. There are a lot
of reasons for why we're where we are. The bottom line is that the price is
up, but it's not going to stamp there forever. And also, you mentioned one
thing, that carbon isn't priced. Actually, there's a reverse horrendous
pricing of carbon and nobody accounts for it properly. And it's never been
accounted for properly in terms of the real cost of coal. Because nobody takes
into account the current cost we are paying for carbon in what's happening
with black carbon and what it's doing to the Arctic. No one is taking into
account the black carbon that goes into lungs of minors around the world to
get black lung disease. Nobody takes into account the impact of children who
have environmentally induced asthma and are hospitalized in the summer. We
spend about 50 billion a year on that in the United States alone. So I can run
a whole bunch of costs of carbon, which are on the negative side, not the
least of which, the new intensity of tornadoes and storms and fires is costing
massive billions of dollars in lost product of forest that burn down, that
could've been logged, and so forth. So we're paying a price for carbon. We're
just not doing it smart way. And we've got to change that at some point in
time. But what we're trying to do now, Borge is recognize that solar and wind
are, in every form of accounting, net cheaper than coal, and cheaper than gas.
Gas is less polluting than coal and gas will be, and we accept that it needs
to be something of a bridge as we go through this transition. What we don't
want to see happen is a huge build-out of gas infrastructure for the next 30
or 40 years. Unless abatement can come in. If you can capture the carbon,
terrific. And that's why a lot of technology I've heard is now going into
carbon capture storage utilization. I just read today about some possibility
in Australia where they're turning carbon into solid, and there may be some
use that they can put it to. I don't know if that's going to work out. I know
in Iceland they take carbon and put it into the basalt and mix it with a
liquid and it turns into rock. So we're going to find ways to do this. That's
what's exciting about this right now. The capacity of human ingenuity to push
the curve on discovery is enormous and Bill Gates says, the president on this
panel example of exactly that. And I think we're going to get there. Here's
the challenge, is are we going to get there in time? We all know we're
operating with this 10-year window that's not imposed by a group of nations in
Glasgow,it's scientists who are telling us that you all, you people in power,
in positions of leadership have x number of years, it's now about 8-10, during
which you can make and implement the critical decisions that will avoid the
worst consequences of a climate crisis. Note, doesn't avoid the crisis, avoids
the worst consequences. And we're not even doing that yet. So that's what we
have to step up to. And that requires us to make some tough decisions Borge,
and the corporate sector is learning now very rapidly that it's in their
interests to have stability in the marketplace, to not have these imposed
costs, to not have the disruption of supply chains, and so forth. And the
result is, that I think we're beginning to open up the possibility of winning
the battle provided we do the things that Bill just described, providing
governments will put more money into research, basic research, and providing
we help less developed emerging economy countries to be able to make the
transition. That's what we're trying to do now. We're turning our operation
into an implementation plus effort. We know what we have to do coming out of
Glasgow, we know what the goals are, we know how we can get there, we're just
not making the decisions to actually do all those things. And so we have to
push the process as rapidly as we can. One of the things, let me give you an
example. South Africa. We have to rescue SGUN, the South African energy
entity. The President Ramaphosa is prepared to transition out of coal, but
he's got to have this alternative. And so we have to go down there and finance
that alternative, help bring the technology to the table, hold their hands
through the transition. We're going to do the same with Indonesia, in Mexico,
President Lopez Obrador has shifted his policy and agreed they're going to
deploy renewables, tap into geothermal, which is huge in Mexico, they have
enormous sun and wind possibilities. >> So Mexico could suddenly address the
problems of their poor and of the distribution of income by beginning to
create a massive amount of job, by becoming a North and South provider of
renewable energy. So that's the vision we have to bring to the table in these
next months, literally and few years, because the science is exactly, the
scientists have predicted all the things that are happening now. And if you've
talked to them today, there's a recent report on the Arctic, the Arctic report
card by NOAA that has come out which should scare anybody in the world. We
really are seeing tipping points arrived at. And the imperative to move faster
could not be more dramatic. So I congratulate Bill in putting his breakthrough
energy catalyst is going to deploy some $15 billion to help accelerate this,
we need many more philanthropies and corporations and countries to step up to
win this battle. >> Thank you John. This discussion is also followed by a lot
of people. I just got a message from Vice President Al Gore, that is following
us and he reminds us, and I think especially to me, that we need to cut the
emissions by 50% by 2030. And the latest IEA report also shows that the
technology is there to do that. So if we're going to reach net zero by 2050.
Short comment from you at the end here, and then short comment from you
minister how you will bring this discussion also into COP at 27. We are
running a little bit on overtime, so we will have to be conscious about that.
Anna, and then minister. >> Thank you. I think it's important to remember that
although the challenges are huge, so are the opportunities. I think that as
business leaders we are used to managing and taking risks. And I think we need
to make that work for us in order to solve this challenge from a climate
perspective, by finding and building these really profitable business models.
It's possible and it is happening every time I talk to my colleagues in the
first movers correlation for example, we, in addition to discussing how to
solve this from a global perspective, also end up talking about the business
opportunities we see in our respective businesses and how we can drive this
forward together. For me, this is very much an existential question from a
climate global perspective, but it's also a business topic. It's doable and we
can manage this if we utilize the resources we have and the innovations we
have, and the development that we are making to the purpose of solving this.
I'm actually quite optimistic. >> Thank you Anna, and thank you for your
leadership. You're part of several of the collisions that the World Economic
Forum has built. First Movers Coalition, the CO, Alliance for Climate. And
also we have another coalition that is called Mission Possible with the heart
obeyed sectors. Minister Fouad a rich discussion lot that I can build on,
building on the momentum in the run-up to COP 27 and also Egypt as a
developing country, can underline that the consequences of this unsustainable
path we are, the price is also paid by a lot of African countries over to you
Minister for closing remarks short. >> Thank you very much. Very quickly
because time is running up. I'll try to deliver three important message based
on that very interesting discussion. The first one is that, yes, we need to
accelerate the action and move very quickly. And as Kerry mentioned, there are
no time to lose, but also there are some success stories that could be further
replicated. A one story that maybe could be further advanced during the COP 27
is Egypt and its transition to renewable energy, exploring of energy
efficiency, the biggest solar panel of Ben Ben and now Egypt effort to go into
the first green hydrogen project. But more than that even have more of a six
to seven projects to extend and raise ambition, it's renewable energy.
Besides, it's very ambitious plan for the removal of the substance from the
energy sector. The second message that is very important is like Lascaux when
there was that initiative under agriculture, innovation in climate which Egypt
would like to support today. Because it gives more momentum to the process of
what needs to be done at the local level given the high cost of the
technology. And that's where the local community would like to see the added
value. We believe that the innovation in the energy sector and how can we
bring more partners around the table by bringing those success towards
replicating an upscale. And yes, supporting the emerging markets and emerging
countries for that transition would be a second thing. Third important part to
that story is that how can we bridge the gap between what is very important
maybe it was not mentioned here, but I can see that based on our experience in
Egypt, especially when we're talking about the structure reform program and
how did we create an enabling environment? Is the linkages between the
science, the technology. How can we make those low-cost innovative technology
and the policy without having that policy package at the national level and
bringing that momentum to the private sector. And bridging that gap between
the sizes, the innovation and its piloting and the policy that the
acceleration and the road to COP 27 and even beyond would not be as quick as
we all need to do that. We need to articulate that during the COP. Thank you.
>> Now, thank you so much. >> Borge. >> Yes, John. >> Literally 30 seconds,
because the one thing we need to put on the table just to tie this together,
it will cost trillions to do this. Everybody has said that, but there are
trillions providing we help in the de-risking and in the blended finance and
structures for that, that will require a special partnership with multi-device
banks, with the businesses of the world and with the governments. But that's
doable. >> Thank you so much. It's great panel. I wish we could have continued
for another 15 minutes, but you should always end when people wanted to still
go on. And I think we are in that situation so much more to discuss. The
run-up to COP 27 is also important and the big change for someone that has
been following these COP's for more than 20 years. Is that 20 years ago there
was no talk at all about private sector. >> Private sector is in many ways
also driving governments and putting governments under pressure. So that kind
of collaboration is very important to be able to meet the 1.5 degrees target.
Thank you so much to a great panel and see you soon. Bye. >> Thank you. >>
Thank you. >> Bye