TIME100 2023 Climate Leaders on Staying Inspired

TIME

As part of the TIME100 Climate series, business climate leaders talk about a moment in the climate movement that inspired them this year

Transcript

00:00 (upbeat music)

00:02 - I'm most inspired when I see communities

00:13 tackling the challenges of climate change

00:16 with solutions that work for them.

00:18 So earlier in the year,

00:20 I got to visit a nature-based carbon removal project

00:23 in Kenya, and there it was a women-led grass seed bank

00:28 and women who were also being trained

00:31 and working in the community

00:32 on range land management techniques

00:36 and seeing the change in that Maasai community

00:38 really did inspire me.

00:40 - Well, in Australia, with the change of government,

00:42 the Clean Energy Finance Corporation

00:45 was entrusted with a further $20.5 billion

00:48 to invest in transmission

00:51 to help Australia reach 82% renewables by 2030,

00:54 as well as invest in the energy efficiency

00:58 of homes across the country

01:00 and to make greater investments

01:02 into innovative technology companies,

01:05 a very inspiring addition to the CEFC.

01:09 - About 10 years ago,

01:10 I found myself in Yasuni National Park.

01:12 This is a park in the Amazon in Ecuador.

01:16 And I was there in the company of the Wurundjeri people.

01:19 This is the most biodiverse place on planet Earth.

01:22 It's dripping with life.

01:24 And yet, oil had just been discovered

01:27 and the government was gonna drill for that oil.

01:29 And I really thought there was nothing

01:31 that was gonna stop that.

01:32 Now, the government asked for $3.5, $4 billion

01:35 from the international community

01:37 in order for them not to drill,

01:39 and there was no way.

01:40 There was no way we and the international community

01:42 was gonna come up with that kind of money.

01:44 And so, for the last 10 years, if you'd asked me this,

01:47 I would have said, "They're gonna drill."

01:49 And yet, in August, something amazing happened.

01:52 The people collected 760,000 signatures

01:55 to put this idea of drilling in Yasuni

01:59 up for a national referendum.

02:01 And the people, by voting, basically said,

02:04 "No, we are not going to drill for oil

02:07 "in this most precious place,

02:09 "not just for Ecuador, but for the world."

02:11 - I was very happy with the announcement by the USDA

02:15 as part of its regional conservation partnerships,

02:18 allocating $1 billion in support and investments

02:21 to the agricultural community across the US

02:24 to really adapt climate-smart technologies.

02:27 Out of that $1 billion, roughly 100 million

02:29 included work around enteric methane or methane in general.

02:34 So I think this is a good start

02:35 because you need those incentives

02:37 to really get things to move.

02:39 - One important and inspiring event this year

02:42 is the investor focus on biodiversity and deforestation.

02:47 Both companies and investors have come to recognize

02:50 that there is room for soil-based solutions,

02:53 nature-based solutions through regenerative agriculture.

02:56 These were not areas we even discussed

02:58 or thought about in Paris in 2015.

03:01 So we have come to recognize that there are many fronts

03:04 on which there is room for impact and climate action.

03:08 (gentle music)

03:10 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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