Carbon Isn’t Just A Danger–It’s Also An Opportunity
We
can build a new carbon economy, which lowers the amount of carbon dioxide in
the atmosphere while also delivering shared prosperity for a growing global
population.
Back when he was CEO of ExxonMobil, Rex Tillerson basked in the
aura of invincibility that has long surrounded Big Oil. Right now, he’s
probably regretting his decision to abandon the protective cloak of corporate
power, but give it a few years and he may come to realize that he got out (of
Exxon, that is) at exactly the right time. Because it’s not only Tillerson who
has lost his aura of invincibility recently, so has the entire fossil fuel industry.
Lawsuits, such as the one brought
against some of the world’s largest oil companies by the cities of San
Francisco and Oakland, are one reason why. If the court rules in
favor of the cities and attributes liability for global warming-related damages
to the oil companies, it could be a game changer for the so-called “Carbon Majors”–the 100 companies responsible for 70% of emissions since
1988. Consider that, in 2017, in the U.S. alone, climate-related disasters cost
$300 billion.
Investors, too, are piling on the pressure. To date, institutions
responsible for more than $6 trillion have either
divested, or committed to divesting, from fossil fuels. And the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures, chaired by Michael Bloomberg, has put climate risk
firmly on the map for mainstream investors and CEOs.
We should celebrate the campaigners and activists who have helped
get us to this point. Their success is good news for all of us, bar the Rex
Tillersons of this world. Unfortunately though, it’s not enough.
From where we find ourselves today, there is no credible pathway
to stabilizing global temperatures at 1.5°C to 2°C above preindustrial levels
that does not also involve removing significant quantities of carbon dioxide
(CO2) from the atmosphere.
And is stabilization at 1.5°C to 2°C even the right target?
There’s a small but growing contingent within the climate movement that dares
to name an even more ambitious goal: reversing global warming. As Paul Hawken,
editor of Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan
Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming, puts it, “If you’re going
down the wrong road, slowing down isn’t enough. You have to stop and turn
around.”
To make things harder still, we have to
achieve this while delivering shared prosperity for a global population
forecast to grow by 2 billion between now and 2050. This is the essence of
the carbon
productivity challenge we now face. Over the
next few decades, we’re going to need to increase the value we get from carbon
by at least a factor of 10. And that means we need to learn to think about
carbon very differently.
DON’T BLAME CARBON
Carbon is one of the fundamental building blocks of life on Earth.
It comes in many forms. Our forests and fields are carbon-based. So are many of
the industrial materials–from polymers to graphene–that surround us. We eat
carbon. We wear carbon. We communicate via carbon-based devices. And yes, we
still dig carbon out of the ground and burn it for energy.
What this tells us is that carbon itself
isn’t the problem. Global warming, as Bill
McDonough puts it, is the result of a “design failure.” By
burning fossil fuels, we’ve made atmospheric carbon “a material in the wrong
place, at the wrong dose, and for the wrong duration.”
So how do we set about fixing this colossal design failure?
Turning off the emissions tap is, of course, critical. But, as David Tulauskas,
director of sustainability at General Motors, put it after attending a round
table we hosted at New York’s Climate Week late last year, “If we only talk
about reducing our carbon footprint, we are only having half the conversation.”
THE GREAT CARBON OPPORTUNITY
Fortunately, lots of people have already started the other half of
the conversation. Innovators around the world are learning that carbon, when
used right, can be a source of immense opportunity.
Take Covestro for example. This German company is the first in the
world to commercialize a CO2-based polymer, which it calls Cardyon,
used in mattresses. “Carbon dioxide is a wonderful source of carbon,” says CEO
Patrick Thomas. “As soon as you think of carbon dioxide as a source of carbon,
then your mind . . . opens up into a whole new spectrum.”
Carbon capture and use (CCU) may be a miniscule industry today, but the Global CO2 Initiative estimates that by 2030 it could represent a $1
trillion-a-year market opportunity. In the process, they conclude, it
could help remove 7 billion tons of CO2 from the atmosphere each year–around
15% of our current annual emissions.
Reversing global warming isn’t just about technological
breakthroughs, however. The 80 solutions identified in Drawdown are
all based on today’s technologies. Dozens of them are simply about how we
better manage natural resources–from forests and farms, to wetlands and peat
bogs.
Reducing food waste, switching to a plant-rich diet, and regrowing
tropical forests, for example, come in at three, four, and five in Drawdown’sranking
of solutions by quantity of CO2 pulled out of the atmosphere. Solar farms, by
comparison, come in at number eight.
As for the other half of our carbon productivity
challenge–creating prosperity for a growing global population–there’s good news
on that front, too. Many of the regenerative agricultural practices that
sequester carbon can also benefit the bottom line. Skeptical? Check out Soil Carbon Cowboysto hear
how Midwestern cattle ranchers are reaping the benefits of rebuilding the
carbon content of their soil.
THE POWER OF POSITIVE CARBON THINKING
Like it or not, we humans are wired to respond very differently to
issues depending on how they’re framed. To date, the climate movement has
largely told an apocalyptic story about the consequences of our fossil fuel
addiction. It’s worked up to a point: The fossil carbon economy is beginning to
look vulnerable. But dismantling the old economic order is, at best, half the
job.
Our next task is to build the new carbon economy, which draws
carbon down from the atmosphere while also delivering shared prosperity for a
growing global population. To do that, we need positive goals–reversing global
warming, for example, and increasing by 10X the value we get from carbon–that
can inspire people to innovate.
As Erin Meezan, Interface’s chief sustainability officer, puts it:
“Would you rather be working on a challenge that says create a product for us
that loves carbon and shows that we can reverse global warming, or knock off
another 10% in terms of the reduction of the carbon footprint of the product.
What’s more exciting? You want to work on the product that’s going to manifest
an intention to solve the biggest issue facing humanity. Who doesn’t want to do
that?”
Who indeed.
BY JOHN ELKINGTON AND RICHARD ROBERTS
https://www.fastcompany.com/40556402/carbon-isnt-just-a-danger-its-also-an-opportunity?utm_source=postup&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Fast%20Company%20Daily&position=4&partner=newsletter&campaign_date=04102018
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