Earlier this month, I was in Edinburgh, Scotland, to attend the TED Countdown Summit. Countdown is a global initiative to champion and accelerate solutions to the climate crisis, turning ideas into action. The summit brought together hundreds of leaders to share a blueprint for a "beautiful net-zero future."
The blueprint – along with inspiring stories of local action – was amplified by hundreds of local TEDx Countdown events around the world. You can participate yourself through a special global livestream event on Saturday, October 30. Find out more at the TED Countdown website here.
Scott and I at the TED Countdown conference in Edinburgh, Scotland.
“Countdown is the most ambitious initiative TED has endeavored upon. A meeting point and invitation to all, from any walk of life, to participate in the story of solving the climate crisis in urgent and crucial ways. A call-in to businesses, governments, society, investors and everyday people to drive action with passion, energy and a deep desire for change.”
There were many, many powerful TEDTalks in Edinburgh, including Marshall Islands' Selina Neirok Leem, the youngest delegate at the COP21 conference that adopted the Paris Agreement, who said from the TED stage: “We’ve been told to move. To become climate change refugees. I’m not even sure who would even take us in. But to those who think that we should just accept our fate, I want to say: adaptation and indigenous knowledge are the solutions.”
Scotland's first woman leader, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, talked about the responsibility of small countries like hers to step up alongside larger economies like the U.S. and China, “We must think big in our ambition. We must act big in what we do, and we must be big when it comes to the impact we make.” Christiana Figueres, the architect of the historic 2015 Paris Agreement and author of "The Future We Choose" — which you should all go out and read, if you haven't yet — delivered a talk and hosted Session 2 and Session 6 of the Summit.
"This decade is a moment of choice unlike any we have ever lived," Christiana said in her 2020 TED Countdown video. Christiana is the daughter of former Costa Rican President José Figueres Ferrer and in her video, she explains how her father's unwillingness to lose the country he loved taught her how stubborn optimism can catalyze action and change. With an unshakeable determination to fight for the generations that will come after us, Figueres describes what stubborn optimism is (and isn't) — and urges everyone to envision and work for the future they want for humanity.
Throughout TED Countdown 2021, Christiana and all the co-hosts maintained a stubborn optimism. As Amina Muhammad, UN Deputy Secretary General, noted early on, transformative climate action will require massive investments from rich countries and, perhaps more importantly, vocal solidarity from people worldwide.
“Friends," she said, "It’s time to make some serious noise.”
Clockwise: Selina Neirok Leem speaks at Session 1. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED); Amina J. Mohammed speaks at Session 1. (Photo: Ryan Lash / TED); First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon speaks at Session 2 of the TED Countdown Summit on October 13, 2021 in Edinburgh, Scotland. (Photo: Ryan Lash / TED); Climate advocate and Nobel laureate Al Gore speaks at Session 5. (Photo: Ryan Lash / TED)
Back here at home, President Biden, Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry, and a huge delegation are planning to attend COP26 in Glasgow next week. According to Time Magazine's Alana Abramson and Justin Worland, the investments in infrastructure and other policy tools designed to reduce U.S. emissions included in the $3.5 trillion Build Back Better legislation are crucially important for hitting the targets Biden committed to when he reentered the Paris Agreement and promised to help lead the world to Net Zero earlier this year.
As you know, that bill is currently the subject of intense negotiation after Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema balked at the price tag. And because Manchin objected to the Clean Electricity Policy Program, Democrats are trying to find ways to achieve similar results through tax incentives. Those details are still being worked out. Some have noted that even without the CEPP (which would have been a game changer), the other climate provisions in the bill are still "historic," but not enough to reach the goal of cutting U.S. emissions 50 percent from 2005 levels by 2030.
Mark your calendars for the Countdown global livestream on October 30 on YouTube at 12pm ET.
“Building on the success of the 2020 Countdown launch, this virtual event will lay out a credible and realistic pathway to a net-zero future by bringing together key solutions from the Countdown Summit, stories of local action from the around the world, cutting-edge science and technology, social and cultural discussions, powerful performances and a global call to action.
By presenting a real pathway to achieving Net Zero, the Countdown global livestream is designed to bring people all over the world together to celebrate and spread the word ahead of the decisive United Nations Climate Conference COP26.”
— TED Countdown
TED conferences have always been the place to go for ideas worth sharing, and what I appreciated most about the TED Countdown Summit is that it takes it one step further… turning ideas into action and being one of the most interactive and inclusive experiences, open to debate — such as courageously inviting a climate activist leader to be interviewed on stage with the CEO of an oil company —even when it gets uncomfortable.
We are all in this together, after all, so get engaged and do what my climate mentor Mary Robinson advises: Make climate justice personal — make it a priority, envision the future we want and move towards it!
Onward!
- Pat
