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(bright humming music)
What kind of world do I want to live in?
(bright humming music)
I think about this question a lot.
(burning flame music)
For our generation
and for specifically my group of people, which is refugees,
the circumstances might dismantle
any vision of the future that we have.
(bright humming music)
You're trying to rebuild,
you're trying to make a future for yourself.
And then the climate-related disaster
come and you start again.
(bright humming music)
It's not about how it's affecting you now,
it's about how it's affecting you your entire life.
(bright humming music)
First step to understand is that we're all a part of it.
None of us are going to be left out by the crisis.
(bright humming music)
We're at a stage where if we don't act now,
really there won't be very much left.
(bright humming music)
There are generations that will never see certain things
that we grew up seeing in real life.
(bright humming music)
We have to start treating this like the emergency it is.
(bright humming music)
To achieve the 17 sustainable development goals,
we have to go from an intention to a serious commitment.
Business leaders really need to rethink
how they conduct their business
and invest in creating systems that are climate-friendly.
The action I would like to see is accountability,
structures being put in place
where countries aren't just asked to do something,
but they're kept accountable to the decisions
that they make.
(bright humming music)
There has to be that strong collaboration
between government, between corporations,
between youth activists to drive change forward.
The world I would want to live in,
in the world where imagining the future is not a privilege.
I want to live in a world
where people do not give up on hope,
hope that a positive change is possible.
(bright humming music)
The fact that you're listening today
means that you are willing to make a change.
(bright humming music)
(audience clapping)
Please, you're supposed to go over there.
Thank you, Mark, for being so vigilant
and shows the agility--
It's a heavy subject.
Yeah, agility of the panel.
Welcome, everyone.
Good to start on a little bit more of a humorous note
because it's a very serious panel,
at least a very serious topic
with the most important players in the climate field,
in the world.
And let's face it, we are in an emergency situation
when it comes to climate and nature.
We had warmest year on record last year,
our planet is on fire and we need to act now.
The cost of inaction far exceeds the cost of action.
And we just have to understand,
there is no vaccine against climate change.
There's no easy solutions, but the solutions are there
and we can do half of it before 2030
with the technology we do have today.
And if we now start to implement what we agreed at COP26.
So we have a great panel to discuss this.
And as I said, we also have two of the key players
from COP26 with us, secretary Kerry,
being the climate envoy of the U.S. and Minister Xie,
one of the most experienced Chinese leaders in this,
also the climate envoy
and former Environment Minister of China.
And the two of them at the last moment at COP26
showed that there is possibilities for the G2
to still agree on important topics.
So I think we should give them a big applause for that.
(audience and panelists clapping)
And we are of course, very interested
in hearing what new breakthroughs we can have
in the years to come and in the run up to the COP27,
that will be in Africa in Egypt.
Let me start with you, secretary Kerry,
thank you for your leadership from the Senate.
And until today on oceans on the biodiversity nature
we know that a million species are a threat
of being at distinct.
We know that there is so much at stake now,
but still we can reach 1.5 degrees
if we now start to implement what we have agreed.
But last year we saw an increase in the global seal
to emission.
So where do we stand, and what measures can we take?
And what measures will the U.S. under your leadership
and Present Biden leadership take
to make the planet better place for future generations?
(clears throat) Well, Borge, thank you very much
for the invitation to be here.
And I'm delighted to be here with all the members
of the panel, particularly, with this gentleman,
we have spent many hours together over 25 years,
and we are friends despite real differences
between our countries, obviously,
but we have heated the admonition of our presidents
that we need to try to find a way forward.
Climate is not a bilateral issue between the United States
and China, climate is a multi-lateral,
universal existential issue for everybody.
And unless China and the United States
together, try to find a way forward
and other countries are involved obviously.
But unless we do that, we can't get where we need to go.
You say, "Where do we stand now?
We stand on a precipice,
and if you pull back from the precipice
and do the things we need to do,
we have an incredible future ahead of us
with a capacity to open up a brand new,
unbelievable, economy globally
in the world's greatest transformation ever
as we move to a new energy economy,
as we get pollution out of the air,
which is what is causing the climate crisis.
People forget greenhouse gases are pollution
and 15 million people a year die
because of the quality of the air around the world,
which comes principally from fossil fuel burning
that is not mitigated abated.
And so we stand on the precipice
of being able to move away from that.
I think also on the other side of the precipice,
you better be realistic.
51 degrees centigrade yesterday in Pakistan, in South Asia,
70 degrees Fahrenheit above normal in the Arctic
and 100 degrees Fahrenheit above normal in the Antarctic
at a few weeks ago.
You could run around the planet and there isn't any country
on the planet that isn't feeling and living the impacts
of the climate crisis.
Droughts, fires, mudslides, floods,
storms with greater intensity
that comes from the increased moisture
coming from the ocean, which comes from the increased heat
going into the ocean because 90%
of the warming of the planet goes into the ocean
and the oceans, they are at risk.
The chemistry changing faster than they have
in millions of years.
And you can't solve the problem of the oceans
if you don't solve climate,
you can't solve the problem of climate
if you don't solve the ocean.
And people need to understand that 51% of the oxygen
we breathe comes from the ocean.
So, we're dealing with a crisis here, folks.
That's a crisis made by human beings.
As President Kennedy reminded us,
most of the problems on the planet
are caused by human beings,
but that means they could be solved by human beings.
And this can be solved.
In Glasgow, we left Glasgow thanks to Minister Xie
and Frans Timmermans, and countless other ministers,
and countries.
We came together knowing what the stakes were,
recognizing that we needed to come together
and compromise, find a way forward.
But for the first time ever,
the whole community of nations that came together said,
"We must reduce the consumption of fossil fuel.
"We must phase down the use of coal."
That's never happened before,
we embraced a 1.5 degrees target.
And the 1.5 degrees
was not something anybody pulled out of the sky
or did as a matter of politics or ideology,
the 1.5 degrees is based on science.
In fact, everything that we think we're talking about doing
is based on math, mathematics, and physics.
And it is rare that you can get the kind of certainty
about what is happening to us,
as opposed to all the investments that countries make,
any individual makes an investment.
You can't be as certain about that investment usually,
as you can be certain about what is happening
to the planet and why.
So we need to move, we need to accelerate,
we need to do more.
And Xie Zhenhua, understands this,
committed to that as we are.
And we're working together now to try to find the way
that we can move forward.
20 countries, ladies and gentlemen,
equal 80% of all the emissions on the planet.
Think of it that way.
And if those 20 countries can move rapidly enough,
we can win this battle.
We left Glasgow with 65% of global GDP committing
to real plans that can get you to 1.5 degrees.
That means 35% did not join that.
And what we need to do now is help some countries
that need assistance to be able to make the transformation
do it.
So we're working.
The United States is working together with Germany,
and Britain, and France, other countries, UAE with India,
with South Africa, with Indonesia, with Vietnam,
with Mexico, with other countries,
to help them to get the investible financing
and the technology that will help them make this transition.
I am absolutely convinced, we will get to a low carbon,
no carbon economy on this planet.
I cannot tell you, I'm convinced that we will get there
in time, that we will do what the scientists told us
we must do four years ago, which was reduce by 45% minimum
over the next 12 years, we lost four of those years
and you all know why.
Now, we didn't lose 'em completely
'cause other nations kept going and people kept doing things
even in America, but we didn't have momentum.
Now we have momentum and we have the ability
to be able to actually keep the world at the degrees
we're aiming for.
FATTY B Roll and the IEA.
Let the world know that if we implemented,
everything that we agreed to do in Glasgow,
we would be at 1.8 degrees centigrade of warming by 2050.
that doesn't tell me we could be satisfied with 1.8 degrees.
It tells me that with a little more effort,
we get to 1.5 and every 10th of a degree
makes the world of difference.
Bottom line, I'll just close by saying to you,
no government has the money to be able to solve this problem
by itself.
No government will move fast enough to solve this government
by itself.
We need you.
We need the private sector all around the world to step up
as major financial institutions are stepping up,
as companies that have joined the first movers coalition,
who are saying, even by paying a green premium,
they're going to buy 10% green steel.
They're going to buy green cement.
They're going to have some of them have invested
in electric airplanes.
Some of them are going to make new ships, Masque for instance,
that are carbon free.
We're starting, we're on the move.
We simply have to accelerate this by several times,
but I am convinced that through technology,
through innovation, through human ingenuity,
if we will find the human will
to make the choices available to us, we can win this battle.
That's where we stand.
Thank you, Secretary Kerry, for that, I think--
(audience claps)
you deserve a great applause and Minister Xie,
welcome to you, and thank you also for your leadership
at COP in 26 and on the Environment and Climate for decades.
You heard what Secretary Kerry said about
that we have to accelerate this several times just now.
And we know that China has committed
to peak emissions before 2030,
and also being a climate neutral by 2060.
Could you share with us what next steps
and what will take place from China's side
in the coming years based on these ambitions,
can it be accelerated?
And do you also feel that the collaboration from Glasgow
between Secretary Kerry and yourself could be continued
in the run up to COP27, Minister, and welcome.
(speaking in foreign language)
Thank you Mr. President.
And thank you Mr. Kerry for you remarks,
and actually among the audience,
and I have a lot of friends there.
So hello, to all of you.
When we deal with climate change, the Chinese government
actually, has been persistent in our perspective.
In January this year, which it's the video meeting
President Xie said that we should work together
to overcome the crisis and to achieve the win-win situation,
and that we should also work together to solve the crisis.
And we need to make contribution to our future
and the month of September, and President Xie
also put forward a new initiative with main message
that we should push forward more robust green transition
and the green development.
So global and green development is one of the key things
facing with the common future of humanity.
Every party should make their contribution
so that we can deal with the crisis and the situation.
So only by cooperation can we find the solution.
So actually China has to take a proactive
and concrete actions and the President Xie, actually,
also put forward dual carbon goals,
like President Brende mentioned that we do have goals
of carbon picking and the carbon neutrality.
Actually, we should remember
that when we talk about the year 2030 and 2050,
our commitment it's before 2030, before 2060.
And so, to achieve our goals,
leading group has been established
and we also have formulated one plus end policy framework.
This end element means all stakeholders
should do something to make their own contribution.
37 Different sectors announce their measures
to counter the climate change,
which will optimize our energy mix.
We will further establish the global carbon market.
Our transition to the green energy is now very common,
very common in China.
China is constantly promoting the climate governance
of the world.
President Xie is very engaged in this agenda.
China has made important contribution in Paris Agreement,
and we see a very good collaboration
between a U.S. and China
so that we have achieved great success
for the Paris Agreement.
In the 2017 web conference, President Xie
mentioned that the Paris Agreement is our future direction.
And we cannot abandon it.
Together where again, meeting up each other in Davos,
we're facing greater challenge than before
as Mr Kerry mentioned.
Here, we would like to urge all countries to work together,
overcome the challenges in front of us.
We have to turn our pledges into concrete actions.
We have to follow the principles of Paris Agreement.
We have to reinforce our actions,
we have to implement the goals of Paris Agreement
by working together in order to have a win-win situation
in our global governance of climate action.
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much.
(audience and panelist claps)
I will come back to a gentleman, but let me now,
turn to Elizabeth Wathuti.
I heard Elizabeth speak at COP26 as young climate activist.
Very impressive.
Elizabeth, you also started
and are the founder of the Generation Green Initiative.
And based on the agreements in the COP26,
where do you feel we stand now and how do you feel
about the run up to COP27?
The humanitarian crisis
that I described to the world leaders at COP26
has only worsened since the last year.
And right now over 3 million of my fellow Kenyans
and over 20 million people across the horn Africa
and neighboring countries across Kenya
are right now facing extreme hunger
due to a record breaking drought that has actually seen
consecutive rainy seasons fail.
And the war in Ukraine is now exacerbating
this already terrifying high-levels of food insecurity.
And just over a week ago, I visited Wajir County,
which is a county in Northeastern part of Kenya.
And what I witnessed there was a deeply shocking example
of the suffering that the interconnected climate nature
and food crisis is already bringing to bear
across the African continent.
I saw dead and dying livestock, the goats, cows,
camels, all these are livestock that this community
depend on for 80% of their livelihoods.
But right now they're not able to meet this
because of the drought situation.
The decimated wildlife wild animals
that have to work for long distances to find water,
but end up losing the battle at the end of the day.
And the hungry and desperate people
who are also losing hope for their future.
The reality of climate change is here and it's getting worse
and it's getting worse because we're not taking the clear
and concrete actions that science says
that we must take in order to turn these around.
And we know that we must break our deadly reliance
on fossil fuels and also invest massively
in a clean energy future,
and also ensure access to energy for all.
We also know that we have to transform
our global food systems
and we also have to raise our ambitions
to limit warming to 1.5 degrees and assist others as well
to meet this challenge by mobilizing finance and resources,
including a separate finance facility for loss and damage.
My message to the world leaders head of COP27
is still unchanged.
Open your hearts and feel the immense suffering
that our way of doing things is causing.
And then after the scale and speed needed
to turn things around,
this is not just a moment of compassion.
This is a moment of action and reform.
And what we will gain by solving the food, nature,
and climate crisis together will be improved,
held security and also wellbeing everywhere.
But we have to act with urgency.
We have to fix this problem right now
because frontline communities
are not waiting for the impacts of climate change
to hit in the future, it's happening right now.
And the best that we can do is to fix this right now
so that we can actually save all of humanity.
Very good.
(audience and panelists clapping)
Thank you so much, Elizabeth.
And also to share what is happening on the ground in Kenya.
And as Elizabeth said,
it's not any longer about why is about how.
And Geraldine Matchett co-chair co-CEO of Royal DSM,
also the CFO.
I know you're very passionate
about what Elizabeth also talked about agriculture
and the food situation, and the food crisis
that we are faced with.
And how can we turn the food and agriculture
is today a major contributor to emissions.
It also uses a lot of water for irrigation.
How can we turn food production into something
that can produce more food and decouple this
from the negative effects and hurting nature.
So over to you, Geraldine,
and thank you for your leadership in this field.
Thank you, Børge, and hello, everyone.
And thank you, Elizabeth,
for bringing the reality of today on our doorstep.
I think this week in Davos we simply cannot avoid
the fact that there is a food crisis as we speak.
And that basically the food systems of this world
are extremely fragile.
Now, there's the crisis,
which is linked to the Ukraine situation,
but this has been coming and is already here
as we've just heard.
And it's probably worth going back just a little bit in time
to put it into context.
In 1950, we had 2.5 billion people on this planet.
And at the time 70% of humanity was living in poverty.
And the biggest urgency was to feed everybody.
So we put our brains to work, and our science,
and our innovation, and we focused for a few decades
on producing more and more and more food.
Now, we've actually been very successful in the meantime,
the number of humans on the planet tripled
to over 7.5 billion.
And we have actually managed to reduce over time,
the percentage and the absolute number of people
who really are lacking food.
However, if you look at the food systems of today,
we are able to feed reasonably well about 3 billion people.
There's another 3 billion people who are unable to afford
a healthy diet.
And there's a billion people who are simply undernourished.
And the people on the brink of starvation
has tripled in the last two years.
So this picture is not good.
And this is before we overlay an even worse impact
from climate change,
which is why this is (giggles) why we're talking about food
with climate is that it's the same battle.
In fact, this increase in food production
has had a massive impact on planet earth.
Few facts, food production actually requires 70%
of fresh water that we use in the world.
It's the emission, it emits about a third 34%
of greenhouse gases.
And it is by far the biggest cause of the loss of nature
and biodiversity.
Now, at the same time, climate change is the biggest victim
or I mean, food system is the biggest victim
of climate change.
And we are seeing that in all geographies,
and you said it very nicely in your introduction.
There is not one country that isn't suffering from droughts,
from floods, from fires, and all of our food systems
are actually under threat.
Now, if we look at that picture
and we turn it into economic figures,
the fact that our food systems are not sustainable
is costing the world about 2 trillion a year.
Now, if we are able to switch our food system
from a net negative to a net positive
and the innovations exist, but we need to scale them,
we'd be able to convert that minus 2 trillion
into actually a positive 4.5 trillion of value creation
and 400 million jobs with that.
So an affordable, sustainable employment in food production
is all very possible.
Now, of course, this is nice to hear,
but the question is always the how?
And we could spend hours here debating that,
but there's maybe a few thoughts to put in place here.
The first one actually links to COP26
and the methane pledge.
Now, food production
accounts for about 1/3 of methane emissions.
And we all know that methane is 28 times more potent
as a greenhouse gas than CO2.
We can buy time, we can buy time
by at least reducing methane emissions wherever possible,
be it from livestock, be it from land waste.
And, of course, there are other sources of methane,
but this is one first element.
And that would actually extend to switching our food system
to much more regenerative food system production.
We have to change the way we produce food in the world.
The other one is really about redirecting subsidies.
There's about 600 billion of subsidies
going to agricultural activities
that unfortunately aren't subsidizing
the sustainable practices,
but are actually still subsidizing quantity over quality
and quantity over sustainability.
So this is actually within our hands to redirect that.
And maybe last but not least, one has to have a debate
around diets and climate resilient diets.
And that is really looking at what are we eating as humans
because there's a big correlation with, of course,
the health of the human beings.
But we are seeing that some of the crops
on which we rely the most to sustain healthy humans
are actually not adapted to climate impacted geographies.
So this is the food crisis in the short-term,
linked to commodity prices
and the impact of the Ukraine Russia situation,
it is a shock, but it is the first out of many
that we can expect
impacting the way that we are able to nourish ourselves.
Thank you, Geraldine.
(audience and panelists clapping)
So start reminder to all of us, what is at stake?
Marc Benioff, Salesforce, you're the founder
has been through decade of transforming itself also
to become even more sustainable.
I think last year you went net zero,
you used 100% renewable energy,
and you're also a believer in technology.
But as I mentioned at the start with the current technology,
we can also half an amount of emissions by 2030,
if we wanted.
You're also being a strong believer
in nature-based solutions,
being a supporter of the trillion trees.
But how do you see the role of eco entrepreneurs
and innovations on top of the technologies and mitigation
we can do with what we have today?
Because it wouldn't hurt with some additional brighters too.
Over to your Marc.
Well, thank you.
This panel's so inspiring and energizing to me
because I am ready for a new environmental capitalism,
right?
I'm demanding a new environmental capitalism for myself.
It means exactly like you said, that my company, Salesforce,
which is now 75,000 people-based in San Francisco
must be net zero,
but it also means that every company here at the forum
must be net zero and fully renewable, we have no choice.
We're at the time where we must create a net zero world.
It's one of the reasons why the First Mover Coalition
that we announced here at this conference is so important
that we announced that we were going to pre-buy $100 million
of capability to extend our net zero status
and so many other companies as well.
And I hope that every company will join us.
It means that not only do we have to be net zero
and fully renewable,
it also means that we have to do everything we can
to sequester 200 gigatons of carbon
that's already out there,
which is why we created the Trillion Tree Program.
By planting a trillion trees
we can sequester 200 gigaton of carbon and we must
because we had 6 trillion trees, but as the world,
we have deforested 3 trillion or half of our trees.
That's 600 gigatons of carbon banking,
we must put that back.
It's one of the reasons why I'm so excited
that we saw not only the governments of China
and the governments of the U.S.
this year make major commitments to invest in trees
and carbon sequestration,
and creating exactly as the minister said from China.
So articulary, carbon markets so that we can enable
and energize a new eco-preneur revolution.
We see these technologies exactly like you said.
And so many young people here today
who are building new companies that maybe they were like me,
entrepreneurs, but now they are eco-preneurs
focused on the environment.
I was just in Sydney, Australia
with one of these eco-entrepreneurs Guy Hudson,
has a very exciting company, Loam Bio.
Building a new kind of biological
that when you plant your soybean crop,
you also plant it with this biological substance
made into mushrooms, what does it do?
It doubles the soybean crop.
It requires less fertilizer.
It sequesters more carbon than ever before.
And these types of technologies in these new companies,
this is what we need.
We need this kind of next generation of innovation.
So I'm ready for a new environmental capitalism.
And I hope that Salesforce can be an example
that we can create great companies.
This year, Salesforce
will become the third largest software company in the world.
And as we enter the Fortune 108, we're doing it as net zero.
I hope that it motivates every company here
to do that as well.
Thank you.
(audience and panelists clapping)
Thank you, Marc.
And thank you for calling this environmentalist capitalism.
I think this is something that can inspire also,
thank you for your leadership
in the First Movers Coalition that Secretary Kerry,
President Biden, and the World Economic Forum
launched at the COP26.
This is really a coalition where no 54
of the leading companies in the world, including Salesforce,
the Apples of the world, the Amazons of the world
say that they commit then to say that their suppliers
have to green and leave less of a CO2 footprint
in their production, or they will not buy.
That sends a very strong message
and it can accelerate also new technologies doing this.
But let's come back to the secretary and the minister.
It's so much of the future of the planet
is in your hands.
U.S. and China is almost 50% of the global economy,
and we know how powerful it is when you can agree.
Before Paris, where you both played such an important role.
We were on a track to four degrees increase, four degrees.
After Paris on the track to three,
after COP26, when you did agree,
we are now on the track or potentially on the track
to two degrees, not where we need to be because that's 1.5,
but now we have to agree and we have to implement
the necessary measures to get to 1.5.
So my question to you honorable ministers and secretary
is how to get there, will we get there
and will we now get the necessary momentum in the run up
to COP27 or will leaders now just focus
on having all the necessary energy available.
And they will forget about the green agenda?
Maybe Secretary Kerry, first?
Well Børge, that obviously is a fundamental challenge
right now.
We are not on the track that we need to be right now.
Emissions went up 6% last year.
Coal use went up 9%, wrong direction folks
that's before Ukraine, before Ukraine.
Now, Ukraine is being used as a lever to make the argument
that, oh, wow, see, you got to have this energy security,
which we do have to have nobody doubts that.
But there's a headlong plunge to sort of say,
wow, that means we've got to drill a lot more
and pump a lot more.
And we've got to build out more infrastructure
in order to be able to deliver the gas to Europe
that we have to have et cetera, et cetera.
Now, we have to do some of those things.
We have to make up for the gas that Russia's losing,
that Russia is now that we're cutting Russia out
and not selling it.
So where are you going to get it from?
Well, Europe has made a decision to completely accelerate
their deployment of renewables.
And France has determined
that they're going to have to double down in nuclear
and make different choices.
So all of us need to recognize
that we have the basic technologies now already deployed
to get where we need to do in this next eight years
to meet the goal of a 45% reduction.
But we do not have yet the technologies fully
brought to scale and developed sufficiently
to be able to do what we need to do to get net zero 2050.
But first things first, we must get a 45% reduction
in these next eight years because the same science
and the same scientists tell us if you don't reduce enough
between 2020 and 2030, barring a miracle discovery
of something that we don't even don't have yet.
You can't have a steep enough, you can't meet the decline
that you have to achieve over those next years by 2050,
you can't do it.
So this decade, this next eight years decides
whether or not we blow through 1.5 degrees
or whether we in fact country our goal.
And we can't do it folks if the new theology
is going to become,
we got to build out a massive gas infrastructure
without regard to abatement and mitigation of that gas.
The reason we are in the predicament we're in today,
is fossil fuel burning in a way
that has polluted the atmosphere and so much so
that this blanket is heating up the planet
at an unacceptable rate, and we see it happening.
You heard Elizabeth,
millions of people are being affected by this right now.
We have climate refugees on this planet right now.
We have people who are, we have a threat
to the entire food production structure of Africa.
And if all of a sudden that were to implode,
you are going to have hundreds of millions of people
looking for a place to live.
If you think migration has been a challenge to the world
over the course of the last 25, 30 years,
where do you see what happens if we don't do
what we know we have to do
over the course of these next years.
Now, I've always talked very directly with my friend
Xie Zhenhua, we always deal with these things very honestly.
And he knows that I am merging China
just as I'm merging the United States.
We must reduce emissions faster.
We must deploy current level of technology on solar,
on wind.
And we have other technologies we're aware of
with respect to hydro or geothermal or other things
that we could do.
So we can meet the goal of the 45%
if we summon the political will to do it.
And the entrepreneurial activities that are ongoing
are genuinely exciting.
I was in California recently looking at what was happening
with Google X, what was happening with our laboratory
and fusion, where by the way,
they have made genuine new breakthroughs,
and there are new possibilities.
And we are also looking at startups,
young companies that are doing new things,
new things in battery storage, in green hydrogen,
in direct air carbon capture,
where they're now utilizing the carbon that they capture,
making it into product, this is the future.
And if we will commit to that wholeheartedly
and not make the mistakes of the past
by building out a 30 or 40 year infrastructure
of fossil fuel, that is not mitigated or abated
to the levels near what we need,
that would be a catastrophic mistake and a guarantee.
We blow through the 1.5 degrees,
and God knows what happens even with two degrees and beyond
this battle is being flawed now for the next eight years
to determine whether or not we can achieve net zero by 2050,
and we need China to join with us.
And I hope in these next months, that Xie Zhenhua and I,
and it's not the two of us who are as important
as Borge has made us.
It's President Biden and President Xie,
and it's their determination about what we will do
that can make the decision as to whether or not
China can accelerate its ability,
which it agreed to work with us to do.
We've already crossed that bridge.
China said it's prepared to work with us
to try to accelerate the transition from coal
and China also has agreed they're going to go after methane.
Methane, my friends is so critical
now because of permafrost hawing in Siberia,
in the Tundra, in Alaska, you could light a match
over bubbles coming up out of the water
and the water will burn, light on fire that's methane.
And the problem is methane is 20 to 80 times
more damaging than CO2.
And it's the easiest thing to begin to fix.
It's low tech, it's pluming.
You fix pipes that leak, you fix connectors that leak,
you plug the holes of wells that you used to use,
but you don't leave them open, you stop flaring.
You stop venting, there's as much gas being flared
and vented now, as Europe gets from Russia in a year.
So we can do this, and I hope Xie Zhenhua and I
will be able to take what we've done in the last two COPs
to the level that we need to get to, to win the battle.
Thank you, Secretary Kerry.
(audience claps)
So Minister Xie, does Secretary Kerry make sense to you?
There's only one answer to that.
(all laughing)
Or maybe be a little bit more precise in my question.
Do you agree with him that we must reduce emissions faster?
(speaking in foreign language)
Last year and Kerry and I
actually, were both special envoy
and the way actually has convened for 14 meetings.
So you can see that we met every eight or nine days.
And during those meetings,
we talked about how to work together and move forward.
So just so I mention, how to achieve the goals
made in the Paris Agreement.
And I think we should work together and take the low carbon
and the circular economy approach.
Just now, Mr. Kerry mentioned the energy mix
has to be adjusted and transformed.
In recent years in China, the way the proportion of coal
in energy system has been dropped from 74 to is it 56?
And so far, we have developed the renewable
energy they install to capacity has already reached
the 1 billion kilowatts per hour.
And for seven years, for seven consecutive years,
our investment in sustainability
actually has been over 100 billion yen.
So when we talk about the adjustment of energy mix
and our focus is trying to build the system,
which is based on renewable energy
and that we are trying to move away from fossil fuels.
And also we have announced that we will stop
building compound plants abroad.
So in terms of industry sector,
such as the cement and the steel, et cetera,
we have made appropriate guidance and the measures
to set the standards so that each industry
can achieve its low carbon development.
In terms of transportation, China has developed
our electrical vehicle
and actually we are ranked the top one
in the world in terms of ownership of electric vehicles.
And because electric vehicles and the new energy
can help us to be energy coefficient.
So far, our ability in terms of energy efficiency
has been the more than half of the total in the world.
What China is doing is pursuing circular economy.
So out of the value reached the 3 trillion yen
and also employed more than 6 billion people.
And so you can see that and active and concrete action
has been taken in different industries.
So we can not just walk the...or we can just adjust,
talk the talk we also, we need to take the action.
Another element, which is a forest,
which is also very important
and that we actually have enjoyed the increase
of our Forester stock volume.
And in terms of green coverage,
China actually accounts for 25% of the world total.
And so Currently we actually have a kind of initiative to
plant the trees.
And we like to accept that this initiative
and in the following decade and China plan to plant
700 million of trees in order to make our contribution.
So doesn't matter how we say it,
what matters it's how we do it.
And Kerry is my good friend before COP26.
We made the two join statement.
So what we will do now is to change those commitment
and our joint statement into action
and the corporation between USA and America.
So in the end to conclude the action is very important.
Thank you very much.
(audience and panelists clapping)
Thank, thank you so much Minister Xie,
those commitments made at Paris and COP26
has now become a diverse declaration.
We make commitments into action,
and this is what it's all about when you also then work
with the private sector and mobilize civil society,
private sector, and governments towards 1.5.
Every consequential session has to come to an end.
So I don't dare going back to the two gentlemen anymore
because we will have to end on Swiss time, that is 2:30.
So I will give the three panelists,
two minutes each I will go to Geraldine first,
then Marc.
And I think the future needs to end such a panel
because it is about Elizabeth's future
and all the young people on our planet.
So over to Geraldine first, then to Marc,
and then to Elizabeth, the two, one and a half minute each,
and then we can end on time.
Thank you very much.
And while there's absolutely no doubt, of course,
that's the climate crisis and the climate battle
has to do with energy.
It also has a lot to do with nature and photosynthesis
is a very strong power to sequence the carbon.
So maybe my last thought for us today is to really hone in
on the innovations that can leverage the power of nature
to help us win this battle as well.
And there's a lot of innovations out there
that we can scale, I mean, regenerative agriculture,
it doesn't need to be invented, it needs to be scaled.
And this is something which is entirely in our hands
with no major capital investments,
simply a determination to move that in all geographies
much, much faster.
And here we're talking about cover crops, no tilling.
There's all kinds of approaches,
reducing methane from livestock, being one of them.
And as DSM a science-based company,
this is where our passion goes in,
Borge, you said very correctly,
we are very passionate about this,
which is how can we leverage the power of nature
in order to address climate change and food security
for the world going forward, knowing that as we sit today,
we are seeing a highly deteriorating picture?
So even more action needed on that front.
(audience clapping)
Thank you to Geraldine Matchett, the co-CEO of DSM.
Now, to another co-CEO,
I think you became co-CEO since last time we met Marc.
Yes.
Co-CEO of your company, Salesforce.
Well, thanks.
This has been a great panel.
I really appreciate the World Economic Forum
bringing this critical subject to this stage
and to business.
And also, I really appreciate John Kerry,
as well as Minister Xie from coming from China.
It's so important.
This is a moment of action that just like you said,
we must create a net zero world,
that this is the time where we have to accelerate
and reduce our use of fossil fuels
and reduce our deforestation.
And just like the minister said,
we must get to reforestation.
And with China has 25% of the world's trees
and we need to plant a trillion trees.
So I'm going to assign China for 250 billion trees, please.
Thank you very much.
(men laughs)
And we must energize and inspire an eco-preneur revolution
and we're talking about methane,
but we have a great company here at the WEF
that called Planet Labs, they're launching small satellites
and there's one going up called Carbon Mapper,
and it can read the methane that's on the planet.
Today, we don't have a way to see transparently
where all the methane is and all the methane leaks,
but we shortly will.
And these kinds of eco-preneurs who are creating
all these kind of next generation technologies,
they need all of our attention and our investment
and our focus, and I want to thank you,
especially to the WEF for bringing so many of them here
and inspiring us.
And I hope we will continue to double and triple
their presence, and we do everything we can
to make them as successful as possible.
Well done, thank you.
(audience claps)
Well, thank thank you, Marc.
And thank you for your warm
and not least inspirational words.
Before going to you Elizabeth, I also,
there're many leaders in the climate world here
in the audience, but I also would like to acknowledge
Vice President Al Gore's presence here on the first row.
(panelists audience clapping)
Thank you
for your leadership Al.
And Elizabeth, you can sum up now.
Thank you.
What I didn't hear today is what is holding us back
and how we can unlock everything.
But I will tell you what is holding us back
and from dealing with this interconnected nature,
climate and food crisis
is actually not lack of scientific knowledge
or even lack of technology.
These are human problems and the solutions to them
lie in the human mind, heart and human head.
So we can absolutely find our way
out of this planetary emergency, but for us to do so,
we will need to change our way of thinking.
And we'll need to begin telling new stories
of what is important and actually what is possible.
And to me, that is the key to actually unlocking everything
because right now the life sustaining relationship
between nature and humanity is not being recognized, valued,
or even being protected.
We are perpetuating an ecocidal economic system
that is destroying nature and all of humanity.
And this is a system that's destroying nature faster
than nature can even regenerate herself.
So we have to stop destroying our own life support system
as humans, but it doesn't have to be this way
because we know that our future that has a stable climate,
clean air to breathe, clean drinking water, food to eat.
It's very possible, but again,
we need international cooperation and solidarity
for us to achieve this.
And what is needed now is actually courageous
and urgent action from each and every person,
each and every sector, because we have to change costs
when we still can.
And we all know that time is running out.
We have been saying that time and again,
but again, we have to make sure
that we are turning our words into action
and we have to be born of compassion and respect
for ourselves and all of life on earth, thank you.
(audience and panelists clapping)
Thank you so much to Elizabeth Wathuti.
I'm positive that I'll hear more from you in the future
and thank you for ending this panel in such a touching way.
Thank you, to a great panel.
Thank you, for your commitment and leadership.
Thank you.
(audience clapping)
(soft humming music)
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Safeguarding Our Planet and People
What bold innovations and actions are needed to build a more secure and resilient planet? Tune in to hear some compelling and thought-provoking ideas from the panel
Starring
- Marc BenioffCEO and Chairman, Salesforce
- Elizabeth WhahutiFounder, Green Generation Initiative
- Xie ZhenhuaSpecial Envoy for Climate Change, Ministry of Ecology and Environment of the People's Republic of China
- John KerrySpecial Presidential Envoy for Climate
- Geraldine MatchettCo-Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Offier, Royal DSM NV
- Børge BrendePresident, World Economic Forum Geneva
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