The key solution everyone talked about during the Exponential Climate Action Summit
On September 24, 2020, four million viewers tuned in for the Exponential Climate Action Summit, and another four million have watched the summit since then.
The half-day online event brought together key thinkers and doers in climate action to highlight already-existing solutions that can be exponentially scaled up, so the world can meet the goal of halving emissions by 2030 and avoid the forecasted climate catastrophe.
Here are some of the key outcomes of the event.
Watch the whole broadcast here.
Leading the summit were keynotes and panel discussions focusing on why “exponential” must be the growth trend for climate action, highlighting several businesses, cities, and regions that are already on track for halving emissions by 2030.
The importance of digitalization was a key theme throughout the summit, which was broadcast live on Twitter and on the We Don't Have Time App. Special segments of the event honed in on energy, transport, and other industries that are rapidly increasing their climate actions through innovative digitalization, and examined what is still needed to empower the greatest possible action through digitalization.
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“Digitalization, as we have talked about all day, is really the solution,” said Mats Pellbäck Scharp, head of sustainability at Ericsson, offering his overview of the summit. “There is such a big crossover between sectors — talking about energy being the key stopper for heavy transports, and then you need digitalization on top of that. So I think that, together with the lagging policies, is really something to think about how we can drive that.”
Johan Falk, co-founder and head of the Exponential Roadmap Initiative, summed up the event with this: “We know that the solution exists. We know the pace that we need to take to halve emissions by 2030… We have a number of actors which actually are cutting emissions in the pace we actually need. We have tons of examples. The key point now is that everyone becomes the climate leader — that we step up, that we reach that critical mass, because then it can become a self-fulfilling prophecy.”
The event also revealed how exponential action isn’t only needed from businesses, however. The eight million viewers were beyond targets for We Don’t Have Time, Exponential Roadmap and Ericsson, who created the summit. And it’s just a start.
We Don’t Have Time CEO Ingmar Rentzhog closed the event pointing out that if businesses take the three major necessary actions — reducing their own emissions, reducing their value chain emissions, and integrating climate into business strategy — “it will still not be enough, because we also need to influence climate action in society.”
“We need to inspire the whole world to do this,” Rentzhog said. “We will never succeed if only we who have been awakening about climate are doing action. We need everyone, so it’s super important to influence climate action in society.”
What is the Exponential Roadmap?
The Exponential Roadmap highlights the 36 solutions that can scale exponentially to halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 worldwide. Scaling of solutions comes from sharp policy, from climate leadership by companies and cities, and from a finance and technology shift toward green solutions with exponential potential.
The roadmap shows how we can build a stronger, more resilient, and future-proof global economy and increase human prosperity and health — within the planetary boundaries.
Written by LISA BAILEY
We Don’t Have Time is the world’s largest social network for sharing climate action and solutions. Join our network: wedonthavetime.org
