Climate tech’s shift from doing good to doing well

Put your money where your mouth is. In summary, that is the message I got from Mark Carney’s 2020 Reith Lectures while I was running through the Belgian winter countryside. I had been interested in climate change and what can be done about it for a long time.

Obviously, I agreed with almost everything Mr Carney said over the past three lectures on the BBC. And still, it hit me how obvious his message was in the final episode. There is a lot we can do to make an impact.

Probably the most powerful thing to do is to use our skills and money to redirect priorities in the economy. Be the change Usually, when you read or hear that you should take initiative to make a climate impact, it means that you should buy an EV, get solar panels or buy carbon credits. These things are all positive and have an impact, so please keep doing them.

But most of us have jobs through which we can generate larger changes. The CEO of a large corporation can decide to change the entire strategy in a more sustainable direction. Currently, many of these executives are, for example, considering whether and how to start using AI within their organisations to continue being able to compete.

At the same time AI usage is predicted to be doubling the energy usage of datacentres from 460TWh in 2022 to 1000TWh next year. In many cases not using the benefits of AI will be a huge strategic mistake for many companies, but by choosing a smart way of using these benefits can ensure a corporate can be sustainable and move forward towards net zero in parallel. Also Read: Balancing economic growth and climate action: Decarbonising SEA’s built environment Most likely you are not a CEO having to make difficult choices like those, but you might be working in an office environment of one of those corporates.

If so, make a habit of looking around your desk first before you leave every evening and see if any of the lights you see active are necessary. Switch off anything that doesn’t need to run. After that’s d