DAY 02 AIMÉE CHRISTENSEN Keynote

This is the mountain where I was raised, where I grew up. This is Tamal Payas, which is a sacred site of the coast Miwok in Marin County, California, just north of San Francisco. Incredibly special place um that inspired me to center nature in everything I do um in the world. My parents took me on a lot of backpacking trips and that's where I fell in love with nature as well. I literally would have my empty backpack at the beginning of the trip and by the end it was filled with rocks of all colors. The sparkly micica to the quartz and literally ran ended up with pounds and pounds of rocks age six or seven trying to hike out from these beautiful places because I found nature so incredibly miraculous. And that's me and my dad on one of my first backpacking trips. Um, and this is my mom who's in the front here. And she is a naturalist. She is a nature educator. And that's her teaching her three to five year olds the library for about 40 years. And she just retired at age 90. And so she also [Applause] so happy to have her here. I've come to New Zealand uh to Ouroa, New Zealand three times. It's my third. And I finally made time to see your incredibly beautiful country. And I brought mom to see it with me. Um, they also took us to Mexico and that's where I fell in love with oceans and the life under there. And I can tell you stories of a Titan's trumpet, which is the largest um, sea snail. So, it's about this big, eating a sea cucumber, which you don't see. It was right in front right there. And I was, what am I seeing? And I can talk about the ooze. Anyway, ask me the stories. I have fallen in love with the oceans thanks to this beautiful place and the and the Mayan people who taught me there about having a different relationship with nature and with each other. Um and I just always thought of course why don't we protect nature? It's natural. It's so it's it's natural for us to do that. It is so critical to the quality of life that we have as humans. Why are we here after all? And so that led to me becoming um majoring in Latin American studies and anthropology in college and becoming an advocate for nature. And so went to the Earth Summit um in '92 as a young activist talked to Al Gore to letting us as US youth at Rio. We were the early activists um to introduce him. And when he was picked within a couple of months to be the vice president, I followed him into the administration. And I was very fortunate because I got to um lead our at a ridiculously young age thanks to a fantastic mentor our Latin American energy policy for four years. And that's where I found myself negotiating our first bilateral agreement on climate change with Costa Rica thanks to their leadership in 1995. And I went to Washington to center nature to prioritize nature and to make the business case for nature. I learned very fast that in Washington it's all about business case and what are the economic opportunities um less the moral call to action. It was always there but of course in order to get anything done it was about that economic case. The good thing about clean energy as I found myself at Department of Energy is that it was win-win for our exports of our leading technologies in solar and wind and geothermal at the time. You all have long been leading in geothermal um and their development goals in Latin America. A lot of them didn't have fossil fuels, so wanted to attract these technologies that would allow them to provide clean electrification, leveraging their own uh energy resources and not having to import incredibly expensive fossil fuel-based energy sources. Um, they literally had barges showing up to the Caribbean and Central America, diesel barges, power plants, and charging them astronomical rates. and instead we could export solar technologies to provide much lower cost energy sources. So we quickly realized that in our government-togovernment relationships, this was about creating that win-win. What were their interests? What were ours? How do we align them and align them for our business opportunities, our innovators? Because we they couldn't compete yet. Wind and solar were not competitive in the 90s in the United States. So by creating those overseas markets for them, getting those policies right as they opened up to private investment created an opportunity for our innovators to flourish uh until there was a market in the United States as the costs came down. Um I also went to leverage carbon markets. We're back in now phase two or three of carbon markets. This is the um early OS and the first phase of carbon markets and put a thumb on the scale for clean energy. So, how do we leverage putting a price on carbon to make the cleaner source, the more cost-effective source more rapidly um to protect nature with the biocarbon fund at the World Bank to benefit communities at the community development carbon fund. Um and then after government went into Google, this crazy place with about 5,000 engineers and I'm a policy person, a lawyer, and I'm all about putting a price on carbon and they said, you know what, um you know, how can Google save the world from climate change? And we had such a blast. So these Googlers, Al Gore came to speak about a month into my time there and these Googlers were charged with how can Google solve climate change. And all of a sudden my inbox is filled with all of these engineers. And those of you who are engineers know this, but as a lawyer, I didn't realize engineers are the problem solvers. They are the solution providers. They are the I mean so many innovators. And for climate, we need the engineers. We need policy makers to innovate. Uh we need all of us educators to innovate and our investors to innovate. But there we thought as Google, we're a bunch of engineers. Let's hack a bunch of hybrids. Let's turn them into plug-in hybrids. There was one in the world. We made 10 of them. We showed that they could dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions and we should be electrifying transportation as fast as possible. This was 2006. Um the same year who killed the electric car came out telling the story about how it been killed. We were like, "Nope, we're bringing it back." Um, and so how can business align its assets, its culture? It was engineers, so of course we were going to find a technology- based solution in addition to lobbying for the California global warming bill at the same time. But this was going to be our focus. Um, and so for me it was a real lesson about here's what the world needs, here's what an entity, whether it's a philanthropist or an investor, an innovator as problem solvers. um here's how to align those opportunities of what the world needs and where the economic uh opportunity is as well and for Google's brand to continue to attract the best in the world. So where are we now? This just came out um during Davos during the World Economic Forum. Every year the World Economic Forum um releases this in partnership with Zurich Insurance. You all may know about it, but it's the global risk report. And over the last couple of decades, this is the 20th, um environmental risks have dramatically increased. They're the green risks listed here from in the next two years, the near-term uh pollution and extreme weather events. And then over the next 10 years, you can see how environmental risks uh ecological degradation to continuing the pollution, extreme weather events, biodiversity loss, etc. taking over as risks to our global economic stability. Now, um the good news about that is that those decision makers are at least acknowledging the urgency and whenever anyone um I find I have an easier time making a case for action for nature when I talk about the risks than when I talk about the opportunities. And so risk seems to drive more urgency. And so for me, um, the silver lining of this situation we've gotten ourselves in since I started working on this 30 years ago, um, is that we have urgency and recognition that over half the world's GDP is moderately or highly dependent on nature and its services and therefore at risk. And so I talk about nature being a strategic investment imperative for our stability um and for our economic opportunities um to help to stem the tide of those who need to leave their place because of extreme weather events whether it's droughts undermining food food productivity across Central America and Africa um or it's those um extreme weather events that you all have had flooding etc. Um, so centering nature, you never know when you center nature. You think, "Oh, it's carbon sequestration through trees and mangroves and kelp." Um, and it's clean energy. Well, it turns out that whales, And so this is why I love censoring nature because whatever you find there, you pull on the string and you realize, who knew that whales were a massive carbon sink? So whales, we need to stop hunting killing whales because whales are bringing nutrients up. They defecate and then the plankton show up and they absorb the carbon and then they whales when they die as well, they all fall down and sequester the carbon and it's a massive carbon sink. And who knew that whales were a climate ally? And so when I find if we advocate for nature, when I make that business case, we often find there are so many other uh benefits to protecting nature. Also that came out just a few months ago, the first ever planetary health check from the wonderful uh Dr. Yan Rostrom, one of our other laurates, um who was the lead author on the planetary boundaries, which you all may know about. And what they've done is they've consolidated those into an annual planetary health check. And this plan first planetary health check um is clear um that the planet is on red alert. As you can see, it's just before the red line. And how they talk about the um red line is that we are close to crossing into a high-risk zone that could cause catastrophic irreversible damage to life as we know it. But the science is also clear we have a very small window of opportunity. They talk about five years. Um, and it does three critical things. It monitors the health of the whole planet. It shines a spotlight on what priorities we need to set to prevent crossing the red line and connects the dots for radical collaboration that we all need. We need to have more of those. Um, I forget what they called that yesterday. The uh collisions. Thank you. The collisions. Um so here's six out of the nine planetary boundaries have been breached as we know. Um the only three that have not are stratospheric ozone depletion which is our wonderful case of um how we've solved one of the great environmental challenges and continues to be going in the right direction increased in atmospheric aerosol loading and ocean acidification. Um the other six have been uh breached. Um, and as you can see, all but two are going in the wrong direction. And they call this kind of that that blood test that you would get when you go to the doctor. The way that they've laid that out by the nine boundaries, where do they sit now? And which direction are they going in and um how quickly? So, all right, how do we unlock the power of nature then? So, this is a big list, but I see it as a big list of opportunities. Basically, we need to go from short-term profits, short-term thinking to intergenerational, long-term thinking, intergenerational investing. We need to stop subsidizing the bad things and support and incentivize. Doesn't need to be subsidized. Even the clean energy community in the United States says, let's if you just got rid of the bad subsidies, we'll be fine, right? We just need a little bit of a level playing field given there's 7 trillion a year approximately going to fossil fuels. Let's just get rid of some of that please to have a bit of a level playing field. But even so, as so many of you energy entrepreneurs now, solar and store know now, solar and storage is the cheapest, best, fastest source of electricity. 90% of new clean energy that came on new energy, new energy across the board, electricity. 90% of what came on last year was solar. Very exciting because of cost. Faster, cheaper, better even with those trillions. But let's get those out of the way. We have to go so much faster. of course um western economic models, indigenous models, indigenous knowledge that we've heard so much about. I'm so excited about the entrepreneurship that I've heard about um today. Um and just the knowledge and I'm so impressed by how much you all um integrate the learning and the language and the relationships. It's just completely different in our country. We're just not not um not not there yet, unfortunately. Um, sorry, let me go back. Um, so humans separate from separate from nature. No, we are nature. Fear and separation, which our most recent election really thrived upon that fear and separation. No, done with that. Um, trust, community building. Um, people talk about needing to get to minimum viable product if you're an innovator as quickly as possible. And so, let's grow dirty and not worry about it. Clean up later. No, over that. No, grow clean from the beginning. I've been working on net zero growth strategy for companies where they're going right out of the gate as efficient and clean directly and then for travel and things where you can't get some quality offsets. But we know how to do this fast. It sets you up for better competition, better if you're a supplier in a supply chain, better positioning um globalization to globalization. So we leaned in too hard, I think, to globalization as we've seen around the world. Um, and we need to have a more balanced approach to what really is better when it is traded and what is better when it's developed locally um, and consumed locally. Um, exclusion to inclusion to get the best ideas at the table. Um, top down versus bottom up. There's a great website in the United States called 10kcomunities.org. um 10K communities is basically connecting philanthropy and investment with innovators with projects with municipalities others. So that bottom up connecting especially after election where we have a government that isn't going to continue the very clear direction our last government gave with 50% reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and alignment of our capital. We had the loan programs office of the department of energy to derisk those first clean energy projects. we had alignment of policy of that catalytic government capital um and um now we don't so philanthropy and investment catalytic capital which Jeff and I'll be talking about at our breakout later um we need uh urgently um to step in um politicizing the environment versus the environment as a moral imperative our legacy something aspirational a business opportunity it's not a hair shirt it's not a sacrifice It's an opportunity. It's a better future. Um, let's see. Tactical and political decision-making versus strategic and impactful industrial strategy. I think it was Peter yesterday who talked about that as well as maybe Marcel. Um, how unfortunately when we're tactical, um, we don't set ourselves up for success. And um I'll talk about the food sector later, but that's one where clearly both of our countries um need to uh be more strategic uh versus tactical and political. Um so me first to we together um and teach compassion and have leaders show compassion is strength. um we had that um in our previous presidents and it's so important to have that top down but also the bottom up and film and messages and communities. I know Chris Gart's here and people who do the messaging work that storytelling is so important to um share with us. I know I fell in love with my octopus teacher. Anote's arc of course we heard yesterday. Sun come up is a beautiful documentary that was document that was uh nominated for a an Oscar about the first climate refugees from the Carter Islanders Carter Islands um in uh Papa New Guinea. And then of course I'm the river, the river is me, which we heard about in our breakout yesterday. um as well that understanding that compassion um fossil fuels versus truly clean energy and no AI's demand for energy does not justify a bunch of new coal plants or or natural gas plants. Solar and storage is faster, better, cheaper. Let's get that straight. Um industrial agriculture versus decentralized agriculture. Um that's decarbonized, compassionate, and regenerative. Um Marcel yesterday mentioned the race to the bottom with our value our low value commoditybased exports. Um things like milk powder here. We do the same thing. We export alalfa to cows in China with all of our water that it used to be created. That's not a strategic agricultural investment. So those key levers are transforming energy, transforming food, um mobilizing capital, and engaging people. Those are the ones that I focus on. and um and find exciting for opportunities. But an area that um has not been really leveraged yet to take on transforming energy, food, capital, and engaging people is small businesses. And so last year I worked with Mastercard to look at how we could protect, empower, and support small businesses to deliver climate solutions to mitigate the climate risk they're facing, often on the front lines of climate impacts with better access to insurance. Um, Hen out of the UK has a new uh nonprofit called Humanity Insured, which is providing that free and lowcost insurance accessible to small businesses in developing countries who otherwise could not afford insurance, which is um the difference between life and death for so many small businesses when they face a climate impact. Um, and um, and then also how do we unlock the power of small businesses to take advantage of the opportunities we're talking about with some of the startups here today? How do we support construction firms getting into solar installation? How do we help support small holder farmers to get into regeneratively grown products to be able to sell into Unilver supply chain and get a long-term contract instead of just short-term market spot pricing? How do we So the these are opportunities for small businesses, but we have to support with technical assistance, with technology to be able to access the markets um and with the right kind of capital, patient, lowcost investment dollars. So, we talked about they need data, they need capital, and they need wraparound support. Um, this is where I live now. And the other piece we haven't unlocked a lot is place-based action, community- based action. And I remember hearing about Elizabeth's work around resilience and disastrous uh in her work. Um, and uh, a lot of us are facing those climate impacts, but there's also climate opportunity. And so, how do we get ahead of the risks and tap into the opportunities for our communities? Um, so this is all uh my place now. We moved to Idaho when I was going into high school. Um, this is a few miles north of where we live. Um, and what we found is that we had to turn our risks into our opportunities. So we um, we are isolated. We import our energy and our food. We're at the edge of the grid. Um, we have a dry, water constrained, desert-based economy and great wealth inequality. People say you have three houses or three jobs. We are a tourism based economy um and a ski resort. Um but we had a mega fire in 2013 and we founded an institute for resilience. We held um we built trust by listening to each other with human- centered design workshops on resilience. Um what are those risks that are facing us and what should be our priorities? We created a food vision. We felt that leaning into localizing our food system, 10th most expensive county in the nation for food. Um uh we have an incredible food bank. Um but we really need to be growing local food. And so we raised a fund. So we're at $400,000 already lent to local food uh entrepreneurs and farmers zero and lowinterest loans across our region. Um and to provide the capital that they need in order to transition. So for instance, Lookout Farm was growing alalfa. Now they are growing organic local market veggies. Far fewer costs of inputs. Um we provided that free uh loan, the zero interest loan for them to have green houses and processing for their veggies. They're now making much more money than they were before. 2 acres by two acres expanding and showing other farmers how they can make much more money. And it's good for us. the water instead of going to the alpha alpha, going to the dairy cows or going to China is now staying in our rivers where people love to pay a lot to recreate fly fish that's a better use of our water than sending it into alphaalfpha. So thinking strategically about, you know, what are those opportunities? For us, it's food systems. We have a micro dairy where they keep the babies, the moms first two weeks, and then the babies and the moms 12 hours on, 12 hours off. It's compassionate. It's healthy. It's organic. People pay premium for good quality food. Um, and we even have a mushroom grower in the basement of an old Mormon church in a very rural town in Idaho. um and he's selling this high-end, gorgeous, healthy mushrooms to our local community. We also have a lot of salmon who come home to Idaho. We have to rew uh block our salmon from coming to the high cold water of Idaho. We have the coldest, fierce water for the salmon. So for the salmon to get rid of to get through the warming, we need our Idaho salmon to make it and they're going extinct rapidly. We maybe have five years. If we breach these lower snake dams, the science is clear. They will come home. And why is that important? Not just to feed um not just for the income for rural communities who rely on the fishing and the tourism around the salmon. Um but it's also our e our ecosystem. We call them they bring the groceries from the oceans and the wolves and the bears and the eagles. They eat them and they bring them out into the trees and into the ecosystem. And as our ecosystem is drying and becoming more brittle and fragile um and susceptible to fire just when we need it most, our salmon are going away and our salmon restore the health of our forests when we need them the most. We find salmon DNA in our trees. So, it's been for millennia that salmon have restored our ecosystem, but they can't now. So, how about Ooa, uh New Zealand? So, I just spent the last week or so with my mom cruising around your incredibly beautiful country. Um, and my favorite thing was probably the wildlife. And so, of course, you have an incredible opportunity to rew um this was Odokui um outside of um Deneden um where they're restoring and rewing the forest there. And it's just such an incredible opportunity for New Zealand to become that forested, wildly forested, wildly forested, not pines, wildly forested, beautiful um diverse um place um in in the face of climate change when we need healthy ecosystems for our mental health, but also for the prevention of floods and just having healthy ecosystems as climate hits us. But also food systems like us, we were we're the third largest dairy state in the country. you all have a lot of dairy. I know a lot of milk powder exports and um and so I get so excited by what New Zealand could do to be that innovation hub, that market for innovation for the future of food. Um and so really strategically assessing the risks around the food system as it's currently supported by government, currently invested in by corporations and by investors and what are those opportunities to invest in the future of food and align that government leadership, policy and regulatory environment. um to support cultivated and precision fermentation for protein for instance uh regenerative meat and truly regenerative meat and dairy and crops reing aggra like we've seen at Tahi um our wonderful friend Susan Craig what she's done up there with reing and honey um uh as an income source there's just so many ways we can creatively um align our food system with nature um and our bottom line and our growing economy healthy economy. Um so my final part of this talk is to call all of us to be part of um the part of the solution and there's a huge opportunity in front of us. Uh Open Planet has is the filmmakers behind all of David Atenburgh's films. They are now publicly releasing all of the footage that was not used. So anything that didn't go into those films is now available to anyone who wants to make a difference with them to carry out campaigns, educational campaigns. And it's incredible. 13,000 clips of major challenges and solutions facing climate and nature. 1,400 storytellers across 107 countries are already reaching millions worldwide. You know how expensive it is to get great film of nature. It's incredible to have this opportunity. I'm going to skip this for time. Um, and my final note is the planetary health check has planetary guardians. So I hope we can all join and be our own our planetary guardians together through our investment through our innovation through our advocacy with government to align policies as storytellers as artists. All of us have a role to be planetary guardians. And so thank you very much for listening and for all you do every day to drive innovation forward for good for people and planet. Thank you.