Rain or shine, the race to Net Zero is on!
The climate crisis is the global challenge of our time, but it is especially alarming when the impact hits so close to home. We’re talking about the devastating BC floods that are wreaking havoc on homes, livelihoods and supply chains. The June heat dome, summer forest fires and now atmospheric rivers — the past six months have shown how serious the damage from extreme weather conditions is to our region and the planet. While one of the most important food growing regions in BC was flooding, COP26 was fizzling down and making it clear that policy commitments alone won’t get us to Net Zero in time. To us the most encouraging development out of COP26 is the financial momentum announced at the conference — the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ) representing 245 financial institutions and $130 trillion committed to Net Zero, plus the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) providing a comprehensive global baseline of reporting standards, governance and oversight for finance. In a nutshell, we need those trillions of dollars and global standards to:
While policy and politics need to pick up pace, faster moving flows of private capital are accelerating new innovative solutions that react to the risk and seize the opportunity. We are so fortunate to meet and get to know mission-driven founders that are solving the goals above. Even beyond the small subset of companies we invest in, there are 1000’s of brilliant entrepreneurs developing and growing companies that have significant climate benefits. Circular materials and supply chains, distributed sources of clean energy, revolutionary food science, ecosystem technology, sucking carbon straight out of the air and even perpetual energy through nuclear fusion are all innovations that are at the point of inevitability. Let’s hope that now climate change is our shared reality (not some hypothetical scenario) the confluence of policy, movements, innovation and investment will deliver a Net Zero reality. Spoiler: we think it will.