Lindsay Levin: Good to see you both.
So the book is called "Speed and Scale."
But I want to focus on the subtitle.
The subtitle being --
where have I gone with this? --
"An action plan to solve
our climate crisis now."
What's the plan, John?
John Doerr: The plan
is to transform society.
LL: And what do you mean
by that, transform society?
(Laughter)
JD: I thought you might ask that.
There are six big objectives.
We’re going to electrify transportation,
which means stop using diesel
and gas for our vehicles.
We're going to decarbonize the grid
with wind and solar and nuclear.
Third, we're going to fix
our food systems.
And that includes
eating less meat and dairy.
Reducing food waste
and improving our soil health.
Fourth, we're going to protect nature.
That's stopping deforestation.
Protecting our oceans,
protecting our peatlands, our grasslands.
Fifth, we're going to
clean up our materials,
how we make things like cement and steel.
And then sixth,
we're going to have to figure out
ways to remove the carbon that remains.
That stubborn, residual effects
of emissions that cannot be eliminated.
Every one of these six things
is a major challenge.
We've got to attack them all at once.
LL: And how do we do that on time, Ryan?
How are we going to get this done?
Ryan Panchadsaram: So we've got
to attack them all at once,
but we've got to move quickly.
And so the plan has four accelerants.
Think of these as the levers
that we can pull on equally.
We've got to win the politics and policy,
so the commitments that are being made
actually have follow through.
And then we've got to turn
movements into real action,
at the ballot box
as well as in the corporate boardrooms.
And then we've got to innovate.
Innovate to drive down the cost
of clean technologies,
and then we have to invest.
We have to invest in research,
in deployment, in philanthropy.
We do all those things, Lindsay,
we get to move faster.
LL: So that's the plan in a nutshell,
but what makes it different?
JD: What's different
about the Speed and Scale plan
is it's based on objectives
and key results.
Or OKRs.
If you're not familiar with them,
what OKRs are is a proven system
to set goals for success
that's been used by large
and small organizations alike.
And the benefit of using them
is they help you focus,
get alignment, commitment
and track your progress over time
so that we get everything done.
Objectives are what you want
to have accomplished;
key results are how
I get that done in time.
Really good key results
are concrete and measurable.
And so they're what turn a set of goals
into a real action plan.
LL: Can you give us an example, Ryan?
RP: Yeah, of course.
So let's pick on that first objective,
to electrify transportation,
which cuts six gigatons.
So every set of these objectives
have a handful of key results.
And so for this first one, there are six.
An example of one is
the price of electric vehicles
have to be cheaper
than the fossil-fuel equivalent by 2024.
Or another one, by 2025,
all new buses have to be electric,
all the new purchased ones.
And so these key results tell us
if we're making progress
and if we're getting there on time.
And so if electric cars
are still expensive
or we're still seeing
diesel buses sold after 2025,
we know we're off track
and we have to course correct.
LL: So what I hear you saying
is that we need to be accountable,
we need to be super ambitious,
we need to be very practical
because of the scale of change needed.
Now, John, you have helped grow
some of the most successful companies
in the world.
And when I think about the conversations
that go on in boardrooms,
I can't help but think
that some of the leaders there
will be frankly daunted,
maybe aghast, even horrified
at the scale and speed
and breadth and depth
of the transformation
that you're talking about.
What is your message
to your business peers?
JD: My message to them is simple.
It's that climate change
has been underhyped,
underhyped.
We are underestimating
the economic opportunity
and the risk in this transition.
The human cost,
the economic toll that can come
if we don't seize this opportunity,
which could create
25 million jobs, new jobs,
in the next decade alone --
or wreck our communities.
I want to ask you, friends,
how much more damage do we have to endure
before we realize that it's cheaper
to save this planet than to ruin it?
(Applause)
LL: One of the things that people
often say about climate change
is that we already have
all of the solutions that we need,
and the real issue is that we’ve just
got to get on and implement them.
And I believe and I read in the book
that you're saying
that's not enough, Ryan,
talk to us about that.
Why do we need something more
than what we already have?
RP: I think of it
as a “yes, and,” right?
We have 85 percent
of the solutions that we need.
Record lows of solar and wind prices
means deployments around the world,
the dropping cost of lithium-ion batteries
means we're seeing more electric vehicles.
But those solutions
alone won't get us to net-zero.
And so we're going to have to both
deploy and invest in the now
as well as invent the new.
So we need the now and the new,
we need to scale up what we have
as well as invest in the future.
And there are two
pretty tangible examples, right,
when you think of solar and wind
as it gets deployed,
you can't turn that on and off
when you need it, right?
So a grid needs to find a way
to fill its gaps.
Hence, next-level battery technologies
or even safer nuclear.
One of those could fill the gaps.
Or think about how much we fly.
Carbon-neutral fuels need to be developed,
and the cost needs to be driven down.
The goal of all of this
at the end of the day
is to try to take these green premiums,
and if they can become green discounts
we’ll see this technology everywhere.
LL: One of the things in the book
is carbon removals,
which you believe is imperative
to solving this problem.
And when people think
about carbon removals,
they get understandably suspicious.
Because historically,
it's been an excuse for inaction.
We can continue polluting,
and we’ll clean up later.
You're telling us in your view
that carbon removals
are an imperative piece of the plan.
Can you describe why
and what you mean by that?
RP: Of course. I mean,
people should be suspicious.
Carbon removal needs to be the last piece.
So as an organization,
if you're trying to get to net-zero,
the first thing
you have to do is cut, right?
Pick the alternative,
pick the electric alternative.
Then you’ve got to be more efficient.
So you've got to cut,
become more efficient,
and then Lindsay, then people
can rely on carbon removal.
But when you look at all the models
from IPCC or even our rough modeling,
you're still going to have
10 gigatons left over.
And so we've got to invest
in carbon-removal technologies
that are both nature-based
as well as engineered,
because we're going to
need it in the future.
LL: Climate justice.
Let's talk about climate justice.
It's a big theme in the book.
John, you are an affluent white American,
white male American.
Yay, exactly.
Any more of those in the room? Yeah.
Tell us, from your viewpoint,
how do you think about this question
of climate justice?
JD: You know, when you think about it,
climate justice,
climate change, amplifies inequities.
Those who suffer the most
have done the least to cause this problem.
(Applause)
And what that means is that the US,
as the world's historic biggest emitter,
must decarbonize first.
We've got to do that for two reasons.
To show the world that it's possible.
And to drive the cost down
for everyone else.
More broadly,
the US, Europe and China
have to step forward
and fund the transition --
all of the costs -- for a transition
to a new clean economy.
Third, as we stop using fossil fuels,
some of our communities,
their livelihoods
are going to be left behind.
Those jobs are going to evaporate.
And so we've got to guarantee
that the good-paying jobs
of the new clean economy
are available to them.
LL: I want to finish
by asking you about leadership.
So you say that the book is written
for the leader inside us?
What's your call to action?
We have leaders sitting in the room,
we have leaders listening.
What's the message to leaders?
JD: Well, first, let's be clear,
individual actions
are needed and expected.
But they are not going to get us
where we need to go
in this, the decisive decade,
when we have to cut emissions
in half by 2030.
Only concerted global action
is going to get this job done.
And so we need each of us
to mobilize others into action.
That's what I mean by the inner
leader inside each of us.
And we can be inspired by the actions
and the stories in this book.
Like parents and teachers in Maryland
who switch all the school
buses to be electric.
Like workers who are demanding
that their organizations,
their companies and employers
both commit and then meet
the net-zero commitments.
Or the protesters
who today are opposed
to this Campbell offshore oil development.
Audience: Yes!
(Applause)
JD: In my experience and in this plan,
when people strive
for extraordinary things --
and not just strive,
but plan to get there --
the results can surpass all expectations.
I want to tell you, friends,
we've got to pull together,
we've got to act together,
we’ve got to act now.
Because we are fast running out of time.
LL: Ryan, a final thought
for leaders of your generation.
When you think about your peers,
are people ready,
are you seeing a shift in terms
of people's capacity and willingness
to step up and create
this different future?
RP: Absolutely, absolutely.
I think this is, like, a time
for intergenerational teaming up
on these things.
I think one of the things
that in doing the research
for the book we found is
the leverage points
don't take millions of people.
The leverage points just take five
or 10 people coming together
and saying, "This policy
shouldn't happen,"
or, "This research needs to be done
to show why we shouldn't
go down this path,"
or in the world that we both are in,
just three people coming together
to start a company.
So I think our generation
is jumping full into this, Lindsay.
We can't wait to work with --
LL: Brilliant. We wish you --
JD: Let's do this with speed and scale.
LL: Speed and scale.
And we wish you
the very best with the plan.
Thank you, thank you.
(Applause)