Last week, we participated in a high mountain gathering of the minds about how to change the noosphere and create new memes for the benefit of the Peoples and the Environment…
It was a think tank type of forum up in Aspen Colorado where amongst the key note speakers Al Gore shone his passion and presented with gravitas the issue of Climate Change in the public mind.
Vice President Al Gore almost literally exploded when he passionately excoriated the anti-science propaganda of the climate pollution industry.
Appearing at the Aspen Institute’s Forum on Communications and Society, Al described the story told in the book ”Merchants of Doubt” of how corporate interests have used massive PR successfully and have manipulated scientific institutions and the news media to defend everything from cigarettes and acid rain to global warming pollution.
Al went on to say: ”Big Tobacco succeeded in delaying the implementation of the surgeon general’s report for 40 years – 40 years. In every one of those 40 years the average number of Americans killed by cigarettes each year exceeded the total number of Americans killed in all of World War II: 450,000 per year. My sister was one of them. … It was evil, evil, evil.”
Al then angrily denounced the decades-long effort by top carbon polluters, when he said that ”With the support of scientists-for-hire like S. Fred Singer, to pollute the public’s knowledge of the existential threat of climate change. The model they’re using in that effort was transported whole cloth into the climate debate. And some of the exact same people — I can go down a list of their names — are involved in this. And so what do they do? They pay pseudo-scientists to pretend to be scientists to put out the message. This climate thing, it’s nonsense. Man-made CO2 doesn’t trap heat. It may be volcanoes…. Bullshit! It may be sun spots.”Bullshit! It’s not getting warmer. Bullshit! ”
”There are about ten other memes out there. When you go and talk to any audience about climate, you hear them washing back at you the same crap over and over and over again. They have polluted this — There’s no longer a shared reality on an issue like climate even though the very existence of our civilization is threatened. People have no idea! And yet our ability to actually come to a shared reality that emphasizes that this matters — It’s no longer acceptable in mixed company, meaning bipartisan company, to use the goddamn word climate. They have polluted it to the point where we cannot possibly come to an agreement on it.”
Yet his passion palpable as it appears is only part of his commitment to help stave off significant Climate Change…
Because he does a lot more and one thing that makes sense with Al Gore is that he puts his money where his mouth is.
Al was investor number one in great many renewable energy projects back in the day. The day, many years before it was fashionable, savvy or even eco-chick to do so. And he took his lumps as a pioneer when we all lost massive money in the years of the ”investor drought”. Yet he goes on to invest today much more, than what he did in the yester-yearsm and with all his wherewithal. He is the principal, in renewable energy production investments through his Generation Fund of Private Equity and this really makes a huge difference today. Because only when people are seen to be making money, becoming rich and corporations are drawing profits and growth out of renewable energy, clean-tech, green technology and other environmental business schemes — only then we can safely say the balance is starting to tilt in favour of humanity.
And for that Al Gore is a great example, because his investments pan out well, year after year. And you can emulate this great leader too same as You can follow another friend Richard Branson who also has seen the light of day… and directs the Virgin group towards a lighter carbon footprint and new solutions along with his involvement in the CWR.
And if you want to learn how to do this too – join me in CCW workshop summit this fall. Meet me this September 13th in the city of London and find the means of sharing your renewable energy and clean tech dreams with other investors, entrepreneurs and ahead of the curve business people, that can help make them a reality.
So if you decide that you should join me in this event in London called Creating Climate Wealth — just read on for details and means. It’s a good thing, put together by Jigar Shah a friend of mine who, with the help of his colleagues – waging the good fight against Co2 in the Carbon War Room – seems to consistently hit the winning strategy. And he does so, once again by motivating capital to coalesce in business models that bring profits and CO2 reductions of a very large scale – together.
So this September 13th and 14th we are joining Jigar and the Carbon War Room folks from Washington, coming into our turf in London and we are cooperating in solving the crisis of capital scarcity and focusing investment direction towards this most important battle ground. Remember this is a fight that has to be won. And because of that we’ll join them and be with them for two whole days to introduce our very own Green Bonds and the levers of finance and also explore all other business methods for Gigaton reductions of Co2 from the atmosphere. We’ll be utilizing our Green Bonds and Green Capital access to plentiful investment capital pools and along with business methodology and acumen we’ll target innovation for saving the people and planet from catastrophic climate change. Not bad for a couple of days work…
A few more ideas about “Creating Climate Wealth Summit”: The “CCW Summits” are unique workshop-driven convenings of executives, investors, entrepreneurs, and leaders from the private and public sector. During the summit, delegates address ways to bring existing technologies to scale while meeting employment, economics and sustainability goals. The event is jointly presented by the Carbon War Room and the Long Run Venture with the goal of seeking out those early stage disruptive businesses and then looking to help them scale and develop to ensure gigaton reductions in carbon emissions. The Environmental Parliament assists as an affiliate n this effort and endorses the learnings and the actions taken at CCW, fully.
The CCW summit is light on keynotes and heavy on workshops. Low carbon pioneers invited to take part include investors, executives, entrepreneurs and other leaders from the public sector who are committed to urgently removing the barriers to the uptake of clean technologies within their sectors. We would like you to take part in the Sustainable Agriculture working track. During the summit we will address ways to bring proven technologies and business models to scale, while meeting important economic growth and sustainability goals. We will develop clear roadmaps for faster commercial returns from sustainability.
Today the UK is at a low carbon economy crossroads. A ‘transition to 2050’ requires long term planning, huge infrastructure investments and sustained action on many fronts. Yet it also offers an immediate transformational opportunity to create new wealth, jobs and global competitiveness. A big risk is that while we are focused on developing the frameworks for the future, we are not driving the benefits of a low carbon economy hard enough into the short term. At a pivotal moment for both economic and environmental performance in the UK, Europe & globally, now is the time we need to align visions, technologies and investments to build greater momentum and deliver better returns now and for the long run.
Financial Innovation
Attached is more information related to the Financial Innovation working track in which I am attending. If you are interested, you can register directly here: http://bit.ly/ccwlondon
And it’s a good thing because access to private capital remains one of the greatest
impediments to growth for companies that offer
technologies with the potential to reduce global emissions,
even those that have clearly demonstrated high rates of
return. Many companies producing technologies that are
demonstrated to be cost-negative still encounter
difficulties attracting investors – from start-ups to mature
companies – that require project finance. Attracting
investment is a key issue for entrepreneurs and mature
businesses in every sector working to bring low-carbon
solutions to market. While each working track will strive to
identify ways of stimulating investment in their sector,
participants in the Financial Innovation Track will work to
address the structural constraints preventing the
reallocation of private capital for low-carbon economic
growth.
This finance-oriented workshop will examine the interaction
of government and industry via finance. Government
funding mechanisms are well-established, even ancient.
Industrial finance techniques have ballooned with
innovation over the past two decades, perhaps too
much. Governments are proposing a number of “green
deals” to increase private investment in the low carbon
economy, but are they the right sort of deals, are they
needed, and are they big enough? Could they be
restructured more innovatively and effectively?
In other countries, they are also a number of government-
finance initiatives, such as the U.S. Property Assessed Clean
Energy (PACE) bonds or Clean Renewable Energy bonds,
or France’s flirtation with index linked carbon bonds. In the
UK, there are a few government-finance initiatives worth
examining in this context:
• The additionality of CRC (carbon reduction
commitment).
• The Lib Dems’ “Big Shift” to clean transport in
London.
• The Green Investment Bank
This working track will explore whether existing schemes to
use finance to make government and industry work
together already provide the innovation necessary, or
whether new approaches to government’s role in finance
are needed.
So join me and discover the best methods of finance, finding
the capital sources and best practices…
And make money while you are at it.
Never has the axiom “doing well by doing good” ever rang so true.
Yours,
Pano
PS:
Because as my friend Al Gore said to me back in Aspen:
“When the first Climate Billionaires are created, then the world will
stand up and take notice”
