Great insights from #BESummit24 via CarbonCure's Director of Carbon Products, Jesse Hudecki.
I recently had the opportunity to attend the Breakthrough Energy Summit in London alongside Robert Niven. I have been reflecting on the underlying reasons for the unshakeable optimism that we will decarbonize the planet which has stuck with me since. The sheer breadth and depth of solutions on display were inspiring. CarbonCure Climate Strategies was among an impressive group of ‘innovators’ across the key decarbonization challenges, invited to showcase its contributions to solving the hard problem of decarbonizing the built environment. As Dr. Eric Toone, Breakthrough's Technical Lead stated quite clearly in his TED-talk style keynote on the energy transition (should be requisite viewing - linked in the comments): “There is no easy button to push here. It’s hard work, and it’s going to take a long time.” These are hard problems. But this was a room full of do-ers. And to hear Bill Gates acknowledge our efforts in his opening remarks, in front of an audience of 1,200 business leaders, heads of state, innovators and decision-makers, was a moment of immense pride for our team. His broader message for the summit was clear: it’s time to shift focus from pilot projects to real-world deployment, and we need to solve for the green premium. The global construction industry is making real strides in climate solutions, and the entire value chain was well represented at the summit (for the first time). But we need the continued support of corporate and government leaders to keep deploying innovative technologies, like CarbonCure’s. It’s no secret that the concrete industry operates on razor-thin margins, and cost is king in the bidding process. Today, carbon credits are a crucial tool to enable producers to adopt our technologies without sacrificing competitiveness. The problem of the green premium will continue to stand in the way of wide-scale adoption, and we need companies to continue to step up as leaders and invest in carbon credits as we drive towards unlocking scale. Many are weary of negative publicity from doing the right thing (which is beyond absurd) when really it is a win-win: companies can contribute towards their climate goals using high-quality credits, and together we can scale decarbonization technologies to drive down hard-to-abate emissions, in one of the world’s biggest industries. As Bill Gates said in his most recent GatesNotes: “Now we need to supercharge support and ramp up investments. With commitments and capital from governments and industry leaders, we can deploy these solutions, scale them, and drive down green premiums. Let’s make clean technologies affordable and keep innovation flowing towards an abundant, clean energy future.” If you’re looking to drive innovation through your climate strategy, and are struggling to figure out how to address emissions in the built environment, or are tired of the constant debate in this space and want to just ‘do the thing’ then let’s chat!