Solving Climate Change with R&D and Civic Action

Video Transcript:
[Plank] I hear you. Performing research and development efficiently will be essential for discovering solutions to the problems that still need to be solved. Luckily there are a number of successful practices for countries to adopt that will allow them to foster the innovation necessary to achieve rapid decarbonization of their economies. [Orvis] Being able to recruit good talent, having a program that fosters both domestic and international experts in stem sciences is really important. Public private partnerships. Those have been really successful in the US where a company may want to invest in a new technology, but it might be prohibitively expensive for them to build a research facility or a lab. The US government and other governments, for example in Germany they have the Fraunhofer Institute, may have really advanced tech labs where they can partner with research organizations or companies who are researching new technologies, to come in and be able to use those labs for a fee for example and leverage the government's resources into research and development. Another important one is a program like ARPA-E. This is a program the Department of Energy runs, but the idea is to help companies overcome some of the periods in which it can be very hard to get financing to develop projects. There's this thing known as the valley of in research and development where you go from taking a product from the lab to commercializing it. And that interim stage, it can be very hard to find financing. So the extent the government is able to help, through government-backed loans or through research programs like ARPA-E that can help get products that are delivering results in the lab, into the field so they can start to be commercialized.
[Plank] Innovations are great, but for them to be implemented it often takes citizens educating their government representatives about the best way forward, and then staying engaged to make sure that path is followed. Hal Harvey - Robbie's boss at energy innovations and the lead author of this book - explained the importance of civic action during a Q&A after a recent talk.
[Audience member] How does one go about applying political pressure?
[Harvey] Applying political pressure? I'll just give an example, in California, before the public utilities commission, NRDC and a group called CERT are two of the most influential. You can call them up - they will answer the phone - and say I'd like to help. What can I do? And tell them what your skills are. And then they might say, 'I need a cost model for integrating solar with a grid, or I might need 50 people to come to the hearing,' right? There's a bunch of different ways to do it. We did this precision intervention with air quality laws and energy laws all the time. And we would get, like when there was a pollution law coming up, we would get a hundred mothers of asthmatic kids to come to that hearing. You win that venue, you win the vote. And that's what it should be. They're supposed to represent those asthmatic kids. They're not supposed to represent the owner of the coal-fired power plant--it's a public utilities commission. So that's what you do. You look at -- any good argument has ethos, logos, and pathos, so bring in one of those: do the analysis, bring in the kids, tell a story. Whatever it takes, but make sure you're an actor with intensity at that moment. Choose a venue, choose the moment, act with intensity.
[Orvis] He's absolutely right. For example, in the power sector, there's something like five public utility commissioners in every state, give or take, but that's actually where the rubber meets the road, and that's where policy gets made. If we could leverage the great enthusiasm and drive that people have to go to these marches and to push for divestment into actually attending these meetings, we could have a much much bigger impact in terms of actually getting those those reductions. And so Hal likes to talk about, you know five PUC commissioners, 50 states, that's 250. But actually there's only coal in maybe 15 of those states, so you start cutting it down, you see, 'okay, if we influence 50 people we can push the power sector to essentially decarbonize.' Targeting those focus points is a great way to leverage everyone's drive and motivation into actually getting those reductions on the ground.

[charlottelatinda]

I'm.. 50 a.n.d m.y. husband 54 we are both retired with over $3 million in net worth and no debt's. Currently living smart and frugal with our money.serving and investing life style in the stock market made it possible for us this early even till now we earn weekly. Thanks to fire movement.

[sonsofisstvan]

Remember when you deleted your Election Prediction video? I do...

[TheOfficialoddity]

I hope this channel gains traction again

[yurisenglishdiary]

당신은 멋진 일을 하십니다.
저는 나의 가정만을 위해서 살고 있습니다.
이 조그마한 세계도 힘듭니다.^^
당신은 지구에 사는 인류를 위해 열심히 일합니다.
당신을 존경합니다.
You do a great job.
I live only for my family.
This small world is also difficult.^^
You work hard for humanity on Earth.
I respect you.

[joeg]

What is TDC? What do the initials stand for? What's the acronym? Are you The Discovery Channel? The Teradata Corporation? Taiwan Design Council? Why do I have to ask?

[KBowWow]

We can't predict the weather more than a few days out. How do you expect we control the weather? 🙄

[GavinCooper]

I find it strange I somehow got subscribed to this channel and never seen any of thier videos.

[onalos]

Taking so much time off really killed your channel in the algorithm. You might need to try posting more often in shorter segments to get more exposure and get it back in trend.

[burggerbig]

Innovation is the answer. When the cost of generating electricity through renewable energies like solar panels lower than using coal or gas, the market will does itself.

[HachikoTanuki]

Really good video, which showcases an example of how applying precise individual efforts can transition into meaningful political change.

[Vivek_Bindra]

The rich invest their money first into assets instead of purchasing liabilities. Take a wise decision today to buy and invest in cryptocurrency.

[isaaccastillo]

@TDC why didn't you keep working on the mega cities series? Just curious. It was great!!

[milliondiy]

Today's pollution is very difficult to prevent

[imakevideos]

Attend my first climate rally 2 days ago

[martinhollandfilms]

Carbon dioxide is vital for life on Earth.

[Sir.Craze-]

I know awareness is the first step towards thinking about, caring about, doing something...
But just talking gives me so much anxiety at this point.

[experimentb]

Nobody wants these climate change videos. Go back to the good and interesting stuff

[maksimghyvoronsky]

Thank you so much for your little short (although quite long for an) ad. This is pathetic. I can’t imagine too many people keen on paying you monthly just to watch all your videos “on demand” that’s what Patreon is for🤦🏽‍♂️ But you don’t even trust your work well enough that you might succeed in that, so you go the “pay-to-play” greedy route. Good luck dude unsubscribe ya now see ya (unlikely) later 👋🏽

[WTP_]

Activist do more harm than good most of the time. Demanding change and sitting in the middle of a road or train track isn’t going to do anything but make people think you’re a joke.