I had the pleasure of speaking with a large group of alumni this past weekend at the Harvard Business School reunion on “Accelerating Climate Solutions”. This talk reprised a similar talk I did during the June 2024 Reunion weekend which condensed a week long MBA course I co-taught with my HBS Business and Environment Initiative colleagues into a 90 min discussion with the following four (simplified) takeaways:

1. We Understand Climate Science - the scientific drivers and facts surrounding our climate are quite well understood including the many and main causes of climate change. However, as Al Gore stated nearly 20 years ago, these facts remain “Inconvenient”.

2. We Have Solutions, a Roadmap and Plenty of Opportunity - there exist a significant number of frameworks, solutions, strategies and motivating examples that can guide us in turning the climate challenge into history’s biggest opportunity. And the climate capital stack and policy frameworks continue to evolve and extend as it responds to these myriad opportunities.

3. We Are (Way) Behind - despite #1 and 2 above, transitioning the planet to a low(er) carbon economy is immensely challenging and the world is behind in the race to manage (let alone reverse) the effects of global warming and climate change. And climate is not just an isolated threat, its connected to (and exacerbates) almost every other global challenge including especially the divide between the Global North and Global South.

4. We Need Systems Leaders to Drive This Change - leading companies, communities, and countries through this transition is the challenge of our lifetime. Successfully navigating this transition calls for a new wave of leaders who can navigate the uncertainly, complexity and competing priorities of today’s world, and embrace the challenges inherent in this transition. HBS alumni, faculty and students are well positioned and will be critical in providing this leadership, but we must continue to focus intently to ensure Harvard leads the world forward on this transition.

Here are a few references as a starting point for getting further informed and engaged:

  • A Synthesis of the Intergovernmental Panel's 6th Report on Climate Change (IPCC) which captures the baseline of the scientific community's climate research and modeling: https://www.ipcc.ch/ar6-syr/

  • Spencer Glendon's excellent "Probable Futures" site with info & models to immerse into the reality of the possible paths forward (trigger warning: many are quite dire).

  • John Doerr's "Speed & Scale" site (and book) - study the solution areas, tools and OKRs to see what can and must be done, and how well we are tracking (or not!)