Climatics and Beyond: Innovating for a Sustainable Future

My interest in climate change goes back years—hundreds of millions of years, to be exact! I was introduced to the concept while a geology undergrad at the University of Chicago. I worked on the groundbreaking Paleogeographic Research Project, which used fossil record evidence and the drifting continents' paleomagnetic signature to "retrodict" the paleoclimate and ecology of past worlds.

As a geologist, I am well-versed in the physical science of climate change. Because my work in the energy sector has taken me to more than fifty countries, I am equally aware of how people on the ground are affected by burning fossil fuels, releasing greenhouse gases and other pollutants. I've seen how unequal the impacts of climate change are and how the burden shifts to many people who are less able to mitigate or adapt to them.

Understanding how the earth changed and endured over eons made me realize that addressing future climate change is about saving people, not the planet. Mother Earth can do very nicely without us, but we depend on her for everything. As with much of women's work, her contributions often are undervalued when they are valued at all. Indeed, numerous studies give global ecosystem services an annual value upwards of $150 Trillion or about double that of global GDP. Unfortunately, we are not treating our mother very well. Each year, we are taking more and more from her:  "Earth Overshoot Day," the date when people have used up a year's worth of natural resources, has moved from early December back in the 70s when the metric was introduced to early August today. Think of that: even before kids return to school and we get ready for the year-end holidays, we've used up all we should consume for the year.

Climate change is a divisive issue, isn't it? Some of our political leaders would have us believe that. Yet, in June 2024, the United Nations Development Program released the second iteration of "The People's Climate Vote," a 15-question survey conducted across 77 countries representing 87% of the world's population. The responses vary across the globe, but as a whole, people everywhere want their leaders to do more to address climate change. They acknowledge this crisis affects us all, and we all have a role to play in solving it.

The survey had three significant findings on climate change:

• 80% want their country to do more to address climate change
• 69% said climate change impacts already impacts big life decisions like where they live and what they buy
• 53% are more worried about climate change this year compared to last year.

Two points concerning the energy transition:

• 72% of all people want their country to move quickly toward clean energy alternatives, including 9 of the 10 biggest oil-producing countries
• 86%, including 84% in G20 countries, say countries should work together even if they disagree on other issues.

The overwhelming consensus should motivate us all to act swiftly and decisively. For those who still have doubts about the cause of climate change – even if the science isn't exactly right - isn't the prize of a clean, healthy environment that enables communities everywhere to thrive worth it?

DNV has offered in-house climate risk modeling since 2009. About two years ago, though, we realized that our base data and modeling platform needed an update. The company's commitment to innovation enabled us to receive funding to support a team of scientists and consultants from the UK and US supported by Veracity programming resources to bring our in-house tools up to the latest standards. I've been the project sponsor, and I couldn't be more impressed by the great work the team has accomplished in a short time. I am pleased to say that the new platform, which will go by Climatics, is ready for general release to DNV consultants.

One of DNV’s advantages over other consultants is that we operate at the intersection of a deep understanding of how industrial assets work and climate science. We also draw insights from the highly respected Energy Transition Outlook report. As a leading technical advisory, we can call upon experts with domain knowledge in specific sectors, like solar or wind development, to amplify our insights. With the introduction of the Climatics platform, we can scale up our services from the relatively simple screening studies we've completed as part of due diligence projects to more comprehensive portfolio reviews and overall climate strategies.

It’s important to acknowledge that there won't be a single magic bullet that "solves" the climate crisis or enables the energy transition. We need everyone's support to change both the supply and demand sides of the equation while still delivering to people the heat, light, and mobility that they need and want. This is a collective responsibility we have for each other; no one should have to go without these fundamentals.

12/18/2024 2:00:00 PM