The new urgency of climate change

Chris Anderson: Welcome.

So look, just six months ago,

it seems a lifetime ago,
but it really was just six months ago,

climate seemed to be on the lips
of every thinking person on the planet.

Recent events seem to have swept it
all away from our attention.

How worried are you about that?

Al Gore: Well, first of all Chris,
thank you so much for inviting me

to have this conversation.

People are reacting differently

to the climate crisis

in the midst of these
other great challenges

that have taken over our awareness,

appropriately.

One reason is something
that you mentioned.

People get the fact that when scientists

are warning us

in ever more dire terms

and setting their hair
on fire, so to speak,

it's best to listen
to what they're saying,

and I think that lesson
has begun to sink in in a new way.

Another similarity, by the way,

is that the climate crisis,

like the COVID-19 pandemic,

has revealed in a new way

the shocking injustices and inequalities

and disparities that affect
communities of color

and low-income communities.

There are differences.

The climate crisis has effects
that are not measured in years,

as the pandemic is,

but consequences that are measured
in centuries and even longer.

And the other difference

is that instead of depressing
economic activity

to deal with the climate crisis,

as nations around the world
have had to do with COVID-19,

we have the opportunity to create
tens of millions of new jobs.

That sounds like a political phrasing,

but it's literally true.

For the last five years,

the fastest-growing job in the US
has been solar installer.

The second fastest has been
wind turbine technician.

And the Oxford Review of Economics

just a few weeks ago

pointed the way to
a very jobs-rich recovery

if we emphasize renewable energy
and sustainability technology.

So I think we are
crossing a tipping point,

and you need only look
at the recovery plans

that are being presented
in nations around the world

to see that they're very much
focused on a green recovery.

CA: I mean, one obvious impact
of the pandemic

is that it's brought the world's economy
to a shuddering halt,

thereby reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

I mean, how big an effect has that been,

and is it unambiguously good news?

AG: Well, it's a little bit
of an illusion, Chris,

and you need only look back
to the Great Recession in 2008 and '9,

where there was a one percent
decline in emissions,

but then in 2010

they came roaring back during the recovery

with a four percent increase.

The latest estimates are that emissions
will go down by at least five percent

during this induced coma,

as the economist Paul Krugman
perceptively described it,

but whether it goes back the way it did
after the Great Recession

is in part up to us,

and if these green recovery plans
are actually implemented,

and I know many countries
are determined to implement them,

then we need not repeat that pattern.

After all, this whole process is occurring

during a period when the cost
of renewable energy and electric vehicles,

batteries, and a range of other
sustainability approaches

are continuing to fall in price,

and they're becoming
much more competitive.

Just a quick reference
to how fast this is:

five years ago, electricity
from solar and wind

was cheaper than electricity
from fossil fuels

in only one percent of the world.

This year, it's cheaper
in two thirds of the world,

and five years from now

it will be cheaper in virtually
100 percent of the world.

EVs will be cost-competitive
within two years,

and then will continue falling in price.

And so there are changes underway

that could interrupt the pattern
we saw after the Great Recession.

CA: