WASHINGTON, D.C. — Environmentally-focused companies and green entrepreneurs opened Washington D.C.’s first-ever climate week on Monday, in the old Newseum building. The week-long conference opened just a few blocks away from the White House and Capitol, where President Donald Trump has led a deregulatory climate agenda and Congressional Republicans have begun committee markups on a reconciliation bill that could endanger clean energy tax credits.
More than 3,500 attendees are in the nation’s capital this week for over 140 events around the city that will focus on climate innovations and what’s next for companies in the sustainability ecosystem, according to conference organizers. The week began in the old Newseum building, now Johns Hopkins University’s sustainable energy institute, with former Bezos Earth Fund CEO Sir Andrew Steer and television personality Bill Nye, the Science Guy, giving day one keynotes.
While much of the day focused on technological innovations, Steer called for attendees to innovate their approach to climate engagement. He noted evidence that the Earth has surpassed a carbon budget scenario of limiting global warming to an additional 1.5 degrees Celsius, adding that the Paris agreement is working, but “not working fast enough.”
“Before the Paris deal, we were heading to a four-and-a-half degree world,” Steer said, referring to additional global temperature rise. “We're now heading towards a two-and-a-half degree world. That is remarkable. However, we no longer can rely upon a universal, multilateral approach where 195 countries have to agree on something.”
Startups in fields from fusion energy, to rare earth metal refining to clean iron and green cement explained how they are working to build a net-zero supply chain. Other companies displayed how they are using artificial intelligence and geospatial data to help respond to natural disasters and wildfires in rapid response situations.
Climate and ESG-related AI use cases have continued to increase over the past few years, but companies are still grappling with its environmental and energy costs. Companies like Microsoft and Meta have turned to investments in nuclear generation to power their data centers and hyperscalers, and Nye called for companies working with AI to make it more efficient.
“There ain't no stopping artificial intelligence,” Nye said in a surprise chat with the audience.“Everybody wants it, and it's competitive … So what we want to do is make it more efficient. And I think we're going through a phase now where everybody's using artificial intelligence for everything. I don't know how long it's going to last.”
Steer, who previously led the World Resources Institute, called for a multi-stakeholder approach, instead of a government-led approach to climate solutions and plurilateral engagement on the issue, “where you don't need everybody, but maybe you need 40 important countries.”
“It shouldn't just be governments,” Steer said. “Most of the problems are being solved by the private sector, by civil society, by activists and so on.”
