At Tuesday’s TIME100 Next Gala in New York, Tom Steyer, an investor and philanthropist and inaugural recipient of TIME’s Earth Award—a new initiative by TIME and TIME C02 honoring leaders addressing the climate crisis—spoke on both the biggest roadblocks impeding goals for lower global emissions as well as why, despite these challenges, he hasn’t lost hope in humanity’s ability to address the climate crisis.
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00:00 As we recognize the incredible innovators
00:03 and change makers who are gathered here tonight,
00:06 it is also important to acknowledge that the future
00:10 that everybody here is creating
00:13 isn't something that we can take for granted.
00:16 In fact, the next few years are quite possibly
00:20 going to be the most important in any of our lives
00:23 as we confront what it's going to take
00:25 to avoid the worst impacts of climate change,
00:28 to halt and reverse biodiversity loss,
00:31 and to advance a just and equitable climate transition.
00:36 At time, we've been reporting on climate change for decades
00:40 and we've really seen an incredible amount of progress
00:43 within that time, but while we've seen that progress
00:47 and we've seen what we're capable of,
00:49 we also know that there's a lot more work left to be done
00:53 and more leadership, more action and determination
00:56 that is going to be necessary for us to be able
00:59 to address the extent of this crisis.
01:02 The question of if or when we need to do something
01:06 about climate change is now obsolete.
01:08 Climate change is here and it's now.
01:11 The question actually right now is can we move fast enough
01:16 to really implement the solutions that already exist
01:20 and that we know are going to be necessary?
01:23 And time has risen to that challenge.
01:26 Earlier this year, Time CO2, which is the Time's climate arm
01:31 celebrated the climate heroes who are tackling
01:35 this urgent global issue head on,
01:37 recognizing them during our first ever Earth Awards Gala.
01:41 And so it feels fitting to honor a climate leader tonight,
01:46 a man who was instrumental in the very creation
01:49 of this award and who himself personally
01:53 has helped enable and empower a whole generation
01:56 of climate leaders.
01:57 After 26 years in finance, Tom Steyer sold his stake
02:03 in a hedge fund and dove straight into the fight
02:06 of his life, pursuing his goal of solving
02:09 the climate emergency with the same passion and tenacity
02:13 that made him successful in the business world.
02:16 He's also been a vocal champion of clean energy
02:19 and he's helped create laws to keep our air clean.
02:23 He started an organization to promote youth voter turnout,
02:27 which has really been the most successful initiative
02:30 and campaign of its kind.
02:32 He's donated significant amounts of funding
02:34 to his Alma Matters to advance clean energy research.
02:39 And he also started a climate investment platform
02:41 to accelerate climate solutions
02:44 and to stimulate entrepreneurship.
02:46 Now he hasn't just given his time, his money and his effort.
02:50 He's also gifted us with something perhaps
02:52 even more powerful, inspiration.
02:55 So please join me in welcoming 2023
02:59 Earth Award recipient, Tom Steyer.
03:02 (audience applauding)
03:15 - So as a very imperfect person,
03:19 I would like to say thank you.
03:21 And I would also like to say that listening
03:23 to the Time 100 Next, I'd like to thank you
03:28 for what you've done, what you're doing
03:30 and what you're going to do,
03:32 because I can tell you that the rest of us
03:34 are absolutely counting on you going forward
03:38 to do the amazing things that you've been doing so far.
03:43 Let me say, I am obsessed with climate statistics
03:48 and I'll try and keep it to a minimum
03:51 just to give you guys a sense of where we are
03:53 about the race that Shiloh was talking about.
03:56 So one of the big things that people say all the time
03:58 about climate is we can't go through 1.5 C.
04:01 Now no one in the world, or at least in the United States
04:04 knows what 1.5 C is 'cause we deal in Fahrenheit,
04:06 not Celsius.
04:08 And really it makes no sense,
04:10 but trust me, that's the big bogey.
04:14 Just so you know, in September, 2023,
04:18 which was last month, we were 1.75 C above pre-industrial.
04:23 So the thing that everyone's telling you,
04:27 we can't go through this, we are well through it.
04:31 So the numbers from the natural world,
04:34 when we think about climate,
04:35 all we're talking about is destroying the natural world
04:37 and trying to measure it.
04:38 We are through the measure of what the UN said
04:42 we can't go through.
04:43 So let's, not good.
04:47 However, let me say this too.
04:50 Most of the people in this room, I would bet,
04:53 do not know that the transition
04:56 to a more sustainable economy and a more sustainable world
05:00 is going much faster and much better
05:04 than you ever read in a paper.
05:06 Just so you know, the way that revolutions happen
05:11 in the economy, it looks like an S.
05:14 It takes a long time of slow growth,
05:16 and then it kind of goes vertical
05:19 until you get to about 80%.
05:20 So I'll give you one other statistic tonight.
05:23 People believe that in 2030, seven years from now,
05:29 80% of the cars sold globally will be EVs.
05:33 80%.
05:36 So when you think about how this is going,
05:40 that is going so much better in terms of deployment
05:44 and new technologies.
05:45 I was listening to a new technology today
05:47 that can absolutely change the world.
05:49 The thing that we all have to realize in this room is
05:54 people are going to determine the outcome.
06:01 Our choices, our behaviors, our values
06:05 are gonna determine what happens going forward.
06:08 And let me just say, I personally believe
06:11 we're in trouble and we're absolutely gonna win.
06:14 It's not gonna be pretty.
06:16 You know, I always say to people,
06:17 it's like winning a boxing match.
06:18 They hold your hand up at the end of 15 rounds
06:21 and you've won except you have no teeth left
06:23 and there's blood all over your face.
06:25 But we are gonna win.
06:26 But let me say this.
06:28 There are a bunch of people in this world who don't agree.
06:31 This is not like a kumbaya moment.
06:35 In the last two weeks, two American oil companies
06:39 have spent $112 billion betting
06:43 that the transition in energy is to oil and gas.
06:47 That's what those takeovers mean.
06:49 That's 20 to 30 years where they believe
06:52 we won't just be using oil and gas.
06:54 We'll be using more oil and gas.
06:57 And that the people who are trying to change
06:59 the trajectory of our economy and our world
07:01 are gonna fail.
07:03 That is exactly what they're saying.
07:06 So my hope tonight, look,
07:09 I loved looking around this room at people
07:11 from such different backgrounds, such different talents,
07:15 such different experience and knowledge bases
07:18 getting to know each other
07:19 because this is an all of society answer.
07:22 And so my hope is that you meet people
07:25 and are inspired by people
07:26 so that we can pull together all of society
07:30 to answer this question in a good way.
07:32 That is the only way that we're gonna,
07:36 that is the only way we're gonna win.
07:38 And let me say, I want the people in this room
07:42 to be the ones who decide the future.
07:44 I don't want it to be some oil man from Houston, Texas.
07:48 So as far as I'm concerned for tonight,
07:51 thank you very much to Time, I'm very appreciative.
07:54 Thank you to the people in this room
07:55 who are doing so much in so many different ways.
07:58 I just absolutely love it.
08:00 But one other thing, let's kick their ass.
08:03 Thank you.
08:04 (audience applauding)