Pillars of the Green Transition: COP28 Edition

There has hardly ever been a more ambitious undertaking than the global fight against climate change. This is a task requiring an unusual kind of deftness - an ingenuity which must go beyond the carefully crafted strategies of individuals or even countries. Effectively tackling climate change means that the interactions between all social entities, from international organizations and states, down to local communities, corporations, and individual consumers, must be oriented towards the same goal. There is no better way of achieving that than by transforming the way we think about climate change - from a costly obligation, a homework inviting procrastination, to an opportunity for the generation of prosperity. United by this optimistic mindset, our interlocutors testify to the richness of possible approaches to the creation of the green economy of the future - remarkably, both competition and collaboration are lauded, these not being mutually exclusive in a world with the right guiding lights and incentives are set in place. And this is where governments must clearly step in: not as volubile central planners, but as direction-pointers, consensus-establishers, traffic cops of sorts, whose fundamental role is to set the rules of the game.

Based on conversations with over 100 different industry leaders and policymakers, this report, with its special COP 28 distribution, presents the reader with a unique overview of the global fight against climate change. Focusing on the opportunities also means highlighting the challenges, so that private and public actors alike can get valuable information and, hopefully, transform the latter into the former. While not claiming exclusivity, this piece zooms in on the key pillars of the green transition: finance, green energy, transportation, circularity, and the built environment.