VIDEO: The Week in Sustainability – October 17–21, 2022

Updated: 
March 14, 2023
Article

Climate meets national security & Bill Gates on the state of energy

This week

Why is The White House National Security Strategy anchored in climate change and resource independence?

The White House recently released its National Security Strategy, which presents innovation as a defense strategy, anchored on the premise that climate change is no longer just a threat, but equally an opportunity to invest, adapt, and out-compete. If that sounds familiar, that’s because it’s generally how the sustainability community characterizes the current status of ESG—an evolution from risk to opportunity capture.

In this week’s episode of The Week in Sustainability, we talk about the areas where climate and national security overlap, namely energy security and climate change-amplified conflicts.

Bill Gates’ annual address on the state of energy transition

In his annual memo, perhaps Bill Gates’ biggest takeaway: If we’re going to meet global emissions reduction targets, we must deploy technologies quickly. And to reach net-zero, we must replace every coal-fired plant (2,412) with clean energy. But new plants are still being built.

Growing popularity of nature and biodiversity in corporate sustainability goals

Summarized nicely in this GreenBiz column by Joel Makower, some experts liken the nature-based movement to how net-zero has taken off but is just a few years behind.

Additional reading

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About The Week in Sustainability

Each week, Sustain.Life’s sustainability team offers commentary about the week’s most pressing issues and stories in sustainability and ESG. Watch every episode here.

Editorial statement
At Sustain.Life, our goal is to provide the most up-to-date, objective, and research-based information to help readers make informed decisions. Written by practitioners and experts, articles are grounded in research and experience-based practices. All information has been fact-checked and reviewed by our team of sustainability professionals to ensure content is accurate and aligns with current industry standards. Articles contain trusted third-party sources that are either directly linked to the text or listed at the bottom to take readers directly to the source.
Author
Sustain.Life Team
Sustain.Life’s teams of sustainability practitioners and experts often collaborate on articles, videos, and other content.
Reviewer
Alyssa Rade
Alyssa Rade is the chief sustainability officer at Sustain.Life. She has over ten years of corporate sustainability experience and guides Sustain.Life’s platform features.
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The takeaway

• Why is The White House National Security Strategy anchored in climate change and resource independence?

• Bill Gates' annual address on the state of energy transition

• Growing popularity of nature and biodiversity in corporate sustainability goals