Users are realizing that
these vehicles can have
all of the performance
advantages of the inter-
nal combustion engine
without the maintenance
or the pollution. The
vehicles can go from 0-to-
60 miles per hour in 2.5
seconds. Vehicle-charging
networks are extending
their coverage, and battery
costs dropped 13% just in
- Some have predicted
cost parity between electric
cars and gasoline-powered
vehicles as soon as 2020.
Ford recently announced
that it is producing a Ford
Mustang SUV that is com-
pletely electric. Meanwhile,
two-wheelers are shifting
to electric: Drivers can go
to a petrol station in India,
find a wall of batteries that
are all charged, exchange
their empty battery in a
few minutes, and take off.
By 2030, we will probably
not be able to purchase a
new vehicle with an inter-
nal combustion engine. We
will still have a transition
period of maybe 10 to 15
years during which both
technologies will be on the
road. But by 2030 I would
like to see the internal
combustion engine in a
museum, a museum that
duly honors the role that
it has played in global
economic development but
makes it clear that such
technology is now history.
CHRISTIANA FIGUERES was
the executive secretar y of the
United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change
from 2010 to 2016.
TONY FADELL
Today’s Waste Will
Replace Tomorrow’s
Plastic
AS TOLD TO CLAY CHANDLER
WE DESIGNED our way
into the plastics problem.
Now we have to design
our way out.
Some plastic is good.
But the fastest-growing
use is in disposable pack-
aging. Recycling isn’t the
answer. Petroleum-based
plastic stays in the envi-
ronment for 500 years. It
gets into our oceans, our
food, our bodies.
We need a bio-inspired
packaging material that
disintegrates no matter
where it ends up. PHA
(polyhydroxyalkano-
ates, a class of natural
polyesters derived from
bacterial fermentation)
is one solution. It will
degrade just like a leaf.
We’re learning to produce
it with biowaste, like
rancid olive oil.
Governments should
start banning plastics,
and companies have to
stop the greenwashing.
It will take capital, but we
could tackle this in three
to five years.
TONY FADELL, principal
at advisor y firm Future
Shape, is known as the
“Father of the iPod.”
He is also coinventor of
the iPhone and cofounder
of Nest.
Tech Alone Can’t Save the Planet—
Transparency Is Needed, Too
A
S THE REALITY OF CLIMATE CHANGE hits home, it’s
easy to feel despair. But the pace of environmental
innovation is accelerating too. We still need ambi-
tious government policies, but new technology and increased
transparency can speed progress and spur both business and
government to deliver better results.
Business leaders know these changes are underway, and
many have embraced them. In the Environmental Defense
Fund’s second annual survey of 600 executives, more than 84%
say they are confident that technological advances will have a
positive effect on the way businesses impact the environment,
especially analytics, automation, A.I., and sensors.
And because social media means that everybody gets a vote
on whether your company is a responsible corporate citizen,
more than 85% of those executives expect customers, em-
ployees, and investors to hold them more accountable for their
impact on the environment.
After Hurricane Harvey, for example, EDF worked with a start-
up called Entanglement Technologies to measure air pollution
near flooded petrochemical plants in Houston. With its portable
technology, we quickly identified a plume of cancer-causing ben-
zene in a community of 4,000 people. This real-time data allowed
officials to identify potential health risks and prioritize resources.
EDF recently created a new subsidiary to launch MethaneSAT,
an orbital mission designed to help citizens, companies, and
governments locate, measure, and reduce potent greenhouse
gas emissions. Data from MethaneSAT will also be available to
the public free of charge so that everyone will be able to hold
businesses accountable, applauding progress or spotlighting
laggards. Imagine a world in which thinking machines, handheld
analyzers, and orbiting sensors empower an environmental
revolution. We’ll see that in this decade.
FRED KRUPP is the president of the Environmental Defense
Fund, a U.S.-based nonprofit environmental advocacy group.
BY FRED KRUPP
GJENS BÜTTNER
—PIC TURE ALLIANCE/GET T Y IM
AGES
ILLUSTRATION BY BENEDETTO CRISTOFANI
