46 Time April 25/May 2, 2022
The businessof our futurecan be electrified; “cleaner” aluminum, cement, and
steel; cookstoves that promote cleaner cooking; and
reforestation and other nature-based approaches.
A second challenge is looking further ahead, to
2050, when we’ll need a lot of new technologies to
have a shot at keeping global warming below 1.5°C.
While science is clear that cutting emissions is the
top priority, we’re already far behind the curve. Get-
ting to net zero will also require removing some of
the carbon that’s already in the atmosphere—an im-
mensely complex process that is seeing hundreds of
millions of dollars in investment but may well take
decades to scale and become financially viable.Potentially more transformative is what
everyone can do—indeed must do—to make a difer-
ence. Climate is, after all, everything, as senior cor-
respondent Justin Worland put it in a cover story a
year ago. That’s also why we continue to step up our
coverage in this area. When I started at TIME nine
years ago, there was one designated climate journal-
ist. Under the leadership of editorial director Elijah
Wolfson, we’ve built a growing team that covers cli-
mate every day and in every issue. Today, nearly all of
our journalists contribute in some way to that cover-
age, with about 1 in 4 doing so regularly.
We’re also increasing our focus on the role of
the growing ranks of individuals, innovators, and
businesses around the world that are stepping in—
scaling technical and nature-based projects, devel-
oping new energy sources, supporting climate-vul-
nerable communities around the world. We call them
“ecopreneurs,” environmentally focused entrepre-
neurs taking risks that—along with the critical work
of fossil-fuel reduction and increased awareness—
will be integral to the planet’s future. In the first in a
new series, you’ll find in this issue senior correspon-
dent Aryn Baker’s interview with one of those indi-
viduals, Impossible Mining’s Renee Grogan.
At TIME, we’re also now ecopreneurs ourselves.
Since becoming independent in late 2018, nearly
100 years after our founding, we’ve launched several
new businesses built on the authority of our brand,
including TIME Studios, our TIME100 Events, and
our web3 expansion. (We call ourselves a century-
old startup for good reason.) Our newest division
is CO2, a climate- action platform that aims to help
guide every sized business, including ours, in be-
coming net zero and nature- positive. “Our mission
is to serve all those who want to have a climate im-
pact but find it hard to know the right thing to do,
and challenging to find the bandwidth to do it,” says
Simon Mulcahy, who recently joined TIME as presi-
dent of sustainability and will lead CO2.
TIME through its history has served as a guide
to the future, and we are excited to take on a
broader role in ensuring a sustainable one. We’ll
keep you posted. For more Than a quarTer oF a cenTury, amid
growing signs of the ravages of global warming, the
U.N. has brought together representatives from al-
most every country on the planet to work together on
solutions. While the private sector has generally had
a presence at the annual meetings, known as COPs
(Conference of the Parties), their focus has been on
government actors—the heads of state and diplo-
mats who attend. But at the most recent one, some-
thing was diferent. Thousands of corporate execu-
tives and entrepreneurs flooded into Glasgow to be
part of the event. For many, including myself, it was
their first COP.
The meeting’s shifting makeup reflected a new
paradigm in the climate fight. Until now, the gen-
eral assumption has been that governments would
be at the center of any path forward. This is “a war
in which all nations must be allies,” TIME said in
naming “Endangered Earth” as
Planet of the Year for 1988, in lieu
of a Person of the Year. Since then,
despite progress in climate diplo-
macy, it has become all too clear
that political will is far from where
it needs to be.
All of which has put the pri-
vate sector in the driver’s seat, a
once unthinkable development
that is the theme of this issue and
a focus for us going forward at
TIME. It is a moment of both op-
portunity and risk, giving businesses enormous
power over what the energy transition looks like and
whether it succeeds. Many companies—urged on by
employees, customers, and investors—are seeking to
reduce emissions and “ofset” carbon footprints. But
business as a whole is only just beginning to respond
to the crisis. Untangling the options, and ensuring
those commitments are real, is among the great chal-
lenges we face.
One of the biggest opportunities lies in the mas-
sive private investment under way in climate tech—
with a total of $87.5 billion invested over H2 2020
and H1 2021 (second half of 2020 and first half of
2021), per consulting group PwC’s report on the sec-
tor. But first we must face the challenge of deploying
much more aggressively the technology we already
have, such as renewable energy through solar and
wind, which are in many cases now cheaper than tra-
ditional alternatives; electrification of anything thatEcopreneurs
will be
critical
to the
planet’s
future