Winning the Climate War with Tom Steyer

Inevitable

By now, you’ve likely noticed our refreshed look. We’re evolving the show to focus on the inevitable impacts of climate change and the groundbreaking solutions shaping our future.

To kick off this next chapter our first guest on Inevitable is Tom Steyer, Co-executive Chair at Galvanized Climate Solutions, a multi-strategy investment firm focused exclusively on the climate transition. A little over a year ago, Galvanize announced the final close of its Innovation + Expansion Fund at over $1 billion, one of the largest climate venture funds ever raised. Tom is also the recent author of the New York Times bestselling book, "Cheaper, Faster, Better: How We'll Win the Climate War," and he wrote the Forward to Project Drawdown.

In 2020, Tom was a Democratic presidential candidate with a climate-focused policy agenda, and he participated that year on the primary debate stage alongside now President Joe Biden and now VP Kamala Harris, among many other notable Democratic party leaders. He's the founder of NextGen America, the largest youth voter organization in the USA, which he created in 2013. But Tom hasn't always been focused on the energy transition and climate change. In 1986, he founded Farallon Capital Management, a multi-strategy hedge fund that he ran for over 25 years and grew to hundreds of employees and $20 billion in assets under management. His story of having incredible success in one field and then feeling the inevitable pull to work on the biggest problem of our time is exactly the type of pathway that we plan to explore on this show.

*We recorded this episode live during Climate Week NYC, in front of a fantastic audience. We'd like to thank them for joining as well as the folks at ethic for lending their beautiful space and JP Morgan for helping to sponsor the event.

In this episode, we cover:

• [4:55] Tom's book theme: "do the obvious thing"
• [9:58] Tom's book theme: "the status quo will not go on forever"
• [13:53] Energy is wealth and how we can collectively retire fossil energy with renewables
• [17:06] Tom's decision to dedicate his career to climate and his early pathway
• [21:34] NextGen and the org's origins
• [23:32] Sharpening your bullshit detector
• [25:03] What prompted Tom's 2020 presidential run
• [26:05] The catalyst to Galvanize
• [29:26] The firm's different focus areas and strategy
• [34:45] Tom's "five plus one" approach to investing
• [38:01] The model Tom would like O&G companies to take in the transition
• [40:45] Thoughts on the "climate war"
• [44:13] What happens when climate tech is no longer a category
• [46:56] Tom's thoughts on permitting halting clean energy progress
• [49:59] Rapid fire topics including China and India
• [53:13] Hyperscalers and AI
• [55:01] Tom's policy wish list
• [59:29] His call to action for listeners

Episode recorded on Sept 24, 2024 (Published on Nov 4, 2024)

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