Reclaim the Future: Can we engineer our way out of the climate crisis?

Can we combat climate change and its consequences through CO2 capturing or even geoengineering? This is what we’ll discuss with experts from science and start-ups on December 15th at 6 PM – at the next edition of our digital event series Reclaim the Future! by 1E9 and the Future Forum by BMW Welt. Tune in!

Can we stop global warming by capturing CO2 from the atmosphere? Or should we rely on even more drastic geo engineering measures, such as artificial volcanic eruptions or giant mirrors in space that deflect sunlight away from our planet? Together with experts from science and startups, we want to discuss how we can use technology to combat climate change, which interventions would be too risky, and what else is needed besides tech.

Our speakers

Speaker RtF 151220

  • Prof. Dr. Daniela Jacob, Director of the Climate Service Center Germany (GERICS): Daniela Jacob is meteorologist and Director of the Climate Service Center Germany (GERICS), a scientific organizational entity of Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht, and visiting professor at Leuphana University, Faculty of Sustainability. She was Coordinating Lead Author of the IPCC Special Report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5°C above preindustrial levels, and one of the Lead Authors of the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report (Working Group 2). Daniela Jacob is chair of the German Committee Future Earth (DKN) and co-chair of the WPN2030. She is member of the European Commission’s Mission Board on “Adaptation to Climate Change including Societal Transformation”, member of the ‘Earth League’, an international alliance of prominent scientists from world-class research institutions, as well as member of several other committees.

  • Allison Dring, CEO of Made of Air: Allison is CEO and Co-Founder of Made of Air, a company producing carbon negative materials for manufacturing. She is an experienced entrepreneur, initiating climate positive technologies and applying them to real world building applications. As Co Founder of Elegant Embellishments, she invented and manufactures proslve370e, an award winning facade module that reduces urban air pollution. She is a regular speaker on topics involving technology and the environment, including a 2013 TEDx Berlin talk entitled „Ornament & Climate“, and serves as Advisory Board Member for Creating Urban Tech Berlin and the The Lifeboat Foundation.

  • Christoph Beuttler, CDR Manager and Policy Expert at Climeworks: Christoph is Carbon Dioxide Removal Manager at Climeworks and an expert on carbon removal and CO2 utilization, with several years of experience in the field. Christoph also works at Risk Dialogue Foundation (RDF) a Swiss NGO/Think Tank where he consults for example the Swiss Government on carbon removal and storage. He is also founding Board Member of Negative Emissions Platform (NEP) an industry association based in Brussels as well as a visiting lecturer in risk perception and communication for science and policy at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETHZ). His academic background is in Economics, Business Administration and international Business. He was educated in Heidelberg, Germany and London, UK.

How to watch and participate

The livestream will be embedded on this very page (just look above). You can also follow it on our Facebook page. And we will share the link via LinkedIn.

You have questions? Ask them here!

You want to know something special from our speakers? Then feel free to write your questions in the comments below.

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The main input to our economy is oil and gas. This is so massive, even renewables and nuclear power seem lost relative to these amounts. Can climate engineering and in particular active carbon removal really have an impact on the climate dynamics?

Or is it mainly the impact on human mindset and behavioral change that is driven by these means?

Here is a link with a chart explaining our primary energy consumption - it is devastating!

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Many countries are now rediscovering nuclear power as a climate-friendly technology and build lots of new nuclear power stations. Should Germany also revert its plans to get out of nuclear power?

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Wie sehen sie das Paris Agreement hinsichtlich des Kampfes gegen die Klimakrise. Jeder war empört darüber das Trump „ausgestiegen“ ist, auf der anderen Seite hat sich kaum einer derer, die es unterstützen, mit Ruhm im Kampf mittels echter und bedeutsamer Aktionen gegen den Klimawandel bekleckert…

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Another question: There’s so much talk about climate change, but it’s hard to find a bigger picture and a clear model of all its consequences and the concrete challenges that we face in the wake of it. Do you think it can be stopped or do we rather need to build plans to live with it?

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Wenn man wirklich alles braucht und insbesondere einen Lifestyle-Wandel (Food, etc inkl) um eine Chance zu haben die Klimakrise mit Erfolg zu bekämpfen, was ist zu tun um das zu erreichen?

Kann so ein Wandeln global und erfolgreich nur über (globales) policy making erfolgen und wenn ja was braucht es da was es noch nicht gibt?

Oder gibt es auch Chancen so etwas kurzfristig auch bottom-up zu induzieren? Wie seht ihr in dem Kontext zB die Fridays for Future Bewegung?

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How are the economics of made of air’s carbon sink material: can it compete with other durable plastics on a price point and taking also into account carbon credits that might be factored into the material as it is a carbon sink? Or do we still rely on the „marketing“ effect when using such a material.

I think this is important in order to scale this material solution and as such become a meaningful carbon sink.

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I really like the comment of climeworks: it is not about us as a company and its success but whether or not we can scale to a crazy amount of carbon removed.

Doesn’t this speed argument over commercial success also imply to move the business into a more foundation like legal form? --> By that even more funding is available (tax incentives) AND the purpose of all actions and gains is build-in!

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Ist eine radikale Veränderung überhaupt möglich, solange man keine radikalen Massnahmen ins Leben ruft? Man sieht doch im Case von der Corona Krise, wie sich die Massen verhalten, auch wenn man ganz klare Regeln und ein klares Problem vor Augen hat… Was muss passieren?

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Ich denke es wäre extrem hilfreich in einer massive planetary world simulation die Zukunft in eine MultiPlayer Online Game begehbar zu machen. Diese Zukunft der Erde soll wie Daniela beschreibt real sein und auf wissenschaftlichen Daten basieren. Um zu sehen wie heutige Agrikultur-Flächen komplett anders aussehen und wo echte dramatische Veränderungen anstehen.

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The Paris Lifestyle that needs to happen - really love it :heart_eyes: