Use Your Voice, Vote and Wallet for Climate Action | Halla Tómasdóttir | TED

Pat Mitchell: Thank you, Halla.

You don’t look any worse the wear for having been on those front lines.

Halla Tómasdóttir: Well, it was quite the experience.

PM: And many times you were there in the important discussions and debates

that were going on

as world leaders were grappling to find the answers.

So help us understand what happened, what didn't.

What, in your opinion, were the outcomes of COP26?

HT: Thank you, Pat, and hello, everyone.

In short, we made progress,

but we are not on track to deliver the world we need.

And I'm a stubborn optimist,

so I want to uplift the ground we took, because it was important ground.

But I also want to be very clear that I left Glasgow

with a very visceral feeling

that there was this gaping generational and trust gap

that we are almost unable to bridge

because we have become so deeply divided

and we're essentially in a crisis of trust.

And so we're facing an existential climate crisis,

but the greatest barrier may be that we don't have trust.

And so let me try to give you a few things to feel hopeful for

that I do think came out of this COP

because I think it matters for us to spring into action to have hope.

And so what I would like to uplift,

number one, is that I think the agenda,

the climate agenda is becoming more holistic than it has been.

It's no longer just about reducing greenhouse gas emissions,

as important as that is.

Nature is on the agenda.

And we're at least talking about justice and inclusion.

We weren't doing that just a few years ago.

Now we need to act on it, but at least we're talking about it.

So a more holistic agenda.

Second, I believe this COP will be remembered

as the COP where business and finance showed up.

And we can say that doesn't matter

because the COP process is created for governments,

but that matters so much.

Governments cannot solve this alone.

We need public-private partnership,

and we need to be working with civil society.

We need radical collaboration, and I feel like that’s starting to happen.

I have some hope in that.

And then third, we saw some unlikely alliances.

We saw, well, B Team leaders and other business leaders

stand with the Climate Vulnerable Forum countries

that are contributing the least to this problem

but are being hit the hardest by them.

And we saw business leaders standing there with presidents of countries

that are dealing with terrible situations,

demanding that the Global North deliver the 100 billion for the Global South

and then some,

to help mitigate this crisis.

And last but not least,

we had actually accountants show up as the change catalysts

that may change the world, and who would have thought.

But we announced the International Sustainability Standards Board.

And this may not mean anything to many of us,

but it means everything to changing norms in business

because it means we're going to start measuring and disclosing what matters.

And so I think these things should all give us hope.

But let me not gloss over the fact

that we had these gaping gaps between the inside and the outside

that actually left me feeling that we have so much hard work to do now.

We can't leave that moment behind us.

We right now must rise.

We have a narrow window to deliver this future we need,

and it is going to take all of us leaning in,

not just around one global moment

but in one global movement of private sector, public servants

and civil society actors and activists

coming together in a more radically collaborative way

than we ever have before.

(Applause)

PM: Among the most hopeful outcomes was one you referenced,

that business leaders stepped up.

And that was in large part because of the leadership of the B Team,

who are business leaders committed to becoming more accountable

and to creating sustainable business practices,

going from being the perpetrators to the problem solvers.

So how is that happening?

HT: Well, let me start by saying the B Team leaders are not perfect.

None of us honestly are,

but they are global leaders from business and civil society

who have decided to put humanity at the heart of their leadership compass

and do the hard work to meet the climate crisis,

the crisis of inequality and the crisis of trust we are facing.

And so we're showing up,

placing the well-being of people and planet

alongside the pursuit of profit,

and that is long overdue.

But it is fortunately now becoming more of a mainstream agenda

than when the B Team was founded seven years ago.

And so we've been on this journey for seven, nearly eight years now,

and we’ve just put out something we call “The New Leadership Playbook”

and “10x Bolder” podcast

where we are actually sharing the journeys,

the stories of transforming businesses to be in service of a better world

and going deep in the conversations of why we do that as human beings.

And actually sharing the questions we should be asking now,

because this is not a moment where we have all the answers,

but we know we need to be asking the hard questions

and sharing some of the resources

that can help businesses and leaders who want to go on this journey.

Because the window is now, and we need everyone to join us.

And more importantly, while in COP,

we put out a statement

where we put out our assessment of what was going on in Glasgow,

and we promised to convene a global dialogue

of multiple stakeholders in 2022.

It could be dialogues.

We are yet to design it.

But really bring people together across these deep divides,

because there is no way from here to where we want to go,

a future where we can love where we live,

by going it alone anymore.

It’s going to take radical collaboration,

and we can't love where we live

unless we keep the world on track for 1.5 degree warming,

above pre-industrial levels.

Unless we bring nature into the solutions

and start reversing

or halting first, and then reversing nature loss.

And unless we start making this about a just and inclusive transition

for all of humanity.

And this is going to be the hardest work we ever do,

but we created this world so we can co-create a world

where we love where we live.

And I don't know a single human being

that doesn't feel deeply frustrated with the moment we are in

and is interested in navigating this transition to a better future.

And that's the work that we have to do in the next eight years.

The most difficult work of our lifetimes has to happen in the next few years.

PM: The B Team and other business leaders who were there,

you've also developed some really specific actions

and things you believe need to change.

Share this with us.

HT: So if we want to love where we live,

we have to change who,

to change how we lead, run businesses and our economy.

What do we mean by that?

Without closing the gender, racial, ethnic, generational,

Global North, Global South gaps around every table,

so we can start redesigning the table,

we are not going to be able to design a world that is trusted,

inclusive and works for all.

Right now, it is a rather male and a rather pale world,

and you all know what the third thing is.

That’s going to give us a rather stale world.

Well, that is not what we need now.

We need the greatest human transformation of our lifetimes to happen now,

and that should be exciting.

It's a huge business opportunity.

It's a huge opportunity to unite people,

and it's a huge opportunity to create a world that works for all.

But we have been going about this with sameness or conformity.

And leadership, I have said before,

we suffer from a crisis of conformity in leadership.

So the only way to disrupt that is to bring difference to bear.

We have to close these gaps in leadership no later than by 2025.

It should be on everybody's agenda to close these gaps,

in every leadership room and every design room, everywhere.

But we also have to rethink what leadership is.

It is no longer something that comes only from people in positions of power.

Leadership is, and has always been, something that is inside out.

It's in all of us.

And the greatest work we do in life is to unlock it

in service of something that we care about.

And so changing who to change how

is also about changing you to change how.

And about each of us doing the work to come from the inside out,

bring our humanity to bear,

bring our courage to bear,

drop from our heads to our hearts more often.

Because business schools,

our capitalistic system has trained us

overly much on the left brain, left side of our brain only.

And we won't be able to calculate our way

from where we are to where we need to be and excel alone.

Technological transformations are critical,

and we have a lot of them in place and a lot of them underway.

And we clearly have enough money in the world,

but those things may not be matching up.

The missing piece is transformational leadership.

So we need to drop from our heads to our hearts and unlock courage.

And what we care about and our humanity.

And we need to face the truth:

that our economic system may have served some well for a long time,

may still be serving some,

but has failed to serve the many for quite some time.

So unless we reset and write the rules in our economic system

and align the incentives for the future we're trying to deliver,

we are going to be unable to do it.

And let me just give you a couple of facts.

Currently our governments are spending 11 million dollars a minute

in subsidizing fossil fuels.

In a year 1.8 trillion dollars into subsidies

that are environmentally harmful.

So we go to Glasgow and we set goals for the future,

and then we go home and we invest in the past.

This is insanity, if I've ever seen it.

So --

(Applause)

So brave leadership matters,

and that's what the B Team leaders are trying to do,

and we need a lot more people to join us.

But brave leadership in a broken system isn’t going to work,

so we have to write the rules,

we have to change who, to change how.

And I say change who to change how is the transformational lever.

It’s going to help your company become future-fit.

It's going to help unlock the innovation you need.

So it's a lever to lead the transformation.

But let's not excuse the role of governments.

Governments have to write the rules.

They have to align the incentives.

They have to require business to measure what matters.

PM: Such important actions that must leave us all thinking, though,

what is the one thing that we can do?

Our friend Mary Robinson says,

"Make it personal.

Make the climate crisis personal."

How do we do that?

HT: Well, for me, it's incredibly personal.

I carry Mother Earth,

and I'm now changing it to daughter Earth, around my neck.

It was a gift from my husband and two children.

But as a CEO of the B Team, as a mom, I care deeply about this.

I care so much about it that I even ran for president at some point.

And I'm just a little girl from Iceland who just thinks

that what I care about matters,

and that I can unlock my authentic voice

and values in service of a better future.

So can all of us in here.

So bearing that maybe not all of you will want to run for president,

(Laughter)

but I hope many of you will really think about it

because it’s one of the best things I’ve ever done,

yet the hardest.

I think the first thing I would advise all of you to do

is to drop from your head to your heart and really craft your own compass,

and let your leadership align with that.

And then use your voice,

your votes and your wallets, according to that moral compass.

Because as human beings, we know truth from fake news.

We know the work we need to do.

So moral compass, and then use your voice.

It's the most powerful tool we have.

Use your votes and help everybody else have the opportunity to use that.

And use your vote with your feet.

You know, so work for companies and do business with companies

that actually are aligned with your compass.

And then use your wallets.

And ask questions when you're spending money,

when you're investing money, when you're choosing a bank.

You have so much power.

But make sure, whatever you choose to do,

that you don't underestimate that the most powerful lever around

to drive the transformation right now is collective power of employees.

And they are really making their voice and votes matter now.

And power has shifted.

Emerging power has more power now.

So wherever you are, mobilize, bring people together,

put pressure on politicians, put pressure on CEOs.

It's actually a few actors that can really change this.

But many actors can help them see that time is out,

and time for courageous and brave leadership is now.

Demand it.

PM: Thank you for your leadership, Halla.

Use your vote, your wallet, your voice.

(Applause)

HT: Thank you.

(Applause)