Professional investor Tom Steyer continues his decade-plus, multifaceted work against climate change with his new book, “Cheaper, Better, Faster,” which he will present at Orinda Books on July 24. He hopes to inspire others to join him in the “fight of a lifetime.”
Since 2012, professional investor and 2020 presidential candidate Tom Steyer has worked full time to forge a steady path toward clean and sustainable energy. He and his wife, Kat Taylor, have founded study and research centers based at Stanford and helped to launch an Energy Sciences Institute at Yale University.
Steyer will be presenting his new book “Cheaper, Faster, Better” at Orinda Books, 276 Village Square, on Wednesday, July 24, at 6 p.m. General admission is $30, which includes a copy of the book.
Writing this book gave him hope, Steyer said, and he wants to share that hope and inspire others to join the fight against climate change – one that he calls “the fight of our lifetime,” and one that he is sure we will win.
“It’s not a question of if we will win the climate war, it’s how quickly we will win it,” he said.
Steyer has campaigned, advocated and lobbied at the state and national levels, including supporting local activists in persuading the City of Oakland to enact a law halting the construction of a coal export terminal in 2015 and 2016.
He also founded NextGen America, the nation’s largest youth voter organization, and is co-founder of investment firm Galvanize Climate Solutions, among other organizations dedicated to solving the crucial climate situation.
His sponsorship of the 2018 Global Climate Action Summit in San Francisco and the U.S. Climate Action Center overseas at the United Nations Conference of the Parties in Germany in 2017 and in Poland in 2018, brought Steyer’s fight for clean energy and climate change awareness to the global stage.
Steyer believes that while climate change is worse than we think, related technology to solve the issue has also advanced and become less expensive, the “cheaper, better, faster” expressed by his book’s title.
“Rather than believing this is a doomsday scenario, we need to reframe our thinking,” he said. “This is a solvable problem and an opportunity.”
Although he believes that everyone should be conscious of his carbon footprint, he recognizes focusing solely on that issue is not the path to overall success.
He emphasized the importance of looking beyond individual efforts, such as carpooling, electric vehicles (EVs) and heat pumps, reducing meat, recycling and solar installations, and moving toward participation in a larger collective effort.
“The world needs systemic change, not perfect people,” said Steyer.
The climate war will be won in the marketplace rather than by appealing to people’s better natures, according to Steyer.
“In climate, we always say it’s not about a silver bullet, it’s about silver buckshot,” he said. “This will be solved by young people starting dozens of companies with dozens of products, solving these problems one by one.”
Steyer pointed to recent strides in the EV marketplace, offering less expensive cars that can travel farther between charges, as well as solar and wind energy, which, he said, most Americans don’t know is substantially cheaper than fossil fuel energy.
As for the issue of large-scale greenhouse gas emissions, the richest countries have created the bulk of the problem, said Steyer, and a new approach, beginning with information systems to measure and price emission production, is needed.
“The less you’ve done to contribute to climate change, the more you will suffer,” said Steyer.
In 2027, California laws will go into effect requiring major corporations to measure and publish their emissions profile, said Steyer, who foresees a system that will reward people for reducing their emissions and charge for carbon emission.
“That would go a long way to making the global imbalance much fairer,” he added.
Banding together is key to winning the climate battle, and Steyer believes that includes working “to engage and challenge the companies we work for, our communities and our government to make the urgent, large-scale changes that must happen to save our planet.”
He believes that solving climate change is a huge opportunity for our country and the world.
“Climate change will not be solved by a handful of people on Wall Street, in D.C. or in Silicon Valley,” he said. “It will be solved by us because we chose to win.”
