The Switch - Not Just Another Podcast Kristina Hagström Ilievska

Have you ever wondered how the Pentagon sees the world amidst climate change? Well, they call the climate a conflict multiplier. Apparently, by looking at climate change through this lens, we can see a completely different world and conflicts of a very different nature.

So, can looking at the climate from a geopolitical perspective make us more proactive in protecting the planet? Aurore Belfrage, the latest guest on The Switch Podcast, believes so. As a tech diplomat, economist, investor, digitalization strategist in the green transition, political advisor and co-author of a book about how climate impacts the geopolitical landscape, she knows what she is saying. Aurore tells us how competing among countries can lead us to a more sustainable world, why 0.5% lower emissions may be a missed goal, and why we can’t only focus on the profitable parts of the transition.

Every time Cristiano Ronaldo posts a photo on Instagram, his 500-million followers have to interact with a server to view it. The power required for all those people to see his photo is the equivalent of the power needed to heat two houses for a full year. Now imagine thousands and thousands of photos posted every minute, all the scrolling, googling, streaming…

Every action on our electronic devices requires a data center, resulting in a huge consumption of energy and significant greenhouse gas emissions. So, what difference could it make to climate change if data centers transform the way they operate?

Lars Schedin, our latest guest on The Switch Podcast, talks to us about how this is possible. Lars co-founded EcoDataCenter in 2016, one of the world’s first climate-positive data centers. In the new episode of #notanotherpodcast we talked with Lars about his path, the future of data centers and importance of making them more sustainable.

Can we allow ourselves to not be interested in climate change? Our guest in the new episode of The Switch Podcast decisively says no, because it was us people that led this planet into the state of climate change. Guro Skjæveland is an Investment Manager in Nysnø Climate Investments, and a podcast guest that provided us a lot of optimism. Together with Nysnø, Guro has answers, climate solutions and ideas we should strive for. After all, their homeland Norway was always a forward thinking and environmental country. In the new episode of #notanotherpodcast, we talked to Guro about climate solutions, why “we have been investing where the impact isn’t”, what kind of climate solutions we need and what we have to have in mind when building new green industries.

Entrepreneurs today are waking up to the fact that we don’t need more photosharing apps or productivity tools. We need to solve societal issues”, says Jon Dishotsky, Investment Partner at Giant Ventures and our latest guest on The Switch, #notanotherpodcast.Jon believes that “all the change will come from startups and entrepreneurs who are scaling rapid new technologies to address these problems”. And as it exists to build and back purpose-driven companies solving the world’s biggest problems, this is exactly where Giant Ventures deploys its capital.Since we have to make massive changes, especially when it comes to a problem like the climate crisis, the question is, do entrepreneurs have the strength to bear it all? Join us for the new episode of The Switch Podcast and find out more through this fascinating discussion with Jon Dishotsky. Jon is an early-stage investor and mentor focusing on pre-seed and seed. Before Giant Ventures, he was the co-founder and CEO of Starcity, a global co-living company with locations on multiple continents, hundreds of employees and that raised over $50M in venture capital. Jon has some great insights on impact investing and ways to “pair positive capitalism with widgets that are meaningful and good”.

Fifty percent of technologies that are needed for reaching net zero by 2050 are not yet invented. Where does that leave investors (and everyone else) in tackling the climate crisis?Are startups the solution for reaching net zero and does this make climate tech a hot investment? Also, what is the investor’s responsibility in the climate crisis?

These are just some of the many questions we asked our new guest in The Switch Podcast, Stefan Söderling, who we met at the CleanTech Scandinavia conference in Oslo. Stefan is Fund Manager & CEO at Almi Invest Greentech, where he has overall responsibility for teams and investments in Almi Invest’s Greentech fund. He also works with his own investments, which involves finding, investing in and developing innovative companies withgrowth potential as well as implementing an exit strategy from the holding. He is interested in ethical and sustainable investments that improve our climate, environment and society.

Join Pia and The Switch podcast in the gospel of hope to make the green transition. We started The Switch Podcast because we wanted to change the language around climate change. There is a lot of talk about what is not functioning, so we wanted to flip this and focus on solutions and the companies providing them. One sentence that our latest guest, Pia Erkinheimo, shared with me perfectly embodies this mission of ours: “It is intellectually lazy if we always share horrifying news on social media without providing any solutions.” She calls this “gospel of hope”, and I’m loving it! We should all, including the media, take responsibility. Climate anxiety is raging among the younger generation, and we are not helping them. We need to change the tone and stop creating this “dystopian view of the world”, as Pia puts it. Fixing the system is necessary, but so is regulating and adapting ourselves. I really enjoyed talking with Pia Erkinheimo from The Finnish Climate Fund. Her passion for ClimateTech and innovation is contagious.