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Center Stage Podcast

Jon Foley is moving Project Drawdown from advice to action

The best of live interviews from GreenBiz events. This episode: How Drawdown 2.0 can make everyone accountable for stopping climate change.

"Are we screwed?"

This is a question that every climate-conscious person has asked at one point or another. With the unprecedented environmental challenges that face us today, many are disillusioned about the future of the planet. 

Jon Foley, executive director of Project Drawdown, is here to inject a sense of optimism. At GreenBiz 19 in Phoenix, Foley described to GreenBiz Executive Editor Joel Makower how he sees the drawdown framework move into the next phase. "We can’t change the world unless we believe we can," he said. "We have to change the mindset from ‘doom and gloom’ to at least [the] possibility that we can make a better world." 

Two years after the release of bestselling book "Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming," Foley is focusing on how to implement the climate change solutions proposed in the book on a granular level. He wants to bring together players across the board — from businesses, investors and philanthropists to city and state governments — to co-design a scalable, customizable blueprint to stop and even reverse climate change. No more waiting for the United Nations or lawmakers in Washington, D.C., to take action: Everyone should be able to pull their weight in the drawdown framework.

"Everybody in their bones knew that this was the better world that they want their children to inherit. Even if it meant a lot of change and a lot of discomfort for some, we all kind of knew it was right," Foley said.

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Technical direction for GreenBiz Center Stage by Isaac Silk. 

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