I started the week at COP28 by following my esteemed colleague onto a train headed in the opposite direction from the conference and going the wrong way for twenty-five minutes before noticing our mistake.

Although my pass for the Blue Zone (the area where the country pavilions and UNFCCC negotiations are held) wouldn’t be active until December 8, I decided to fly in early and explore the Green Zone, which is open to the public. As the designated private-sector member of the Duke delegation, I would be primarily following McKinsey & Co.’s presence at the COP.

The Presidency writes: “At COP28, the Green Zone will welcome the private sector for the first time, and give the world’s most innovative businesses the opportunity to contribute to the climate action conversation alongside nations, international and non-governmental organizations, as well as showcasing their solutions to the global climate challenge.”

I quickly nestled myself in the Knowledge Hub where the major management consulting firms and inexplicably, the Canadian province of Saskatchewan, housed their booths. McKinsey was hosting three or four events daily which consisted of keynote speakers, and panels featuring business and NGO leaders. Each day at the COP had different themes (e.g., Energy and Industry, Urbanization and Built Environment), and McKinsey’s events largely followed the themed days. For Energy and Industry day, the lineup included discussions on the role of investors a founding partner of TPG Capital (an asset management firm with over $212 billion under management), the role of energy companies in industrial decarbonization with the former CEO of Shell, and the role of the grid in decarbonization with a board member of E.ON (a large multinational electrical utility based out of Germany).

Some key takeaways from the day’s talks:

  • It is difficult to judge impact at a point in time as “complex problems don’t move in a straight line”. An anecdote that stuck with me was the creation of the smartphone – the cellphone was stuck making incremental improvements until a confluence of technologies allowed us to make a leap to a product that was previously unthinkable. The hope is that as we keep innovating in policy, business models, and technology, we will find a “smartphone moment” in climate technology that dramatically accelerates progress.
  • Investing in climate technologies will scale early-stage solutions into the mainstream as they reach economies of scale and move down the experience curve. Following the cellphone example – the first cellphone was bulky and expensive, and now billions of people have access to cheap cellphones with functionality that could not have been foreseen at the time. Forecasting from today may not account for the acceleration of change.
  • There needs to be more engagement with hard-to-abate sectors. While transportation is responsible for 40% of emissions, they get a much higher percentage of investment and discussion as it is seen as a more tangible problem to many. We must engage with high-emitting sectors – that is where the carbon is.
  • COP calls out the problem, governments set the rules, and the private sector gets the work started.

I also managed to sit in on a panel about nuclear fusion with John Kerry and meet the CEO of NextEra Energy Partners and Duke alum Rebecca Kujawa. All in all, not bad for a first day.