Hope and Opportunities in a Time of Extremes
Hope and Opportunities in a Time of Extremes
Head, BMO Climate Institute
Melissa Fifield leads the BMO Climate Institute, a center of expertise accelerating climate solutions by bridging science, policy, finance and economics. She is a g…
Melissa Fifield leads the BMO Climate Institute, a center of expertise accelerating climate solutions by bridging science, policy, finance and economics. She is a g…
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Amid a steady stream of news about extreme temperatures and natural disasters, Melissa Fifield, the head of the BMO Climate Institute, distinguishes between being optimistic about climate change and having hope.
"Being optimistic about climate change is believing the status quo will somehow, in some way, lead to the best outcome. Just sit back and watch," she says. "By contrast, being hopeful means that even though the future isn't clear, we can help shape it with practical actions and good partnerships with the right kind of organizations."
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Michael Torrance:
Welcome to Sustainability Leaders. I'm Michael Torrance, chief Sustainability Officer with BMO Financial Group. On this show, leading sustainability practitioners explore how this rapidly evolving field of sustainability is impacting global investment, business practices, and our world.
Speaker 2:
The views expressed here are those of the participants and not those of Bank of Montreal, it's affiliates or subsidiaries.
Melissa Fifield:
My name is Melissa Fifield and I'm the head of the BMO Climate Institute. Today's episode of Sustainability Leaders is going to be a quick hit.
I'm getting ready to travel from where I live in the Bay Area to Toronto. Sibos is taking place there. Sibos is a marquee financial services event, and I'll be moderating a panel on ways to multiply the impact of sustainability efforts. After that, I'll be in New York for Climate Week, the largest climate-focused gathering of its kind.
I'm looking forward to connecting with a lot of old friends, and I'm eager to learn about new opportunities and solutions.
But ... I must be honest. Usually when sustainability professionals gather for climate events, there' s a sense of unease in the back of everyone's mind. The scale of the climate challenge is growing. far. too. quickly.
Unusually hot and dry weather conditions have contributed to wildfires across North America. We already know July was globally the hottest month on record.
In a previous show, my colleague at the Climate Institute, George Sutherland, discussed Canadian wildfires. By June, they had burned a record amount of land - not even halfway through the fire season.
Just days after we published the show, fires broke out on the Hawaiian island of Maui. They would become the deadliest wildfire in modern U.S. history.
So, it's difficult to feel optimistic about the climate as I head to Toronto and New York. How can anyone feel optimism after learning about the grim toll of recent natural disasters and extreme weather?
But I do feel hopeful. This might sound confusing or even contradictory but hear me out.
The San Francisco-based writer and cultural historian Rebecca Solnit said: "Optimism is really confidence that everything will be fine, and if everything is going to be fine, nothing is required of us." She went on to say: "Hope, for me, is facing the uncertainty of the future, the fact that it's being created by what we do or fail to do in the present..."
BMO started the Climate Institute in 2021 to combine expertise in finance together with other disciplines and accelerate climate solutions. Since then, we’ve seen climate challenges grow more complex. But opportunities in the energy transition have also grown. We’re finding reasons to be hopeful.
• Take EV adoption, for example. EV sales in the United States increased 55% last year, according to the IEA. The U.S. EV market is the third largest in the world, and its market share is expected to double to 20% by the end of the decade. This is significant because the transportation sector generates the largest share of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.
• When we think globally, the buildings where we live, study, and work are responsible for a quarter of emissions. There's a growing acceptance among owners and asset managers that deep retrofits need to happen. Earlier this year, BMO collaborated with the Canada Infrastructure Bank on a first-of-its-kind retrofit solution to provide clients greater access to impact capital.
• Another area is sustainable finance. BMO is a global leader in sustainable finance, with a goal of deploying C$300 billion in capital by 2025 to clients pursuing sustainable outcomes. The pipeline is robust.
• I'm probably most hopeful about an area where I think financial institutions can make a big climate impact: partnerships. It can take time to find common ground with other organizations and people. But I believe partnerships are the only way to achieve the system-level change needed to tackle the climate crisis.
I experienced the power of partnerships first-hand. As a founding member of the Sustainable Apparel Coalition and the Apparel Impact Institute, I facilitated partnerships between competitors, enabling them to leverage their collective voice.
At BMO, I'm looking forward to supporting the bank's commitment to climate justice in our communities. The Climate Institute has the capability to convene resources and partners, and I plan to use it.
My team and I are dedicated to conceiving of bold yet practical ways to help BMO's Climate Ambition to be our clients' lead partner in the transition to a net-zero world.
The year 2050 may seem like a distant future. But many of us are already feeling and witnessing the damaging effects of climate change. The immensity of the challenge requires us to begin taking practical action today. Can we achieve a net-zero world I'm hopeful.
Michael Torrance:
Thanks for listening to Sustainability Leaders. Visit us at bmo.com/sustainabilityleaders. You can listen and subscribe free to our show on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast provider, and we'll greatly appreciate a rating and review and any feedback that you might have. Our show and resources are produced with support from BMO's marketing team and Puddle Creative. Until next time, I'm Michael Torrance. Have a great week.
