MSC co-hosts panel discussion at New York Times Climate Hub alongside COP26

On November 3, the Munich Security Conference (MSC), in cooperation with The New York Times (NYT) and Siemens Energy, hosted a panel discussion at the NYT Climate Hub at the margins of COP26 in Glasgow. The session titled "Two Steps or Not Two Steps: The Power of (Incremental) Change on the Race to Net Zero" was moderated by Katrin Bennhold, NYT Berlin Bureau Chief and featured the following panelists: Christoph Heusgen, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the MSC Foundation, David Livingston, Senior Advisor to the US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, Christian Bruch, CEO of Siemens Energy, and Julie Teigland, Managing Partner at EY EMEIA. By bringing together key stakeholders from policy and industry to discuss concrete and actionable measures on the race to net zero, the session represented another milestone on "The Road to Munich"  as part of the MSC’s Sustainability Program.

While the panelists agreed with the need for urgent action and the setting of big targets they also emphasized the necessity of concrete small steps to be taken to reach the overarching aim of net zero. What Julie Teigland referred to it as a "revolution made up of many small steps", David Livingston called a "decade of decisive action", which lies ahead of us. The panelists agreed that to confront the massive challenges that climate changes poses, different steps over different time scales are needed.

Some options for concrete measures were discussed, reaching from companies laying out their clear targets to a price on carbon. As Christian Bruch put it: "energy has to have a value". Ambassador Heusgen raised the point that while everybody – companies, governments and individuals – need to make their contribution, a global strategy must still be in place. Part of such an overarching approach must be that governments and companies also look beyond their own borders. Heusgen said: "We alone cannot solve it" and underlined the necessity of countries heavily investing in other countries, by, for example, providing coal dependent countries with alternatives. Only by supporting each other’s efforts, the challenges of climate change can be tackled. The panel made clear: In order to succeed, action in the fight against climate change must be driven forward on all relevant levels simultaneously: the local, national and multilateral.

You can find the recording of the event here.