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Now I can do a more formal introduction to the former US Secretary of State John Carry, also co executive chair of Galvanized Climate Solutions. Secretary Carry, good to see you, sir, Glad to start again. We're starting, can I'll be more rugby. I'm happy to see you, you know I am.
Thank you, sir.
The new president says, drill, baby, drill. I want to understand how you feel about that and what kind of trajectory you think we might be going on through the next four years.
Well, I think I think the President's correct that we need an abundance of what we call firm energy. We need to make sure that America is leading in the technologies of this transition to new energy, clean energy. But I would say that build baby builders, I mean, drill baby drill ought to be replaced by build baby build, because that's what we need to do in all aspects
of energy. There will be higher demand. He's absolutely correct, and I'm glad to see a five hundred million dollar infrastructure announced because that's going to be the key to our doing it, and it's going to be the key to leading in AI butt and there's a huge butt data centers demand a massive amount of energy, and that's
going to become very competitive. Will that energy be provided by clean energy or is it going to just add to the problem we have of a warming planet with increased intensity to our storms, more damage all around the world. We haven't suddenly lost the connection between the choices we make about how we provide energy and its impact just because we elected a new president. So we've got to stay tuned into the science. We have to stay tuned into the marketplace, and the marketplace is going to move
predominantly in the direction of new energy to win. Last year, about almost two trillion dollars went into venture capital for new energy clean energy systems. One trillion went into fossil fueld. That's a two to one first time ever shift in the marketplace. And if you look at what's happening in that marketplace, other technologies are coming on like wind Texas, the home of fossil fuelds in America that is now
the leading state for the deployment of wind turbines. So I think the marketplace is going to continue to invest in moving this direction on a global basis.
Is that the marketplace or government intervention.
That's the marketplace. It's happening all around the world. I mean, I've been recently in the Far East in Singapore, and recently also in the Middle East. In most of the Middle Eastern countries, everyone is engaged in this transition. UA a major producer of oil and gas, is also a major producer of new nuclear plants. They've got four new
nuclear plants. They have a vast array of solar one of the largest fields in the world, and they are determined to have a higher level of energy produced by renewable energy.
As a build on what John is talking about. I'm thinking about, let's say the electric vehicle credits, and there was this idea that we would really transition people to vehicles that were considered cleaner. And yet China did it successfully because they have the resources to do that. The United States doesn't. They need to import them, and it actually makes it in the US more dependent on other places, or some of the government policies misguided in what was
necessary to actually tackle the problem. From an economic perspective.
I think we've worked very hard to open up new supply trains, and we did open up new supply trains India as an example, we were invested at about five hundred million dollars in trying to build, not trying to in building the largest production plant in the world. And yes, China has in fact captured much of that market, and they captured it frankly with unfair trade practices, which is one of the reasons that's a legitimate issue between us
and them, and we have to work that out. Solar was really worked on and developed by the United States and Germany, and then China stepped in. There was a massive amount of dumping into our country and the production gravitated towards China. But today China is now I mean, many people complain, including the president. President said China is
not doing what it should be doing well. China is the largest producer of renewable energy and deployer of renewable energy anywhere in the world, including more than all the rest of the world put together. So China is now commanding the market just by virtue of its production level. We need to get into that and compete.
But it raises this question national security versus cleaner energy. It kind of pits two of your babies together. It sort of raises this question which do you prioritize.
The climate crisis is a national security crisis. The fact there's are about thirty nine million people wandering around Africa elsewhere trying to knock on the door of places where they think they can live because they can't live there anymore. They can't produce the food anymore. It's getting too hot, you can't work outdoors, so that's going to increase that challenge. We had about a million people come in from the desert into Damascus, which changed the dynamic of the Arab
spring end of the war in Syria. So there's a linkage. What happens when water starts being reduced in spread, what happens when the food basket of Africa implodes because they can't grow it anymore. These are real threats that smart people are spending a lot of time analyzing and understanding, and within the Pentagon, the Pentagon has called the climate crisis a threat multiplier. It presents serious challenges to all of us and we need to treat it like the security issue that it really is.
You understand to Lisa's point that we have become more dependent on an adversary, on China for all the reasons that you describe, and yet we have some of these critical minerals, these resources within the United States. I'm sure you're familiar with the resolution copper deposit that Rio's explored.
It's ready to go, can support twenty five percent of the copper demands of the United States of America, and yet for some reason it's been dragging along and hasn't been green lit in a way that it should be.
We have a problem in the United States, which I hope will be cured. It's a bipartisan challenge. We need Republicans and Democrats alike to come together in order to do permitting reform. We have two thousand gigawayites, a huge amount of energy, almost as much as China has today. We have that backed up at Firk Energy Regulatory Commission that has not been improved over these years. Why politics?
So I hope we're going to get the politics out of the way, and I think President Trump understands that that is a way to accelerate the deployment of the energy that he has.
Now said it didn't happen under a democratic president.
Didn't politics?
Why didn't the immigration bill? Why didn't the immigration bill that had been put together with you know lang Senator Langford from Oklahoma, he worked hard at that.
It was bipartisan, it was ready to be passed. And President Trump then then, you know, former President Trump called up and said, don't pass this. It will help the Democrats, It'll help the divide administration look good. I don't want to get themselves. Look, I'm not here the start of this conversation.
Do you think do you think they helped themselves for the last four years the Democrats over the last four years, did the party help themselves?
I think there were serious questions about the message and so forth. I'm not here to be political. I'm here to talk about the energy crisis.
Isn't that something very political about this crisis? Though it is by.
Starting nation, it seems to have been weaponized, and unfortunately that's a loss for all Americans. For instance, if you decide, as President has to pull out of Paris, we are not at the table. We lose the leverage of being at the table. We lose the protection of our country in terms of something that might be passed or not passed by not being at the table. Moreover, you know, last time he pulled out, there was only one person in the entire world. Of all the leaders in the
world that pulled out of the Paris Agreement. And by the way, the Paris Agreement was still implemented in the United States because we have thirty seven governors who implement renewable portfolio laws and they did that. We had over one thousand mayors joined into something called the worst still in movement. And that's exactly what's going to happen now. And by the way, and this Bloomberg obviously understands better than anybody, the power of the marketplace is what is
going to make determinations. Air oil is a commodity and hasn't really changed much in price for over one hundred years. But technology is what is really driving these changes that are taking place. And I think rather than being driven by commodity prices, this revolution is going to be driven by technology prices, which are now lower than the prices of fossil fuel.
You've been a big proponent of not exceeding this one point five degree increase in the global climate. You've said that you think we're going to blow past it. You're working with Tom Steyer of Galvanies try to raise money.
There's been a huge.
Vibe shift away from ESG where people are saying, well, if we can't solve it, whatever, how do you sort of see the enthusiasm to invest in things that have been highly politicized.
Really, that is a great question. I'm really glad you asked it, because it's central to what we're doing. Nothing that we're doing is based on reliance on the government to do something, or reliance on a subsidy of some kind. We're not in there to find or to be the source of concessionary funding or to find the concessionary funding.
We are investing in portfolio companies that have the ability to affect this transition just on basic fundamentals of business, just looking at the marketplace, and we will show people how, in fact, and there are other companies doing this now, how this transition will allow you to invest and make money and you will be able to make better returns than some other things that are out there today. That's
the basis of this investing. And when the market sees the way that a whole bunch of people are in fact turning this around making money, AI is going to be a big part of this. Geothermal may be a part of it, but you need all of the above investment effort now because the science is telling us we have to move faster, and ultimately that demand is going to change people's attitude about this. You know, electric vehicles grew by fivefold last year, in sales grew by about
fourfold last year. Solar has now had a sixty percent reduction in price. So whereas oil is affected by the economy as a commodity, the renewable portfolios are going to be affected by the technology change which is lowering their cost.
And I'll tell you what right now, there is no question but that the reduction and price of wind and solar, and the new fibers that's available to transmit higher levels of energy at much lower cost, all of these things are coming together to say it is cheaper one point seven cents per kilowatt hour in some contracts that being let now on solar. So I think the marketplace is going to make this decision, and no one person.
You'll feel me to jumping in because we're up against the clocks. But I just wanted to fit in one final question because your voice is important on this issue. Are you encouraged by recent developments in the Middle East and the agreement strung between Hamas and Israel.
Well, obviously, I think it's great that we've got an agreement that a lot of people worked extremely hard on for some period of time. Things are always tentative and difficult in that part of the world. A lot will depend on the government of Israel and how it approaches the future. I saw a debate this morning on TV about the meaning of the West Bank and if efforts are made, I think to move to the sort of
greater Samaria today, a Samaria philosophy. Without resolving what's going to happen in the long term governance, it's going to be a real problem. So hopefully wiser heads will prevail people to move forward. But you have to begin to build, build in building box. This is the first step, build a little confidence, make some things happen, but then hopefully have a shared vision for the long term future of Gaza and of the West Bank, and obviously for Israel's security,
which is paramount. You've got to be able to resolve that as you move forward.
I think we all share that hope. Thanks for being with us, Sir, I appreciate your time as always to be here with you. Don't carry that The former US Secretary of state