 So slow off the mark here because the we prefer comfort and then challenged in truth yeah and a lot of us do the same in our private lives let's not be too hypocritical about this but it's much easier to say it doesn't really matter and it was not really happening anyway but to look at the consequences of what is happening is is the adult thing to do and that's what we have to do now and you look at these beautiful animals and then hear that we have lost half more than half of all the actual animals not the species but the actual animals just in the last 30 40 years absolutely so because we've got very very sophisticated ways of killing them yeah yeah and and we are in danger of losing half the species yes in this in this century yes multiple studies have shown us this so I'm gonna come back to you but speaking of global politics we have a Prime Minister here and you're not gonna put it all on me yeah I said I'm a big fan of your work Prime Minister and I've said that publicly and I think you really represent a breath of fresh air and in world politics but I know that in leading your country you're interested in improving the intergenerational well being of New Zealanders and and build an international reputation for New Zealand and how to how do those challenges inform your approach to the climate crisis I think you can probably put them in the same basket what greater threat to our well being is there than the current threat of climate change yeah we have a we have a term in New Zealand that's unique to New Zealand because it's a phrase from indigenous New Zealanders Maori it's this term kaitiaki tanga and it means guardianship specifically guardianship of our environment and so the way I'd like to think about us in politics taking on the challenge of climate change is that we have a short term a three-year term that's our political cycle in which I see the challenges to embed in that period of time as deeply as we can the infrastructure for long term change one of the biggest threats I think that we have and you talked about why we're not making enough progress political cycles this needs to be something that we embed in our national psyches and our political psyches in an action and it needs to endure beyond us as individuals and so if we can do anything we will be creating legislation which embeds those targets that ambition that we need and then right through to the basic pragmatic things like planting a billion trees over 10 years creating investment funds doing each of the things that will set us on a long-term path for guardianship because that's what we all have to take the responsibility for I've been so happy at the proposals you've made since you took office it puts to mind a saying from an American humorist in the 19th century Mark Twain who said do the right thing you'll gratify your friends and astonish your enemies and in politics you'll surprise everyone so but ultimately I think civic society has done an incredible job the young people have been the leaders that we that we need now everyone is looking to us yeah and so it we've got the rulebook we know what's required it's about a matter of getting on and doing it and tuning what has been seen as a threat with a great deal of pessimism and fear into an opportunity we have the chance here to transition in future proof our economies as well and that might be jarring if we do it quickly or if we take a longer track it can be something we can prepare our people for and so I think it's the only option yeah you still have some resistance don't you and how do you how do you deal with that I mean I'm asking for very practical reasons there are policy makers here who are sometimes really put on their back foot by the fierceness of the resistance to even recognizing the reality of the climate crisis good cause to be optimistic still though 10 years ago when I first came into parliament I remember standing at a town hall meeting and speaking passionately about the issue of climate change and being roundly booed including I think by members of my own family but even in that period how dramatic the shift has been no longer do you have the the significant questioning of the science that we even had perhaps in that period of time so how do we how do we move in the face of resistance we don't do it alone we build a movement with us and I want to acknowledge the work of Sir David a voice of authority trust and respect and and to all those leaders who use the platform that they have it creates the space for us as politicians to do the right thing yeah yeah so the business community has an extremely important role and unlike New Zealand some countries have a challenging period for leadership these days and there there are actually many countries where democracy is not working the way many of us think it should and the business community is stepping up and providing leadership not all but a non-mahindra certainly is and I was going to ask you at the end for a a pledge or a commitment but I know that just just recently you did that so tell us what you've just announced as an act of leadership in the Mahindra group thank you vice president when you're asked to be the only businessman on a panel about environment it sort of fills you with a little bit of trepidation you wonder whether you're going to be the fall guy or the dartboard for everything but knowing that you were moderating this I was very willing because you've been a very great supporter of ours and a cheerleader so I'm delighted vice president to share with you and to share with those who were not at the global climate action summit in California in September that I did make a pledge on behalf of all 220,000 colleagues of mine in our group it's not the largest group in India or in the world it's a sizable group it's $20 billion with a hundred companies but I did commit that the entire Mahindra group and all its companies would be carbon neutral 10 years before the Paris agreement deadline by 2040 that's great that's fantastic that's fantastic and if more business CEOs and leaders would follow your example that would really accelerate the progress we're seeing a lot of change in India aren't we absolutely and what I think we're seeing is that India unlike many other countries including many in the West vice president is not dialing down on its ambitions in fact three climate groups had created a climate tracker report and they have announced and stated that out of 32 country survey they've done only seven are still on track to meet their Paris agreement commitments in India is one of them and I'm very proud to to to state that here today so India is not backing off as far as the business community is concerned I believe that India is also in the forefront of having a business community that unequivocally recognizes that this is not a problem that we are solving alone this is not a nice thing to do this is not something you check on your CSR box this is the biggest business opportunity of the next decades so any country that dials down thank you very much we'll pick up the opportunities if you don't want them yeah you know that's such a great point to make in my country in the United States the fastest growing job is solar installer and it's growing nine times faster than the average job growth in the country second fastest growing job is wind turbine technician the opportunities for tens of millions of jobs not only in the US but all around the world for retrofitting buildings you know roughly a quarter of the global warming pollution can be traced to highly inefficient buildings that waste heat in the winter and and and cool in the summer and you can create jobs in every community they can't be outsourced there by nature in the community and give a an increase to the secular demand in the global economy on a sustainable basis at a time when we got the warning on Monday here in Davos that the risks of a downturn have increased well now is the time for an increase in secular demand and and moving quickly to seize the opportunities in this transition make all the sense in the world and young people are calling for it and I want to turn to you Akira because you represent a new generation of purpose-driven leaders and people involved in business what are you doing to help mobilize other young people in Japan and elsewhere definitely thank you very much I'm actually have I shoot at watching these series that just makes me so emotional in a way but please don't take everyone they use the iteration young generation is too emotional but we are as the yeah as as it's just mentioned that we are just purpose-driven and then we know what is right and wrong to us and we are just taking that like we as a community of course as a global shapers community but the same time as a community that we work in every day in the very rural basis or very local basis that we already doing so much and we can see that how much we can already achieve as a local basis so that's why I'm here after this to also present the pledge from the young generations for everyone to get on board yeah then this is really the like welcoming and opening opportunity for everyone to take their own voices in because for our young generation then you just seen in the video as well before sorry David Attenborough's video that for us young generation taking action for climate change or the sustainability or by the biodiversity what whatever you call it it's just as important as just pleasing it is so natural and normal for us well thank you thank you very much I've been so impressed and so moved to buy your generation expressing in such a passionate way the reasons why we have to do more and Sir David you must feel some times where you have deep emotions coming from observing the the beauty that you chronicle in your in your work and and realizing the fragility and the threat to it over the years you personally have changed haven't you in in highlighting the threat to the natural environment isn't that correct yes I think so I mean the 1950s I wasn't alone I think most naturalists were aware that we could damage the environment and that we a species might become extinct and we could do something to stop that and so we were very proud of the fact that we saw the Arabian oryx next inked in the wild but had the wit at least to see that there were individuals in zoos around the world and we could get them together and we could reconstitute a breeding herd and we could reintroduce them well okay we did but of course that was a very very simple problem yeah with a relatively simple solution we didn't even then dawn on us that what we were wrecking were not individual species but ecosystem yeah that was the catastrophe yeah and that we still haven't cracked yeah haven't solved that problem yeah I focus mainly on the climate crisis I think it's by far the most serious problem that we face but in truth it is the most serious manifestation of an underlying collision between human civilization as we have presently organized it and the ecological system of our planet we're losing forests at a rate of one football field per second we're seeing the acidification of the oceans we're seeing the loss of wetlands the loss of living species as we mentioned before and that's not something that can be easily undone I find myself that there is a risk of people moving straight from denial to despair without pausing on the intermediate step of actually solving the problem and I loved your formulation when Hilda Schwab presented the crystal award to you last night you said we have to focus on that intermediate place where it's not just alarm high alarm constantly or doom and gloom but actually focusing on the practical steps that can be taken so I thank you for delivering that message thank you yeah well you started it that is on pay your respect and thanks to you because you sounded the alarm a long long time ago well you're kind to say that but I thank you I I I simply channeled what my teachers taught me beginning with Professor Roger Revelle we were having conversations but but but thank you Prime Minister I'm not gonna name any names of your fellow heads of state I want you to conjure one of them can be a woman can be a man I'm not trying to be overly cute about this woman it's virtually naming names he's not many of us out there okay well that's true but what I'm trying to invite you to do is to have a conversation with one of your fellow heads of state who doesn't want to do anything about the climate crisis doesn't think it's real or pretends to think it's not real and is hostile to any efforts to do anything about it what would you say to him or her you know I wonder whether or not I would say anything or whether I would show them something yeah and it only takes a trip to the Pacific to see that climate change isn't a hypothetical and you don't have to know anything about the science or even have an argument about the science to have someone from one of the Pacific Island nations take you to a place where they used to play as a child on the coast and show you where they used to stand and now where the water rises underwater yeah and so I don't think we have to do it all with words when we can just simply show what's happening is as the images that we watched in the beginning have shown and so when do you take where do you take it after that well I think then it's a matter of saying that you don't have to seed power by acting on climate change there's nothing to fear about your individual political status actually this is about being on the right side of history and do you want to be a leader that you look back in time and say that you were on the wrong side of the argument when the world was crying out for a solution yeah and it's as simple as that I think yeah well said well said now ananda when you and I were together in San Francisco a few months ago at the summit on climate the this horrible cyclonic storm a hurricane as we call them in the Western Hemisphere was hitting the east coast of the US at the same time an even more powerful typhoon same kind of storm was hitting the the Philippines and then onward to Hong Kong and then the fires were breaking out in California every night on the television news is like a nature hike through the book of revelation now it is just astonishing but in India you've had your share of these climate related disasters is that having an impact on public opinion in India it certainly is we've been accustomed to these storms for a while in particularly in some of the geographies but I have absolutely no doubt right now that when a natural calamity occurs and they're occurring with greater frequency than they used to there is no reaction in India whether it's by the lay population whether it's by business people or by policymakers there's no reaction which is regressive and says oh well we've had these before yeah Indian somehow are notorious for being fatalistic and accepting and I think there are there are good things about being accepting about life and about our fate this is not one of the things I think India is taking as simply an act of fate and again I believe that the business community once again you brought them up but we were earlier in Davos last year if you remember and you and I co-conspired to try and make a call for action yeah and at that time I think about 330 companies had committed to following science-based targets for meeting the Paris Agreement goals and I'm happy to tell you you and I both called for more our target was 500 we are now at 515 companies are signed up so there are many believes they're not that many disbelievers that's the good news and in India I have not come across anyone who doesn't recognize the dangers I live in Mumbai Mumbai is meant to be under water at some point in time I live on the on the coast as well so it's a matter of survival for all of us for India it's about staying alive it's not just about politics it's not just about business as I said earlier it really is a question of staying alive now and just to make one other point with India as an example I could use my own country as well the same fuels that are burned that create the global warming pollution and the climate crisis also at the same time create the kind of air pollution that makes people sick and India has a particular challenge with air pollution in cities and in my country we have this as well and in many places China and India are well known but there are quite a few other other countries around the world that have this but this is now also particularly for the young generation a motivating factor and saying we want we want cleaner air and cleaner water and so linking the health consequences of our dependence on fossil fuels to the solutions to the climate crisis I think is a step forward absolutely and young people as you know India is one of the youngest countries in the world and the vast majority of people are under 25 years old they understand that it is a matter of survival you use that wonderful phrase so David about this is our home and that's a message every young person in India has received from people who have some wisdom about this that look treat this like your home this is not a hotel neither you nor your successors are going to be able to check out of here and I think everyone's got that message yeah yeah and of course Japan and the you wanted to comment on that thank you um I'd like to in a way if I can revert the question to all of you because we as young people we know it is the matter and then it is the crisis and we need to work on and for example like we are already doing so much in our own capacity for example myself coming from a very rural community already working on the zero waste that we have already achieved up to 80 percent that's how much we can do as a very small group of the people but same time I also respect how much you have already worked on climate change and all these issues but I see the gap between the young people doing so much in their capacity between how we can also get your buttons for our generation to be passed on at the same time how can we bridge this generation also transitioning so that we can also have the capacity together with all of you to actually moving forward to make change yeah what's the advice yeah well I think we've all got to take inspiration from your generation and move forward much much faster this is a challenge unlike any other but the fact that we have the solutions now as was said earlier makes it particularly frustrating for people who want to push for faster action but I do think that we are making slow progress now I qualify that because we've gone for three years with no increase in emissions but last year the emissions started increasing again actually in 2017 and then last year even more so this is a warning sign the Paris Agreement was a great success but one of the reasons why it's so important that the World Economic Forum has featured this session and it has so many sessions on climate this week is that this year kicks off the the cycle of increased commitments and in the fall of this year the Secretary General of the United Nations who will also be here this week is holding a special UN summit following up on the IPCC report and then the following year that's when every nation is going to be called on to increase its ambition so the old cliche is you have to walk before you can run we are seeing the beginnings of progress but we have to accelerate that progress dramatically Sir David I'm going to ask you the same question I ask the Prime Minister if you could if you could have a heart to heart with a head of state who is not yet doing anything on this what would you say think of the children think of the children think of your children and your children's children and what we are doing to the planet at the moment and could you look them in the eye and say I knew what could be done to stop the degradation of the environment and of the climate but it was too difficult and rather boring yeah and I failed to do it and you are now going to take the consequences yeah yeah sort of the ghost of Christmas future take a look do you want to be able to do you want to have to say that so we're running out of time here but Prime Minister I want to talk about economic impact because sometimes there is this cartoonish view that we have to choose between the climate and the environment on the one hand and the economy and jobs on the other we talked earlier about how many new jobs can be created and are being created but with this sustainability revolution but you have a unique initiative that's part of what's called the just transition yes and with the men and women who've been employed in the carbon fuel sector you think that part of the world's approach to solving the climate crisis has to include an intense focus on a just transition for them what are what are you doing in that regard actually what we're inclined to believe is that any any economy needs to start thinking about our measures of its success beyond just our economic success and the traditional forms of measuring that of course tended to be GDP and growth and for us that that just doesn't tell an entire story you can have for instance a country that's perceived to be thriving while their environment is degrading or while they're contributing to our global emissions and so that's why we've we've started looking at doing things differently not just having a scorecard but this year for the first time and I see our Minister of Finance who's having to do actually all the hard work I'm just the Johnny come lately we will be undertaking a well-being budget where we're embedding the that notion of of making decisions that aren't just about growth the growth sake but how are our people fearing how's their well-being and their and their mental health for instance how is our environment how are the clean and our fresh waterways fairing in in this our state of growth and these are the measures that I think give us a true sense of our success more than that of course we need to then factor and of course transit as we transition our economy how our people are fearing in terms of their economic well-being and capacity and so I'll give you an example we have a region in New Zealand that has traditionally been an area for oil and gas exploration but we announced last year that if we are to be honest with ourselves about our future we need to transition away from oil and gas and fossil fuels so we have ceased to offer any more permits for oil and gas exploration in New Zealand offshore now that was a significant move but that was for us about anticipating where we need to move and saying unless we anticipate that change make that decision now there will be a very jarring experience for the people currently employed in those industries and that's what a just transition is is all about and so now we're using things like our green investment funds we're using other mechanism mechanisms we've created around provincial growth to start investing in ideas like hydrogen and so on to start transitioning our economies and again feed in to those overall measures of well-being well that's great leadership and thank you very much and Akira I'm gonna give you how we go I'm gonna give you the last word but beforehand I want to ask Anand Mahindra going from the nation-state level to the company level you've made this very impressive pledge you have to have a vision of how you can safeguard the jobs of the people women and men who work for you and so you must see new opportunities opening up yes vice president is linked to the point I made earlier about this being the next few decades biggest business opportunity and you also alluded to the fact that right here in Davos yesterday I think you mentioned but even earlier in the last few weeks there's this kind of opinion that's been simmering and coming up now that we are possibly facing a recession and there are many sane voices now talking about that they're not doomsday predictors and frankly a lot of that might be self-inflicted politically in Europe but in particular there these it didn't have to be that way the world was on a good path if somebody came to me and said can you come up with one good idea that could serve as a trigger for reigniting growth I would say the opportunities and climate change yeah why does it take so much you know rocket scientists brainpower to come to that conclusion happily I think investors and insurers are beginning to demand that from companies so I believe that there is an answer to the jobs crisis it is dealing with climate change there's an answer to recession it's dealing with climate change I think we are almost upon that recognition yeah well thank you thank you so much and I take comfort from the old cliche story about the economists who predicted 12 of the last five recessions so maybe maybe we'll escape so let me close by asking Kira Sakano to tell us about a very unique initiative that the global shapers are taking voice for the planet tell us about it yes thank you very much so we already heard the science has never been so clear as and then as urgent as now that we need to take action now for the climate change and no one question that so as a young generation the global shapers community we'd like to welcome every one of you here to join our pledge which is the voice for the planet to add your voice and to contribute yourself to action for it for the climate change so this is the pledge that started as a global shapers community that we initiated and then as a young people I already mentioned for us taking action for the climate change is as important and as natural as just breathing and then I believe everyone should be on the same place should be on the same stage and then that's what I'd like to present so go to the website voicefortheplanet.org please bring out your phone now go to the website voicefortheplanet.org and then please add your voice please bring out your commitment and then please share so that not only everyone in this room but also everyone around you also join this pledge and then together I'm sure we can safeguard our planet thank you very much well thank you very much congratulations on you know the globally the global shapers have done such wonderful work and thank you for this initiative and it's voicefortheplanet.org and it's a hashtag voice for the planet also on Twitter okay very good so ladies and gentlemen I'm gonna close this panel by by thanking our participants but I want to say in advance that we want you to stay in your seats because we're gonna leave and then they're gonna reset the stage and we're gonna have the great pleasure of hearing Sir David show us some more highlights of this fantastic new series but I think this has been a great panel and I want to ask you all to join me in thanking Sir David Attenborough Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern Anand Mahindra and Akira Sakano thank you all very much