 Hello and welcome. I'm Tanya Breyer and it's an honour for me to moderate this conversation as part of the Davos Agenda. We're here to talk about how technology, investment and cooperation can help tackle the environmental and sustainability issues that our world faces today. Joining me to discuss this is the president of the World Economic Forum, Berger Brender and the celebrated actor, producer and founder of the Footbrick Coalition, Robert Downey Jr. Well, first of all, welcome to both of you and thank you so much for joining me here today. Robert, let me start with you. You've founded the Footbrick Coalition and you're choosing Davos, the World Economic Forum. It is in a virtual form to launch it. Why is that? Well, I mean, timing is always critical. It's funny, we had felt drawn into the space and then it just was natural to say, well, I mean, ultimately existential crisis and coming out of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, I wanted to do something meaningful and money talks and we know what walks. And I felt that after we had started connecting with the best and brightest in this space that we were informed that we were credible enough to throw our hat in the ring. So here I am here. And how does it feel? It's super exciting. I mean, hi, Berger, look, this is what happens when the challenge is so great is these natural divides break down and teams start forming to do the creative problem solving necessary to address what we're looking at. And Berger, for you and the forum, how important is it to have such high profile contributors like Robert? No, thank you, Robert, for walking the talk and not just moving around the deck chairs of Titanic. We have to make this into the decade of action and this is super important because we only have one planet but we act like we have like a couple in reserves and that has to end. Yeah. And Berger, obviously the theme is a crucial year to rebuild trust. How do you gain the trust in this pandemic? So on top of the pandemic, we also have a fractured world, geopolitical competition or even conflict. And I think we just have to admit to ourself that many of the challenges we're faced with don't know any like borders. Like CO2 emissions doesn't stop with the border of the US and Mexico and the COVID anywhere is COVID everywhere. And we've seen it the last days now when this new variant has come up. If we then fight COVID in Europe and in North America, we get vaccinated and all this and if it continues then to develop in the poor part of the world, then the new variant will come up and the vaccines don't work. So also shows us that we have to act like we're in the same boat. We have to show more solidarity and we have to also make sure that everyone get vaccinated and we have to show more solidarity. It's also in our own self-interest, not only an altruistic move. Talking of solidarity, Robert, how do you feel that the pandemic has impacted people in America around the world and how it's psychologically affected them, if you will? I would be surprised if we could know really what the mid or longer term effects will be. But like any trauma, so to speak, that we share, it is a time of reflection. It's a time of realizing that cascading inefficiencies, you get caught flat-footed for something that was deemed expectable and it can really shake your confidence. But I also feel that life is always doing something. It is trying to message to us where we're at in the story of our evolution with all of our brothers and sisters. And so if today is any evidence, I don't know that we would have felt as called to, with the wind at our back a little bit now, join together and reach out. And there's always synchronicity too. I'll just say this because it's funny. 30 years ago, I was in the Bay Switzerland. I was playing Charlie Chaplin and we were shooting at his mansion, which was just a mind trip. And I said to myself, I loved it there so much. I was at the Tuat Caron Hotel and I said, I'm coming back someday. I just know that there's some future here for me. And strangely, this is closing a bit of a circle there for me. So we can make all the associations we want, but if anything, I think this period of time has enforced the reality that we are all deeply and intimately connected and we have to act as a single mind as often as possible. Do you feel, Berger, that the global leaders have that unification? Are they cooperating enough? I think the short answer to that is no, an honest one. That's why we're also trying this year to rebuild global trust. If we have common challenges, we have to deal with them in a concerted way. But today there is more competition than collaboration. So this is like make or break year for climate with this upcoming COP26, as it's called in Glasgow, UK, where world leaders have to decide and on how to take the Paris Agreement further. But everyone have to contribute there. At least now the US rejoined the Paris Agreement that is a step forward. But we are still far from dealing with climate change as we should. Climate change has the same positive negative impact as the pandemic. And I think we know really need to see how serious it is. And also that the cost of inaction far exceeds the cost of action. We can do a lot and the price is much lower than what our children or grandchildren will pay in a couple of decades or ourselves though. Because this is not something abstract in the future. It's around the corner. Well, Robert, you of course are taking action with the Footprint Coalition. Tell us about it. What's its mission? Well, we are investors, scientists, storytellers. I found that this interesting correlation between trying to do something in the space, as we did with the MCU, where we were able to kind of mobilize the fan base to get interested and feel like they were additive to the storytelling we were doing. And then there was a ton of commerce behind that. But honestly, and I think, Berger, you're so right. You know, there are turf wars. And a lot of even the best ideas, they get siloed within these institutions or governments that ultimately still have to look at their bottom line. They're like, well, what's their hurdle rate for doing the right thing? And I believe that that is probably one of the greatest impediments is in many cases, we are still asking ourselves the wrong questions based out of fear and trying to protect our interests. And yet, we have more than enough resources and the resources are the people. And the people make up the teams that are going to be able to, in a full-throated way, create the new metrics for how to take this on. And how do you mobilize them? How do we get them to take action? So I think we, like Robert has done, we have to make sure that people take much more individual also steps there. But we have seen some positive developments, especially when it comes to renewables. If you look at solar 10 years ago, solar was 10 times more expensive than today. In many countries in the world, solar is no much more competitive than traditional fossil fuel. And also wind is also more competitive. This has only happened in 10 years. So we need to invest money also in new ways of energy because we really is about squaring a circle. There is still 1.6 billion people on this planet that don't have access to electricity and they can't deny them electricity. That's the prerequisite for development. But at the same time, we need to then break the path. So we have to make sure that we can produce more energy but the emissions have to go down. Robert, would you agree with that? And what actions will you take with your coalition and how will you decide your investments? Well, we took a lot of time to kind of try to build up. The nice thing about limited mobility is I was able to really get start working on those 10,000 hours I need to be capable of even participating. But in talking to scientists and companies and entrepreneurs and all that, we realized that part of what we do is we generate content that builds a community and grows an audience and then we can leverage that into getting eyes on deal flows that normally would be very exclusive. And Berger, like you're saying too, to not look at this global economic forum, this global existential threat as something that's going to be managed by a small handful of capable people, I think that paradigm must be smashed and that this really is the first opportunity we've had in modern history to reach across those borders into thinking, not just how squaring the circle, not just what templates have we used that got us here but how do we create new templates that maximize the efficiency of the task at hand? But to both of you, there is a climate emergency. There's climate action. You were talking earlier, Berger, about the US rejoining the Paris climate accord and of course we have COP this year. Why do you think it's taken so long for many people around the world to wake up to this emergency? I think it has been something a bit abstract for people. They think that, okay, climate change, but I'm not willing to pay the price, no. But then I think people know through this pandemic has seen that we have to deal with blind spots but also those challenges that are just in front of us. I think people understand that if you just do a little bit more, you can have a game changer. Why do we, for example, use taxpayers' money to subsidize school? This is terrible. Those money should have been invested in those small companies that are starting with renewables. I think we just have to be very serious about decoupling. There has to be growth in energy consumption, especially for those that are not connected. For some of us that use too much energy today, we can reduce. But this decoupling also needs new technology and all the new technologies that out there, we have to put them all to work for a better climate and people see also the companies now are taking much more responsibility. Banks and sovereign wealth and say, oh, we will not invest in coal, we will not invest in the old technologies. And what is even more important is that those companies, when they're recruiting young people, the smartest people, of course, this human capital in the companies that really, really matter when it comes to future competitiveness, very few young people want to work for companies that don't take climate, don't take these inclusiveness are not tolerant, don't stick to real values. The smartest will not work for those companies and then they will not do well. So I think this game changer has happened in the two, three last years and you don't want to invest in this company's theater. Do you feel that, Robert, on your side as well and launching this coalition that will raise awareness but also invest in companies that really will address these issues through tech? Sure. I mean, and look, I have to speak to having occasionally fallen prey to the limousine liberal. We're just going to say, can you believe how we're destroying our planet? And rather than building the optimism, which is already part and parcel, as we know to the emerging generation. Some of my thoughts also go to, well, what did these petrochemical companies, how do we assist them in transitioning out of what has been their infrastructure for half a century minimum into not just saying, well, you know, a revolution means that, you know, heads are going on the chopping block. It's like, so between there's problem solving to be done and how to do that peaceful transfer literally of energy and power and materials and food and ag tech and transportation and advanced engineering. And I think that we would be wasting the resources of our predecessors to not try to synergize with them knowing that you don't have to tell all of your folks that I guess what these next five years, you're going to lose a bunch of money and then we'll figure out what to do. So I also, I think about that. And as an American, I think about my brothers and sisters in the heartland and in the red States that their values must be addressed. They must be brought into the fold in a way that makes sense for their values. What we have seen, for example, on the renewable side though is for every dollar you invest in renewables, you create three times as many jobs than when you invest in the traditional energy sources. So it's more profitable and it also creates more jobs. And as Robert said also earlier in the program, he said that money talks and when bankers, when the funds and when people like Robert do change their investments from the traditional companies to the renewables one, you will see that the businesses will also change very, very fast because this is something they care about. Their stock price and also where future investments are allocated. And Robert, inspiring the next generation to build back better, to be involved, is that how you feel when you talk about democratizing funds? Yeah, in part, look, you know, I was really fortunate. I certainly didn't expect to be in the position to be here talking to you and Berger today 10, 15 years ago. You kind of catch up with what life seems to be telling you is your path. I think we can all relate to that. And we all feel this groundswell. And when it comes to, when I decided, rather than just somebody who's really brilliant at this, pressing a space bar and I don't have my skin and where my hard-earned money is going, it's just, it's natural to want to lead and not just be an audience member to, you know, ostensibly it is going to be this economic shift that is going to make it all right and safe for all of these new ideations to proliferate. Robert, can I ask you, you say that you, you know, 15 years ago you wouldn't have imagined talking on this platform and talking to the president of the World Economic Forum. Where did the passion to make a difference come from? And when did it happen? Well, interestingly enough, it's funny, being able to play someone who needed technology to get themselves out of a cave where one of their own weapons had, you know, given them shrapnel in their heart. I mean, I don't know what Stan Lee was thinking back in the 60s, but it was a bit of a, a time loop from the Vietnam era to kind of where we had found ourselves now. And I just, I'm a, I like studying deep on a subject. This happened to be genre filmmaking, but if you'd asked me, I was doing a bio pick about a real person. So when that contract ran out, A, I had been asked to be a keynote speaker at the Remarse convention and I had done a series for YouTube on AI. And when we got back and people said, you know, more people watched the first episode of that or with more listens or downloads, whatever you call it nowadays, then like Joe Rogan's biggest podcast, and I thought, oh, I think I'm supposed to lean into this. And then it's just been, again, when you're engaged and being stimulated by all of the possibilities of something, while having diligence and while being teachable, I just think that really the sky's the limit. Yeah. And of course, Berger Robert has a huge global platform as being a very, very successful actor and producer. And WEF has a platform for global cooperation. And how important now do you feel, and we've just touched on this, the need for partnerships with the private sector, with governments and others for recovery and especially now in 2021. No, thank you. And thank you, Tulsa Robert, for doing what he is doing. I think we will have to rely on the private sector to deliver much more in the years to come. We have focused on what governments can do. And governments in the middle of a pandemic, of course, plays a major role. You have to come up with major stimulus because people are losing their jobs. You should then distribute vaccines in an inclusive way and transparent way, and you should follow the advice of scientists. But there is also less of a fiscal muscle among the governments in the years to come because the governments have no use 12 trillion U.S. dollars in a year just to stimulate the economy. And we have to rely on private sector then also stepping up and supporting governments, being climate change, being the sustainable development goals, also being maybe one of the biggest challenges that we are faced with. 3.6 billion people on our planet, half of the population don't have access to the internet. Who can we then talk about the digital transformation? And they have no chance, especially the young, if they're not then able to even be on the web. They have no access to education and all this. So these are the things where we are now with the World Economic Forum, also challenging the private sector. Who can you support, for example, bringing 3.6 billion people connected? There are so many challenges at the moment and of course we've seen an economic downturn due to the pandemic, a lot of job losses. Are you both worried that other priorities like climate action will then go down the ladder? Well, I think interestingly enough the concentric circles have so overlapped that really one can't prosper or thrive without the other at this point. And again, look, if this has been a year that's resonated with all of us anything, it's that these are telling us what to think based on data collection that serves the fact that it can be sold. And this individuation of just plain common sense. And also it often feels like we're kind of auditioning to try to see if we can thrive in these high stakes games. And I just feel again, like that whole attitude is becoming passe. But complacency sets in when it feels like there is not a next action item. And so part of why I'm just thrilled and I've already just by listening to what y'all have been talking about when I'm not running my mouth for the last five minutes is already turning these wheels and making connections of the next call I can make the next opportunity I can seek. Robert, talking of wheels, talk me through the flywheel which is a diagram which I've seen as part of your coalition. Sure. Well, what we recognized was say for instance we found a product like a better toilet paper, cloud paper and we would generate content about that so people see, oh, they're telling a story about how this offsets carbon emissions and why it's better for us. And then that shows other companies or potential partners, they actually kind of know how to simply message what we're doing and really talking about the people behind it and the ideas and then show that this can be brought to scale and then if we're able to supercharge that with our venture fund, it just seems like I'm not just trying to go to Vegas and hit it. I know that largely, and Berger told me if I'm wrong, I mean, every 30 years the people who press a space button and say don't touch it or let the smart people do it, every generation, they're horribly wrong twice. So I think part of this is removing that fear factor and saying we can create a better business model just by trying to not be exactly like what was before us while still taking the lessons from that. So we're getting a real interesting bunch of feedback points on how that seems to be working so far. So we're just gonna keep headin' down that road. Here, here, I think we need to clone you. Yes, this is next. We're better than Switzerland. Well, exactly. I think he can be cloned, at least in the movies he could be cloned, Berger, so there's hope. I do want to ask you, Berger, about leadership. And of course, what we're talking about today with you, with Robert, a lot of it stems on the right leadership. You yourself, you were foreign minister in the Norwegian government. You've run the Red Cross, worked with the UN. How do you feel about leadership going forward? And in your opinion, what makes a good leader? Very good question, you know. Let me share an anecdote from when I was very young and I was on this program of European young leaders invited to Washington, D.C. And we were very lucky back then to be invited to a fire chat with the speaker of the house, Tipo Neal. He was, you know, came from quite a neighborhood in Boston that was quite, you know, a labor community. And he sat there with us and he told us one story that I will never forget. And I tried to really remember all my career. He said, you guys, when I became a congressman and came back to my old father in Boston and told him, you know, I was no elected dad, he said. And Tip, congratulations. Remember, it's nice to be important but it's more important to be nice. And I thought that was a very nice way of saying it. And I think leaders today, you have to be a giver and not a taker. You have to really, really care about the people that you're working with. And if you don't get energy from seeing colleagues then succeeding, you shouldn't be a leader. That is really what leadership is, is about values and inspiring others and not focusing on yourself. I think many people fail there. Robert, of course, you see, you're seeing new leadership in the US with President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, which of course has been a historic appointment for her. How do you think that's gonna change things going forward? You know, it's funny what a difference a day can make and then job one is, all right, we've been prone in the West over here to be very personality based, and now we're going back to principle. And that takes a lot of discipline. You know, I was very pleased to see our commander-in-chief say to his entire cabinet, you are all to treat each other with respect from day one or I'm gonna have a problem with you now. That's good den mothering, but it also is, again, goes back to common sense. I think we tend to fall out of step with principle behavior and then the cavalcade of character defects start rearing their ugly heads. You know, Davos in and of itself is so critical. It is the high status celebrity function of our future, our planet. But it's still, I'm gonna have lunch with Khalil and I saw Marissa on the slopes and she told me there's gonna be a little salon after party and I think there's a new outcome desired here. We really want to get down to the nitty gritty now and say, we can all do this and it sounds good. And now we need to really start thinking about what the next steps are and how we're going to activate each other because I can be a great force multiplier for anything that that burger puts on the table. But we have to connect and go, I want to help you. I don't know that that really resonates when you're talking at this level of business and stakes. It has to be, we're going to do something together that neither one of us could have done separately. So consider it done from the World Economic Forum side. I really, we will concentrate on action and impact, we have no time to lose. Berger, it's so interesting to hear Robert's perception of Davos and the forum. And of course, in the past and still today you have had your critics saying, well, Davos is elitist, Davos, what action do they take? What would you say to them? That I would never have joined the World Economic Forum if I didn't think that we had huge impact and could also mobilize action. I wouldn't go from being in the government and the Red Cross to join something like the forum. The unique thing with the World Economic Forum is that we bring business and governments and civil society together. And we cannot get anything done today without working together and also mobilize the private sector. So if we, with the 1000 leading companies in the world as our partners can make them change their paths when it comes to use of water, when it comes to respecting nature, when it comes to climate change, when it comes to reskilling, upskilling, when it comes to respecting gender, when it comes to addressing race, when it comes to also respecting the planetry, the planet, I think we really, really is very close then to our mission that is improving the state of the world. Can I just speak to that for a minute because the truth be told is any massive enterprise or business, it feels like the other to the outsider. And I think that the future of Davos and tell me if I'm Romberg is going to be more and more an inclusion of any and everybody, whether they're well versed in this or have an MBA or they're working with some trillion dollar super fund, no, no, no. This is an educational forum where we get to be backstage at the world. And there are major players who are, they are, there's no Hail Mary allow. You're trying to run organized patterns to get the ball down the field. And I think that sometimes it's the lack of feeling included in it that creates that judgment. So I think, again, if we can just be a bit more transparent and inclusive in inviting the lay person of which really until a few weeks ago, I was, I've been cramming, trying to figure out who everybody is and what they're doing. But everything's like everything else. We're people and we all care about our kids and our families and our future. Well, talking about kids and the families in the future, Berg, of course, Davos has engaged teenage change makers and of course, Greta Thunberg famously addressed the forum last year. How important is it to have her voice? The young people, including Greta, are incredibly important. And you know, in many countries, more than half of the population is under the age of 20 and in many countries under 25 years old. So it is also about their future. So when we discussed climate change, fight against corruption, but also the digital divide, the 3.6 billion people that don't have access even to the internet, it's really about the future of the youth. So we have this really, really important community also at the forum, the global shapers. We have 400 hubs all over the world with 10,000 shapers. And these are like young people that can only stay on as shapers if they have local projects that contribute either to their local community in their country or to the country. That's the wetting test that we're doing. They're all welcome, but they have to move and they have to show action or we kick them out. And Robert, I want to ask you through the footprint coalition. You've said that you'll also be storytelling and producing entertaining and informative content about technologies. How important do you think that element is? It's digestible. And for me, it's also a way to say, what are the changes I can really make? I think part of it is to say too, like for where we're at now in this information age, I don't feel like I should have to do much more than click on change my energy server over to this greener company. So I feel part of the storytelling is leading towards how can media stop being quite as, well, look, there's great journalism going on writ large. I think a lot of it is kind of defocus and or it's just trying to feed its own engine. So I believe for us that it's a way to collapse these big ideas into something that you say, I understand that concept and I see something I could do right now. Or at least I understand that in this space, this is a doable scalable solution. And Berger, do you feel sometimes that individuals can feel overwhelmed and they're presented with all the challenges and the solutions going forward could seem out of reach for them? No, I think we all feel overwhelmed once in a while, but we also know that individuals can make such a huge difference. And here I think we should try to all make a difference where we can contribute. And what I saw, for example, through the Red Cross when I was Secretary General was that the millions of volunteers in the world, what they contribute, maybe it is just training in the community in Uganda, how you do hygiene when you have a newborn child. Maybe it is like a volunteer in Lebanon, in Beirut, just spending two hours a week learning kids French, if they can speak French. So they have that on top of Arabic. All, everyone can contribute at your level. Of course, it makes a huge difference also with volunteers, but when we also see big investors investing and contributing, that also is also extremely important. So we all can make a difference and it's up to usself to do it. And I think we all have a responsibility to do that, even if we sometimes do feel overwhelmed. And what you say there are still the climate deniers of resistance to it. What would you say to them, Robert? I would say I can relate, you know. Science is not always an exact science and there is plenty of historical truisms to back that up when, what we thought it was, it wasn't. Again, it's like, what's your felt sense of this? When the Malibu fires started ramping up in a way that was very out of sync with the three decades previous, you know, you kinda start going, hmm. And again, does the planet want to right itself? Yes, I have some belief in that Gaia principle that the earth is a single organism and we can get as far out as you want. But when it seems like it is lapping up against your front door, you just wanna hope it's not too late because if you can't catch up with the reality of something in time to quell it, that is a horrible place to be. So it's almost just the, and again, part of what we can do with this messaging is, I don't wanna just preach to the choir. I really, really believe that some of the greatest problem-solving challenges are going to be, we have to not, they are not the other. We are, we all need to come to a language that we can agree on and understand and also something, again, like I said before, that makes sense to their value set. We have to see where they're right, not where they don't get it. And I really feel that if we can do that, it's going to make the job 30 times easier. Robert, why is it so important for you to use your global platform to, of everyone, your fan base and your success to get this message across right now? Well, I mean, look, you know, sometimes you just feel you're part of your witnessing history and you have a chance to participate. Anyone who has generated, you've been knee deep in capital or anyone who has had and wound up in a position where they have the kind of leverage or influence or reach that I do, you realize in and of itself, it's just this inert energy and it will turn against itself and go other ways. I think while there's this groundswell here, we just gotta do some great Tai Chi with this and really, and put it in the right direction. And so for me, it is a solution to a problem that I've been looking at for several years now, just in my own life. And Berger, talking about solutions, what are your hopes from the meeting in Glasgow in the UK later this year? I do hope that we take then science very serious. You know, as human beings, we have a tendency of like thinking, seeing is believing, you know, but if we wait until the whole Greenland ice melt down, it's too late because then a lot of the world is not there anymore. So, you know, it was like with the COVID, it was called the Hawks, Hawks in the beginning, but we see it's, you know, there is no joke, their hospitals are filled. So you really need to learn from this and going into COP26, very realistic. And I think we need to also address, there has to be a price for carbon, because if you can then just admit, and it's for free, people will continue. I think we also have to really, really put the right technologies working for the necessary change, even making renewables cheaper. And then I think we also have to realize that climate change is coming, even if we do agree on ambitious target, there will be countries that will be affected. So we also have to put money into adaptation. We have to build stronger bridges. We also have to help societies that will not be there because their island will be underwater. So we also have to put the big money on the adaptation and we have to come together. And let's not miss this opportunity. This is the year, make or break when it comes to fighting climate change. And Robert, you talked about sort of going full circle back to Switzerland in a way I know virtually, when, and 30 years ago, playing chaplain. What would that younger Robert think of the Robert today? Part of why I loved it there so much was there was a quality to the air, the flora and fauna, the functionality of the system. It felt like they had figured out a way to have a managed lifestyle that was protected at the highest levels of government, but also it was just intrinsic to who the people were. And they were fortunate that throughout history they had had this kind of rarefied air, literally. And I just felt so at peace. So what I would say was back then, I would say you understand how under threat that will be quarter century from now. No, I was shooting a movie and ignorance was bliss for a while. But again, I mean, it's just such an education. It is very odd to have woken up this morning. Usually they say, oh, I'm doing this big movie and we're doing another Sherlock or this or that new, yay. What are you doing? Well, I'm launching a fund at Davos and I'm talking to y'all. And I think that sense of novelty rather than feeling like it's being preached at me and I already did something wrong even though I haven't even read the paper today. It's that thing of get involved, catch the buzz of this. This is gonna be a really cool ride and it's gonna work. Well, welcome back to Vervé and Switzerland, Robert. Modern times, it's still an incredible movie unfortunately showing how the world can end if you don't get it right. So it's a very touching moment for all of us. And Vervé is still like, it's like a postcard. The Swiss have been able to keep it that way but we will have to keep it that way. Also for coming generations, that's what is at stake. Well, I would just like a final message now from both of you to our audience. Berger, I'll start with you of what you hope the world is varying towards. I hope we're gonna move to a more sustainable, inclusive world where the young people have opportunities for jobs, education and dignity. And it is all doable. We can eradicate all extreme poverty by 2030 if we want. There are small money and small investments needed if we get it right and if we work together. That's my vision. That's great. And Robert? You know, I'm here to accelerate groundbreaking technologies and they're addressing this existential crisis. And I want to open up access, the access that for some reason I have been fortunate enough to glean. I want you to feel that and I want you to participate. I want to fast track everyone I can to be in the position that we get to occupy today where we are in the conversation and we are moving the dialogue forward. Well, Burger Brenda and Robert Downey Jr., thank you so much for being part of this conversation at the Davos agenda. Thank you so much to both of you. Thank you.