In June 2022, we travelled to New York to participate in the launch of the Dilemma Series, created by TED’s climate initiative, Countdown. These events are “designed to look at some of the “knots” in the climate change space, where diverging positions have stalled progress and solidified into an inability to collaborate across differences.”
The New York event revolved around the question, ‘Is there a role for carbon credits in the transition to a fair, net-zero future?’ and presented dozens of TED Talks and conversations featuring scientists, CEOs, activists, politicians, artists, frontline community leaders, investors and more, from which the Countdown team have produced this 36 minute film. It presents “a 360-degree view of carbon credits”.
Among those active in the climate space, this is often a difficult conversation that generates heated debates. With the Dilemma Series, TED have opened up a forum to listen to all sides of those debates and, in this film, they have found a way to identify the commonalities among them, pulling out the threads until they reached “a renewed sense of possibility”.
The clarity this offers to people who agree on the essential nature of the debate but sometimes clash on the details is invaluable. The stumbling blocks are cleared away and the road to progress is reopened. As the Countdown team so eloquently put it, this film presents “an invitation to listen deeply, keep an open mind and get a little wiser on a complex topic”.
The impressive line up of high level speakers features (in order of appearance): Tamara Toles O’Laughlin, John Kilani, Nat Keohane, Julio Friedmann, Donnel Baird, Nili Gilbert, Al Gore, Inés Yábar, James Dyke, Tom Rivett-Carnac, Lindsay Levin, David Biello, Gilles Dufrasne, Kavita Prakash-Mani, Susan Chomba, Gabrielle Walker, Derik Broekhoff and Annette Nazareth.
Click here to watch the film now.
