The Future we Choose

by Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac

The authors were part of the ground-breaking success team that helped the World agree to the 2015 Paris Agreement on Climate Change. Never had the World gone so far on such pressing and divisive topic. From the failed Copenhagen agreement and against all odds, they pulled it off in Paris. A rare historical moment of consensus.

They succeed at raising the issue of how natural resources are being depleted - a related though equally disturbing topic as climate change. It is something I have complained about when I hear arguments stubbornly fixated on the climate change. The two are clearly linked, but more often than not, the depletion (and misuse) debate ends up falling through the cracks. One of the arguments I usually make is that this is an area where consensus and action should be much easier to accomplish.

The book was engaging. However, at some point, the authors begin to drift away from the UN success story and embark on a more preachy path. In presenting their three-mindset proposal I wondered if they were still advocating for climate change or something else. It became clearer when they presented the ten-point policy agenda. Although easy to agree on most of them, some have little or nothing to do on how to address climate change. In looking for a framework to drive insight I sort of found some form of political manifesto and lost them.

It was until the closing section that I once again found broader common ground. I felt the authors may be underestimating the power of technological breakthroughs and emerging changes in consumer behavior.