00:08Now when I was two years old,
00:10I moved to Greenland
with my parents and my sister,
00:14and we lived there for seven years.
00:16It is quite a remarkable place
to grow up as a child.
00:20I remember Greenland
as a very tough environment.
00:22It was always cold, very dark,
and there was lots of snow.
00:31I actually believe
that the word "Greenland"
00:33is the first example
of greenwashing in this world.
00:38Now, seven years in Greenland
00:39taught me that our lives largely depend
on the forces of nature.
00:44And 50 years later, in April 2022,
00:48I had the opportunity to participate
in an expedition to northeast Greenland,
00:54with 13 dogs, a dogsled and a tent.
00:56This time, I only stayed for seven days,
01:01but enough to see
the big changes in nature.
01:05Normally, the temperature
in northeast Greenland, in April,
01:08is around minus 20 degrees Celsius,
01:13we had days where the temperature
was above the freezing point.
01:17You could almost hear
the ice melting, in April.
01:23So as I came back, I studied
how much sea levels would rise
01:28if all the ice in Greenland would melt.
01:34but honestly, I didn't know
it was that bad.
01:38Six to seven meters.
01:42I know now, and knowing is important,
01:45because when we know, we can do something.
01:48But between knowing and doing,
there is choosing.
01:53By now, I think, we all kind of know.
01:56So the questions are:
“What are we choosing?”
01:58And “What are we doing?”
02:01If we want to avoid a climate disaster,
02:05we need much more radical leadership.
02:09Now, some companies have chosen --
02:11actually, many companies have chosen --
02:13to commit to net-zero emissions
by 2030 or 2040,
02:19which is great news,
but the progress is far too slow.
02:22CO2 emissions are still rising,
02:24and if we do want to avoid
that climate disaster,
02:28I believe we need to be
much more radical in our leadership.
02:33(Cheers and applause)
02:38When it comes to choosing,
we need more courage.
02:43Our choices need to be based
on what is necessary,
02:46not what seems possible right now.
02:50If we choose to pursue
impossible big dreams,
02:54we spark the imagination of people,
02:56and the impossible becomes possible.
03:00Like we did at Maersk in 2018,
03:02when we committed to zero-carbon shipping,
03:05without knowing how to do it.
03:08And when it comes to doing,
we need much more collaboration.
03:14For more than 100 years,
03:16we've learned how to specialize
and optimize our part of the value chain,
03:21but if we want the kind of change
that is necessary,
03:23we need to reinvent the entire value chain
based on zero carbon,
03:27not just a piece of it.
03:29At a time when some people
talk about deglobalization,
03:33we need more global collaboration
03:35around sustainable technologies
than ever before,
03:40It reminds me of the time in my youth
03:44when I played the trumpet
in a symphony orchestra.
03:47It was a great experience,
03:49mostly because my fellow musicians
played really, really well.
03:54Now if you want to change the music
of a symphony orchestra,
03:58it really doesn’t make sense to ask
the trumpets to play a different tune
04:04You need a new sheet of music
for all the musicians at the same time,
04:10and you might even need
to replace some of the instruments.
04:14Northvolt was created like that.
04:18The founders had the courage to reimagine
04:21a zero-carbon value chain for batteries,
04:27And as a new instrument,
04:28they invented a way to take back
the raw materials in used batteries,
04:33and use them again and again and again.
04:37That is the kind of radical
leadership we need.
04:41We need to have the courage
04:42to orchestrate the reinvention
of the entire value chain, end to end,
04:47and we need to have massive collaboration
to get it done in time.
04:55Well, from my experience with Maersk,
04:57and now Siemens and Northvolt,
05:00if you dream big and you have
the openness for collaboration,
05:05this is not only a necessary
set of conditions
05:09to be successful in the endeavor,
05:11it is also becoming a huge
business opportunity at Northvolt.
05:16We have an order book
of 55 billion dollars of green batteries,
05:22an eight-year-old company.
05:24And Siemens -- thank you.
05:26(Cheers and applause)
05:28And Siemens is achieving the highest
growth rate since 20 years,
05:32because we are decarbonizing industrial
and urban infrastructures
05:36in close collaboration with our partners.
05:39There are so many examples out there,
05:43but we need many, many more.
05:45And that is what the
TED Future Forum is all about.
05:50It's a growing community of companies
05:52whose leaders have the courage
to reinvent for a sustainable future,
05:57and to share their stories,
06:00to inspire others to do the same.
06:03We invite you to join us.
06:06We invite you to play
your beautiful instrument,
06:10in a symphony orchestra
06:11with some of the most
courageous leaders in the world.
06:17(Cheers and applause)
