How to decarbonize your business: John Doerr's speed and scale plan

Executive overview

70% of global emissions come from business activity. Governments alone cannot move fast enough. Business leaders who act now will capture the greatest economic opportunity of the next century.

The goal is to cut 59 gigatons of annual greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050 — and in half by 2030. John Doerr applies the OKR framework to climate: one master objective, six emission-cutting sectors, 55 measurable key results. The sixth sector — carbon removal — remains economically unsolved, making innovation the critical unknown.

The decisive lever is not personal virtue but collective action: move others, make commitments, and hold each other accountable.

Six sectors to cut emissions

• Electrify transportation — cuts 8 of 59 gigatons; requires EV price parity at $35K in the US by 2024, $11K in India/China by 2030
• Decarbonize the grid — shut coal plants, eliminate methane leaks (methane is 80x more potent than CO2)
• Fix the food system — reduce beef and dairy consumption, cut food waste
• Protect nature — halt deforestation; forests commitments were a key COP26 outcome
• Clean up cement and steel — transition to hydrogen-based and lower-carbon production
• Remove carbon — 10 gigatons remain after the first five; currently costs $600/ton to remove; must reach $100–150/ton

The green premium and pricing transparency

• The green premium is the cost difference between a clean product and its fossil-fuel alternative
• Electricity: clean is ~15¢/kWh vs. dirty at ~13¢ — a narrowing gap
• Aviation fuel: green premium is 400% ($7/gallon vs. $1.80)
• Goal: drive the green premium to zero through innovation and targeted subsidies
• Germany's feed-in tariff is the model — guaranteed purchase prices catalysed solar cost collapse
• Emissions labelling on every product and service is needed, the same way nutrients are labelled on food
• Climate Trace is building an AI-powered global emissions map, freely available

Business as a movement

• Walmart (net zero by 2040) uses supply chain leverage to pull suppliers along
• Amazon's Climate Pledge has hundreds of companies committed to net zero by 2040 — 10 years ahead of Paris
• Pledges must be tracked; commitments without accountability are not enough
• The EV battery market alone is worth $400B/year for 20 years — five times all US online advertising
• Ørsted converted offshore drilling expertise into the world's leading offshore wind business

What COP26 delivered — and didn't

• Progress: methane curbs, deforestation halt, finance sector aligned to net zero, ICE phase-out agreement
• Gap: current country plans put the world at 2.5°C warming by 2100; target is 1.5°C
• Countries called out for weak 2030 targets: Australia, Brazil, China, Russia, Saudi Arabia
• China–US bilateral agreement to collaborate on methane, coal, and carbon capture was a rare positive
• Emissions must fall 8% every year from now to 2030 — a rate never achieved in history; the pandemic only briefly hit 6%

What leaders should do now

• Don't focus on individual actions — focus on moving others to act
• Push your employer to make and meet a net zero commitment
• Push school districts to replace diesel buses with clean alternatives
• The plan and all 55 key results are free at speedandscale.com