Speed & Scale: A Global Action Plan for Solving Our Climate Crisis Now

by John Doerr

#1 bestselling author and acclaimed venture capitalist John Doerr reveals a sweeping action plan to conquer humanity's greatest climate change.

In 2006, John Doerr was moved by Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth and a challenge from his teenage "Dad, your generation created this problem. You better fix it." Since then, Doerr has searched for solutions to this existential problem-as an investor, an advocate and a philanthropist.

Fifteen years later, despite breakthroughs in batteries, electric vehicles, plant-based proteins and solar and wind power, global warming continues to get worse. Its impact is all around droughts, floods, wildfires, the melting of the polar ice caps. Our world is squarely in a climate crisis and on the brink of a climate disaster.

Yet despite our state of emergency, climate change has yet to be tackled with the urgency and ambition it demands. More than ever, we need a clear course of action.

Fueled by a powerful tool called Objectives and Key Results (OKRs), SPEED & SCALE offers an unprecedented global plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions before it's too late. Used by Google, Bono's ONE foundation and thousands of startups the world over, OKRs have scaled ideas into achievements that changed the world. With clear-eyed realism and an engineer's precision, Doerr identifies the measurable OKRs we need to reduce emissions across the board and to arrive by 2050 at net zero-the point where we are no longer adding to the heat-trapping carbon in the atmosphere.

By turns pragmatic and inspiring, SPEED & SCALE intersperses Doerr's wide-ranging analysis with firsthand accounts from Jeff Bezos, Christiana Figueres, Al Gore, Mary Barra, Bill Gates, and other intrepid policy leaders, entrepreneurs, scientists and activists. This book is a launchpad for leaders of all kind, for anyone anywhere who can move others to act with them. With a definitive action plan, the latest science and a rising climate movement on our side, we can still reach net zero before it is too late. But as Doerr reminds us, there is no more time to waste.
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'A critical blueprint for anyone looking to take concrete steps to reach net-zero emissions.' Al Gore, former U.S. Vice President

'A practical guide for both public and private sector participation in decarbonizing the global economy, a task as challenging as it is urgent.' Christiana Figueres, former executive secretary of the UN Climate Change Convention

'A comprehensive plan to tackle one of the most vexing challenges in human history.' Jim Collins, author of Good to Great and Built to Last

Genres: Nonfiction, Sustainability, Climate Change, Science, Environment, Business, Economics

442 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 28, 2021

About the author

L. John Doerr (born June 29, 1951) is an American investor and venture capitalist at Kleiner Perkins in Menlo Park, California. In February 2009, Doerr was appointed a member of the President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board to provide the President and his administration with advice and counsel in trying to fix America's economic downturn.

Reviews

[Titiaan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Speed and Scale is an action plan to solve the climate crisis, written in the style of Objectives and Key Results (OKRs). The main objective to solve the climate crisis is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from 59 Gigatons in 2020 to 0 Gigatons by 2050. Doerr divides his action plan (i.e. the book) into two parts. The first part treats the six areas in which we must reduce emissions: transport, electricity, food, nature, industry, and carbon reduction. This is what we must do. Then, Doerr lists four types of interventions to deliver on these emission reduction goals (Doerr calls these "accelerants"): policy, movements, innovation, investment. This is how we must do it.

There are many roadmaps to net zero. I found this one worth reading for a few reasons:
- The book is comprehensive, quantitative, and precise yet highly accessible to people who are intelligent but do not have domain knowledge. For instance, each of the first six chapters lists the current yearly emissions of that domain and the target emissions by 2050. Graphs are highly legible and full of insights.
- The book includes profiles from some of the world's leading founders, investors, politicians, researchers, and organizers, with whom Doerr has built relationships through a very successful career. These profiles are masterfully woven into the chapters. As a result, the book is not just informative but also inspiring. You realize that in solving this complex problem lies tremendous opportunity for wealth creation and human flourishing.
- The book provides clear scaffolding for action. While it is not meant to prescribe actions you can take as an individual consumer, it provides a great overview of the areas worth tackling.

In summary, I think this is a must-read for any intelligent leader trying to put their head around how to tackle climate change. For those who have been studying this for a while, the book will provide a clear overview, fresh insights, and inspiration to carry on.

[Sophie Pesek · Rating 3 out of 5]

Long on my to-read list, I finally got around to it after the announcement that Doerr would be funding the new Stanford climate school. Overall, this book is exactly what I expected: a list of climate change challenges with a lot of corporate speak. My next climate book is going to be about socialism to cleanse myself from this.

[Ian Solomon · Rating 1 out of 5]

Quite disappointing. If you want to save capitalism, read a book from a venture capitalist. But if you really want to tackle the climate crisis, you should read the climate science literature.

John Doerr (a venture capitalist and about the 100th richest person in the US) attempts to tackle the climate crisis focussing on yet-to-be-proven technofixes and market-based solutions, but neglecting some key and well-established concepts of climate justice and climate change mitigation. The book is interesting at times but seems ill-informed and misguided and concludes on the absurd idea that infinite growth with finite resources is possible.

This book can be valuable as a first peek into the climate issue: the introduction does give some key facts and figures and tries to convey the urgency of the problem. It also mentions some necessary actions to be taken if we are to keep global warming to below 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial temperature, such as stopping all fossil fuel extraction (starting with divesting) or banning venting and flaring. And it definitely provides a good insight into some of the technological development that will be necessary to tackle the climate crisis.

However, it completely misses out on some key solutions and aspects, and is just blatantly wrong on others. The most telling example is probably when he writes “We’ve debunked the idea of a tradeoff between expanding the world’s economy and solving the climate crisis. It’s now clear we can have both: profit and planet”. Not only there is absolutely no evidence (and therefore reference in the book) that this is true, but the opposite has actually been measured: the only times in recent human history when global GHG emissions have decreased has been when there has been an economic crisis (the latest example being the COVID19 pandemic, see https://ourworldindata.org/co2-emissions). And while it is true that some countries like the UK have seen their emissions decrease steadily over the last couple of decades (although one should note that these estimates never include international shipping and aviation), this is nowhere near enough to stay within our climate targets (we are already at 1.2 degrees).

The list below shows some other caveats of this book. It is by no means exhaustive, it is just an example of things that should be included in any book that deals with the climate crisis.
- demand side mitigation: the most effective way to emit less greenhouse gases is simply to consume less (less energy, less services, less goods). This is part of every serious pathway to net-zero, and can be found for example in the IPCC reports. In that regard, it is completely nonsensical that the book provides a platform for someone like Jeff Bezos to publicise Amazon, when they are actively trying to promote space tourism (and it does not matter whether their rockets are fuelled by hydrogen or by any ‘sustainable’ way, the point is that for humanity as a whole, this energy would be much better not spent at all). In that sense, it is also worth mentioning that growth can easily wipe out any efficiency improvements that are so often mentioned in this book. The example of the aviation industry in general, and EasyJet in particular is telling: in 10 years, the CO2 per passenger-km of EasyJet’s planes have decreased by 8.7%, but their CO2 emissions have increased by 82% due to a sky-rocketing number of flights
- class inequalities: there is a timid attempt in the book to talk about climate justice, with brief mentions of gender and racial inequalities here and there. But there is no mention whatsoever to the fact that our economic system perpetuates the divide between the rich and the poor, and that this inequality is growing worse over time. A good and well-referenced read on this is The Divide by Jason Hickel, and it shows that any solution to the inequality crisis goes through a radical change in our socio-economic system.
- rebound effect: in several places of the book, John Doerr presents some kind of solution that not only will decrease emissions but will also make consumers wealthier. There is a very large body of literature that shows how this type of economic savings often results in spendings that cancel any climate benefits. A typical example is saving money because a house is better insulated and then taking a flight with that extra money. Again, as long as we live in a model based on infinite growth, we can’t expect that incremental fixes will help solve the climate crisis.
- Technology Readiness Level (TLR): this concept tells how mature a technology is, with an index generally going from 1 to 9 (where 1 is an idea and 9 is a commercially scaled technology). It is simply unbelievable that in a book about technofixes, we do not get a single TLR for any of the suggested solution. John Doerr keeps saying ‘this new product could help decrease emissions’, or ‘this new technology might improve the efficiency’, but he never mentions how mature the concept really is. For example, it is completely ridiculous to think that nuclear fusion can have a role in helping us stay below 1.5 degrees warming. It is a technology that has been in the developmental stage for half a century, and there is no chance it can be scaled up fast enough to make a significant contribution to the world’s energy mix before 2050.

However, the good news is that there are realistic and well-researched scenarios to stay below 1.5 degrees warming above pre-industrial levels (see for example the latest IPCC assessment reports). But they generally imply major changes in our economies and the way we produce and consume goods. John Doerr and several of the people and companies he advertises in his book will loose from such changes, which might be the reason why he (consciously or unconsciously) does not even mention them, but humanity as a whole would gain in equality, justice and well-being.

One thing John Doerr is right about is the importance of activism and grass-root initiatives. Some major achievements of the last century were made possible by a mass of random people like you and I rising up and standing for what is just and equal. The Civil Rights movement in the US, the campaign for India’s independence or the overthrow of Milosevic in ex-Yugoslavia are only a few clear examples of the power people have when we put our will and actions where they matter. In short, it is definitely possible to avoid the worst effects of the climate crisis, but waiting for technology to save us while only implementing marginal changes to our ways of life is simply suicidal. Western societies have to be radically transformed, starting by how governments and corporations are run, and we the people have the power to make that happen.

[Seiji · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some interesting short interviews with people in the game

Useful overview if you haven't read something like Project Drawdown and Designing Climate Solutions. Otherwise the Objectives and Key Results are not that new, maybe a bit more quantified in magnitude/cost and due date.

Yes, we need more R&D and investment, but the bottleneck in the U.S. is political. There are chapters on politics & policy and on movements, but they seemed overly rosy and lacked details.

[F.E. Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Covering 59 giga tons of carbon emissions and eliminating social inequities in one book is a tall order. I get it, the book is a call to action. A broad brush approach will leave readers with the idea our forests can be locked up and everything with be ok.

When using words like protect, preserve, eliminate deforestation, readers come away believing locking our forests up will lead to optimum sequestration. It won’t. Forests are not like oceans where fish return when fishing is eliminated. Unmanaged forests grow old, weak and crowded, where beetles thrive, trees die, and fuel for devastating wildfires accumulates. Doerr refers to improving forest management but readers will interpret this as “leave the forests to manage themselves.” Good forest management includes harvesting, road building, tree planting and controlled burning.

“Measure What Matters”. Readers will not find a number for the sequestration potential for our 144 million acres in our National Forest system ( National Parks and Wilderness Areas not in this number). Our National Forests have been poorly managed. One report stated the National Forests in California are only 25% of what they could be with good management. Readers should walk our National Forests to witness the old, dead and dying beetle infested burned over forests managed by the Forest Service. By investigated well managed forests in Canada and Germany readers will see what our National Forests could become.

Climate change misconceptions include forest wildfires. The magnitude of forest wildfires are caused by poor forest management. Readers should look to well managed forests to see the vast differences in wildfires. Paradise, CA was destroyed by a wildfire originating on the Pulga National Forest where fuel had accumulated inviting destruction. Resource managers are covering their tracks by using climate change as an excuse for poor forest management. A forest manager should be added to the list of experts in Doerr's Acknowledgements.

Doerr believes we will combat climate change only if we continue to elect Democrats. With this being historically unlikely Doerr should share with readers the half-life of CO2 is 1000 years. Temperatures are going to rise. Be prepared.

Goerr should also review research that demonstrates a plants ability to add stomata when elevated levels of CO2 are introduced. Commercial greenhouses add CO2 to invigorate plant growth. Holding all other variables constant as the level of CO2 rises is not reasonable.

What Doerr refers to as deforestation is in many cases land being repurposed for pastures (bad cows) and row crops. Pastures and row crops also consume CO2. Brazil has enough arable land to feed the world. What if Brazil produced all the plant based food required to feed the world and eliminated cows? Current pasture lands would be restored to forests or low tiled farm land. A lot of what Doerr is passionate about will happen but not necessarily the way he envisions it.

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have mixed feelings about this book. The aim is to give a plan to solve the climate crisis. Does he succeed? Kind of. The 50+ OKRs give a useful framework to think about the problem, but not convinced that they constitute a plan in themselves.

The narrative around each OKR varies widely. In some cases, we get deeply justified reasoning, whilst others aren't. Overall, I get the feeling of the whole thing being a little long-winded. The quality of the interviews is erratic too. The big names in particular often role out platitudes and its usually the lesser known people who have the genuinely interesting stories. But then again, when you have a page and a half there's not really that much you can do with it. For me, I'd have preferred half the number of interviews but with better exposition of the story.

To my mind, one failing of the book is that while there's the feeling of lots to be done (even if the focus on those doing something makes you think its all in hand :P), there doesn't seem to be a call to action. As I've heard Doerr say in interviews, that's partially because the area has moved beyond what we as individuals can do. But the politic, movement and investment sections could all have given take aways for people to do.

In summary, a worthwhile read, not too heavy, but probably more as a gateway to further reading than an end point in itself.

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A comprehensive plan for addressing the climate crisis outlining each step to do so using the OKR (objectives and key results) framework from John Doerr’s other book “Measure What Matters”.

The book also contains sections from 35 well known climate leaders.

I found there was so much information in this book that it took me quite a while to read but it is definitely one that I will refer back to and gives some hope that we can sort what seems like an almost insurmountable problem but we need to get on with it quickly!

This podcast with TIm Ferris interviewing John Doerr gives a flavour of what the book is like:

https://open.spotify.com/episode/7LG0...

[Miguel · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's great that all of these very smart venture capitalists have dedicated their attention and wallets to green tech but one never gets the sense here that the profit motive isn't the sole driving force behind the majority of this activity. Would like to read about what nationally motivated efforts can and should do in this space, because it does feel that a lot of these efforts are too little and driven by the clout and gross margin that they can generate. Perhaps I'm too cynical on this and again am glad that these efforts are being made.

[Allison · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved the structure of this book, especially after grinding through several too-long career books with a similar format of lists and steps to success. This book includes many interviews and stories of current successful individuals sharing the strategies behind their successful organizations and technologies. The book gave me a much expanded list of what kind of climate companies I could have impact at.

[Blake · Rating 5 out of 5]

Several years ago I accepted that mankind was contributing to global warming, but I haven't really looked into the topic very much. Many of the solutions that people talk about have little to no effect. Global warming issues are often conflated with other issues, sometimes to align to a political agenda, or other times to align to a seemingly good cause but one that really doesn't impact global warming.

I was interested to hear about Speed & Scale on Stephen Leavitt's podcast, People I (Mostly) Admire. I trust Leavitt to a large degree and I like the way he thinks. I was intrigued by the purpose of Speed & Scale: a realistic path of what needs to happen to avert climate disaster. Specifically, get to net zero emissions by 2050 and thereby limit the increase in global temperature to 1.5C (if I remember correctly).

I like how the book was written. It covers different categories of emissions, lays out targets, and describes how to get there. It has lots of facts and also has short bios and commentary from several people who are working on solutions.

Some big take-aways for me:
1. Coal power has to be stopped. We're at a point where this is possible. We should likely stop Natural Gas power while we're at it. I wish that the author would have promoted nuclear power more. I see this as a huge solution as solar has big downsides and wind has some downsides.
2. Transportation needs to be changed. It seems like a lot of progress is being made here. I think there are a lot of good things coming in the next few years.
3. Planting trees helps a little but it only gets us so far. Basically we'd have to plant an area the size of the USA to really make a dent, and even then it's not a solution.
4. Carbon capture is also promising, but it's unlikely that it will be a major solution and still has huge technical challenges. Basically, we can't run the oil industry in reverse.
5. It's easy for the US and Europe to make changes. Much harder for India, Africa, and even China.
6. It's remarkable how much beef pollutes compared to other foods. (It's just so good though! I'm really hoping that changes in feed can offset this.)

There were some things that I think Doerr missed. I mentioned nuclear energy. He speaks about it a little bit but not enough. I don't think he gave the full story behind the cattle industry -- like the fact that a lot of the land isn't usable for much else. He doesn't spend a ton of time laying out the costs of all the changes. Also, I think there could be some other alternative solutions which he gives very little time to (like creating a chemical "mirror" in the atmosphere). Sometimes the text felt a little condescending. It's also a little hard for me to translate the goals and solutions to my personal life. I suppose I can eat less beef and drive a little less?

I'm a capitalist and a conservative, so some solutions that people seek are unsavory to me. However, I also recognize that there are huge negative externalities to some people's and company's actions. I'm probably in support of a carbon tax to offset those externalities, but the details would be important. I'd prefer to start it off very low and increase it every year. It seems like this would be the simplest way for end-users to pay for carbon (assuming taxes would be incorporated into the prices of goods and services). That said, I don't like big government and I'm sure it would lead to more government, as did many of the other proposals.

Overall it was a very well-written book. I'm going to read into the topic quite a bit more and think about what I can do personally and as a business owner.

[Zoe Kraus · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was recommended by friends at work as I started my new job working with the investment team of our climate private equity strategy. They said it would be a great intro to sustainability and climate, and the book did not disappoint.

Perfect for anyone curious in learning more about global warming and the climate crisis. The book was rooted in facts and had POVs from key leaders in the space (Bezos, Al Gore, etc.). It was a call to action, but the tone was more educational then trying to scare you, which I appreciated.

Would recommend.

[Taylor Ball · Rating 5 out of 5]

Giving it 5 stars because it is a great introduction to the global challenges on climate change and provides concrete steps on what must be done to meet our climate targets. As someone who has spent the last year studying climate change, I was tempted to give it 4 stars because it was a lot of stuff that was “the basics” but I still learned new things and the book was intended to be an introduction.

12 hours on Audible. Still getting used to audiobooks, I worry I don’t retain as much.

[Gaurav Dubey · Rating 3 out of 5]

The OKR goals in this book are achievable but call me a pessimist i dont think we can get there with the current set of people who lead us. The authors comparison with world war 2 and the president bar napkin list on how to handle hitler is good but i feel its gotten a little past that. We are not dealing global warming like an emergency and therefore i have little hope..

[Marks54 · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a bit of a strange book - although I enjoyed it immensely. John Doerr is a famous and accomplished venture capitalist that presents a detailed action plan for attacking and meeting the Global Climate Crisis (GCC) by 2050.

Let me try to unpack this. First, this is the first book that I have read which goes some length towards explaining the GCC and why it is so important, why it is a global threat, and why it appears to ties together so many other problems. This gets to a real contribution for me. I can easily appreciate immediate concerns such as pollution, flooding, and energy related externalities. I can also appreciate how these problems are tied to more “macro” problems, such as world hunger, north-south development conflicts, and the links of energy to political development. But I have to admit to difficulties in how the GCC comes to link an entire host of interrelated problems, sufficient to motivate global political conferences and major initiatives for collective action.

Doerr’s book goes a long way towards clarifying the problems and why they are so important in ways that make logical and scientific. It is not just that the macro state of the planet has myriad consequences going forward that can be understood and calculated. It is that the crisis also can effectively motivate this action and related social movements. So the topic makes more sense to me after having worked through Doerr’s book.

Speed and Scale also presents a compelling approach for how hundreds and thousands of small ventures, projects, initiatives, firms, and the like can come to coordinate their work towards reaching an understandable and coherent macro set of outcomes. Lots of actors can work together without a central organization locus of control, without national controls directing the action, and without a formalized bureaucratic plan. This is coordinated but flexible action that can incrementally approach broader goals and permit particular sets of local actors to work together on a largely indirect basis.

But this is also a book about business and entrepreneurial ventures and how they work. Doerr explains how the venture management processes work and the importance of metrics for managing how these small firms solve their problems, compete with incumbent firms, and come to succeed (or more often fail). The book is especially interesting in discussing the different types of investment that are relevant for addressing climate issues. Some are business ventures, some are government projects and initiatives, some are targeted efforts by philanthropists to demonstrate a concept and display its possibility so that others can develop it further to eventual commercialization.

The book is well organized and organized around the key objectives of the plan. Doerr also breaks up the story by inserting testimonials from highly significant participants in climate work, with guest testimonials from Laurene Jobs, Bill Gates, Larry Fink, Doug McMillon, and Jeff Besos to lesser known stars of the area.

There is quite a lot going on here, but there is also a lot of information coming through that is helpful and well presented. This book will help me find other books and get more involved in climate discussions with my family and colleagues. I strongly recommend the book.

[Indira · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was recommended this book by a mentor who, upon hearing that I was looking for software engineering roles in climate, said I should check out this book by "the OKR man himself." To be honest the fact that it's framed around OKRs was more of a turn off than turn on (ew corporate 🤮), but after I heard Speed & Scale recommended in other "books on climate change" lists I decided to give it a shot.

Overall, it gave a good overview on the different industries that emit greenhouse gas emissions, and how we can get to net zero. I think that for readers who aren't well-versed in the subject, this could be a good introduction, though personally I think I prefer How to Avoid a Climate Disaster as an intro-to-climate-change book, as it gives more of a science background, but Speed & Scale is OK as well.

I liked the examples Doerr gives of different companies that are helping to solve climate change in their own ways. I also liked how Doerr breaks down the problem into different industry, because I do think that it helps readers understand what the different pieces to the puzzle are. However, I did _not_ like how he kept advertising OKRs at every corner and used a lot of corporate speak 🥴

Overall, I would give this a 3.5/5. Rounding the half star up to 4/5 as I normally do on Goodreads.

[Sinan Sinanogullari · Rating 5 out of 5]

Comprehensive overview of the carbon emissions and the ways to reduce them as if leading a company, solving a problem, which is quite motivating and with nice, understandable and invigorating statistics. The writer is an investor so his point of view can be argued as neo-capitalist and he does not mention the need or options for degrowth or possible economical system change. If he is realistic or his point of view should be challenged, i think it is all about activism of the society, of us. If any book about climate change does not convert an individual into a climate activist, then we can keep reading books, read about the world burning.

[Jayden Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can always appreciate a book that talks about our climate crises and what we need to do about it. I wish i could have absorbed it more, instead of skimming through it for an essay i have past-due for a class :) lol. I enjoy the perspectives it had and the hard issues it discussed. I mostly appreciated the fact that it discussed the issues of environmental justice, but it definitely could’ve given more room for it. I feel odd giving this 5 stars at the moment because it slightly puts Jeff Bezos on a pedestal

[Xavi Sallent Tonijoan · Rating 4 out of 5]

My first book on climate change. A good plan on how we can get to carbon neutral by 2050. It has the right level of specificity vs. also capturing the global picture. PS: We'll need a lot of policy-making to get there.

[Gustavo Moreira · Rating 5 out of 5]

A complete guide that clearly shows us where our emissions are, and how they are distributed
It is accompanied by 6 major goals and 55 OKRs on how to get to a zero emissions world.
It is a blueprint, not a master plan on how to get there.
Very inspiring and easy to read.
Highly recommend

[Jenna hall · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well we’re definitely fucked.

[Kyla · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great book if you’re new to the space! Succint and good storytelling.

[Lauren Ledwell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Would recommend to anyone. Doerr crystallizes the climate crisis and proposes a detailed action plan very succinctly.

[Jamie Bowen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Climate Change is happening right here and now, whether you believe it or not. Its a crisis which is seen as existential, too hard and too big to do anything about it, but as we have seen with COVID-19 when urgent action is required it is possible to make the impossible possible. Speed and Scale provides the action plan to tackle the challenge, with interviews with many people who are making a difference. Noticeably these people have the will and desire to deliver change. A fascinating book which taught me a lot, made me question whether we could make a difference but also provide me with hope that we can do it.

[Olivia Evans · Rating 5 out of 5]

Probably one of the most personally influential books I’ve ever read

[Neil Hunt · Rating 5 out of 5]

A stimulating and provocative read; surprisingly optimistic.

Part 1 puts forward a specific plan to get to net zero by 2050, with very specific OKRs (of course!) to track progress:
- 6Gt from electrifying transportation (including personal cars, but also trucking, busses, planes, and ships)
- 21Gt from decarbonizing the grid (renewables, and storage)
- 7Gt from agriculture (sustainable practices, and vegetable proteins)
- 7Gt from nature (protecting and restoring forests, reforestation, oceans and kelp)
- 8Gt from industry (sustainable manufacturing and efficient buildings)
- 10Gt from sequestration

None of these are easy, but all are doable, given significant effort, investment, and a good few breakthroughs. (which are fairly predictable given research funding). However, the challenge of scaling them fast enough gives the book its title!

The second part is about getting it done - politics, policy, movements, and investment.
This second part is the more important, in my mind. There are plenty of texts on the technologies (e.g. Gates "Avoid a Climate Crisis") and there are many ways to slice and dice the 51Gt/year that we need to cut, but nothing helpful on actually getting the systemic changes necessary to get it done!

This feels far more actionable than e.g. Michael Mann's "New Climate War" (also a powerful read).

Most who read this book will feel compelled to make a few personal changes, and rethink how to circumvent the gridlock and push for government action - especially at the local and state level.

[Anthony · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you asked for a single book to provide a comprehensive blueprint for how we might achieve net zero by 2050 and minimize the chances of facing devastating climate change, this might have been that book. Doerr and Panchadsaram, both of Kleiner Perkins, start Speed & Scale with a sector by sector play to cancel out ~60 Gt/year of CO2-eq emissions. First, electrify transportation, decarbonize the grid, "fix food", protect nature, and remove carbon from the atmosphere (and the oceans), this last part attached to a lofty 10 Gt target. The targets and timetables adopt an Objectives and Key Results (OKR) framework which the authors emphasize in the introduction as critical for success. Standard "you can only manage what you measure" messaging.

While the book is meant to be a banquet table of solutions wrapped in an aura of innovation and smothered in magisterial scope, the plan is primarily a technocratic plug-and-play alteration of our current existence. Cars? Replace with EVs. Electricity? More renewables, more battery storage. Supply chains? Better monitoring and land set asides.

Towards the end of the book, Laurene Powell Jobs provides one of the few worthwhile quotations: "You have to address everything at the same time."

I had hoped Doerr and Panchadsaram might reflect on how the climate crisis could be an opportunity to reconfigure society in a way that simultaneously forestalls climate change while also fixing our other ills: gun violence, obesity, suicidality, extreme partisanship...

That holism peaks out at times, like in advocating for universal education and shrinking gender gaps in India through programs like Educate Girls.

But urbanism and a restructuring of values and social relations was simply not on this banquet table. A lot of ink was spent on EVs and battery technology and Rivian and Teslas --- not even a page was dedicated to bikes, e-bikes, and improved walkability. Classic technocratic plug-and-play. Current ICE cars bad, just replace with EVs. Meat? Ethan Brown of Beyond Meat fame has a call-out box and there's some discussion about the carbon intensity of meat consumption, but there's certainly no investment plan to convince the masses to forego the flesh. Examples like these strike me as big failings of the book. For the authors, it feels like the problem is one of hardware version, not values. If we can just upgrade to the next version, then humanity will be saved...

This book is frustrating because it's described through the prism of Kleiner Perkins investments. Sure, it's definitely helpful to roll back the curtain on failed investments or the signals that investors use to assess the viability of new technologies, like renewables in the 2000s and "clean-tech" currently. But a lot of the changes that need to happen are tangential to investments -- it's about pressure campaigns on governments local and federal, and shifting public consciousness about what constitutes a full life.

In short, the vision in Speed & Scale is that if we can innovate, invest, and shave down the green premium -- the added that the 'sustainable' option has over the existing, unsustainable alternative -- then we can solve our way out of this problem. If $1.7 trillion can be invested per year over the next 20 years, then we can have matured the necessary technologies.

And yet, in spite of all the advances in the past decades, 2022 still saw the largest annual amount of GHG emissions ever.

[Saurabh Sharma · Rating 5 out of 5]

As we start to comprehend the measures required to solve for climate crisis, this book lays out an ambitious plan to zero out emissions across industries and markets. While it won't be a one-size-fits-all approach, coherent policies, actions, breakthrough innovations, and investments would define the path ahead. Every player in the ecosystem - governments, organizations, investors, philanthropists, entrepreneurs, individuals - will have a role to play in decarbonizing the global economy and to tackle the crisis - with speed and at scale.
A highly recommended read.

[Captain Sir Roddy, R.N. (Ret.) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Super interesting and thought-provoking book about a series of global strategies about how nations and individuals should view efforts to addressing climate change. I am very glad that I read it, and I do hope that political and economic leaders around the world do so as well.

[Renu]

A great book to create awareness and urgency towards the climate crisis. But I wonder why books like this shy away from addressing the much-needed change in consumer behavior- a root cause of this crisis. I would like to see a list of steps an individual can take each day to play a role in this fight again climate change.

[alexander shay · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm just beginning my journey into climate books that actually offer solutions instead of just recounting the problems, so I don't know if this is the best book ever, but it was a very good book to start with. While I do wish there were more specific solutions, this title provides an outline to get out carbon emissions down, our other GHG down, and bring more equality to the earth in the process. Doerr links many societal processes to climate change and addresses changes that need to be made, from the consumer level to the corporation and governmental level, while admitting that much research needs to be conducted to give us a fair chunk of the technology we need to achieve some of his goals. But it's a good blueprint, and I think if the corporations and governments were willing to take bigger risks in addressing climate change, it could really help. It is ambitious but not impossible, and would require everyone everywhere to do more than they're already doing. That said, it also acknowledges that countries that are still considered "developing" or "third world" will need longer to achieve their goals and that the US, as the highest polluting country in the world, bears the bulk of responsibility in fixing it.

There are also "conversations" with many CEOs and others throughout, describing what their companies are doing to make the planet greener or to help other companies make their brands green. It was surprising some of the people included (Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos) and interesting to learn what some of the climate-focused startups have been up to.

The only reason I'm not giving this 5 stars is that Doerr applauds brands like Wal-Mart and Amazon for turning their delivery fleets green and reducing their waste consumption, etc, making you think they are excellent companies to support, when in fact that isn't the full picture. While he does acknowledge the companies aren't perfect, it really hides a lot of damage these companies are in fact still doing. I happened to read Consumed by Aja Barber immediately after this book and I would recommend everyone else does as well because it offers a more tempered reaction to big brands, especially ones that produce clothes. These companies are "going green" but still not paying the workers who make their garments, still not improving the quality of their clothes, etc. Doerr's title is a good motivator for people wanting to know what they can do to help, but I think it might lean a little too far into the "look at what we've already accomplished" side of things while ignoring essential details about large corporations in particular.