Net Zero Festival: How do we change the story we tell about climate change?

BusinessGreen staff
clock • 1 min read

VIDEO: Co-founder of Global Optimism Tom Rivett-Carnac speaks to Amazon's vice president for worldwide sustainability Kara Hurst about building optimism and excitement about the transition ahead

Meeting the challenge of climate change must become part of a new human story, of striving for a better life on the only planet that can sustain us.

Up until now the story we've been telling ourselves is that we're doing the best we can, but climate science is telling us our best is nowhere near enough. This is not terribly inspiring.

To get the level of action required from us as citizens, business leaders and governments, we have to pledge and deliver real and consequential action that changes the story from one of doom to one of stubborn optimism - economically, environmentally and in human terms.

At BusinessGreen's recent Net Zero Festival, Global Optimism Tom Rivett-Carnac spoke to Amazon's vice president for worldwide sustainability Kara Hurst about what's happening in the real economy to change the story that committing to net zero is bringing forward, and the exciting changes that are possible. The conversation can be watched in full above.

All of the panel debates, keynote speeches, and presentations from the world's first Net Zero Festival - which took place over three days from 30 September featuring hundreds of top speakers from business, politics and academia - are now available to watch again on demand through the Net Zero Festival website.

More on Management

TNFD: Nature reporting doubles year-on-year

TNFD: Nature reporting doubles year-on-year

More than 1,000 organisations have now published some level of TNFD-aligned disclosure, annual status report finds

Stuart Stone
clock 21 September 2026 • 4 min read
How Fristads Workwear stitched circularity into its sustainability strategy

How Fristads Workwear stitched circularity into its sustainability strategy

Fristads Workwear's David Snelling and BusinessGreen editor-in-chief James Murray discuss how the 100-year-old company is embedding integrated sustainability measures throughout its product life cycles

BusinessGreen staff
clock 21 September 2026 • 1 min read
Klarna's Alexander Farsan: 'Sustainability will only work at scale if it meets people where they are'

Klarna's Alexander Farsan: 'Sustainability will only work at scale if it meets people where they are'

Payment tech firm's head of climate and environment shares lessons to be learned from the 'resale' industry and foundational insights from COP15 in Copenhagen

Stuart Stone
clock 17 September 2026 • 9 min read