Opinion: Going green better business model

Ford's announcement that it's about to unveil an all-electric F-150 to eventually replace its gas- and diesel-powered pickups is a big pop-culture deal.

This is America's most popular vehicle we're talking about. You'll find it on big-city streets and way back in the sticks. Heck, you can even find it as the vehicle of choice for some roughnecks down in the oil patches of the Permian Basin. It's a symbol of our American way of life.

Taking such a pickup and turning its wheels toward the future is the kind of thing that needs to be happening if we're going to mitigate climate change.

And it is happening, and not just at Ford, and not because Big Auto has grown a conscience and now wants to save the world, but because going green is now a better business model.

Think about it: If you want to invest in the future, should you put your money into fossil fuels or in renewable energy sources? Or, as Justin Rowlatt, chief environment correspondent for BBC, put it: “Why invest in new oil wells or coal power stations that will become obsolete before they can repay themselves over their 20-30-year life? Indeed, why carry carbon risk in (an investor's portfolio) at all?”

At the start of this year, Rowlatt wrote an article titled, “Why 2021 could be turning point for tackling climate change.” In it, he makes the point that now more than ever businesses are seeing the advantages to going green.

He points out that Tesla, founded in 2003 as an all-electric vehicle manufacturer, is now the world's most valuable car company, while the oil-and-gas energy giant Exxon is now scrambling to find ways to reduce carbon emissions under great pressure from its dwindling number of investors.

Rowlatt also said there's a “growing momentum” to get more businesses to “embed climate risk into their financial decision making” and “make it mandatory for businesses and investors to show that their activities and investments are making the necessary steps to transition to a net zero world.” He adds that 70 central banks are already moving in that direction, which is going to place such commitments front and center at the upcoming U.N. Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, Scotland.

Which brings us to governments' involvement in moving us all toward a “net zero world.” China has announced it is going to be carbon neutral by 2060. As the world's largest producer of carbon emissions, that's a big deal - if it's serious about it.

With its dictatorial rule over the most populated nation on earth, China has the world's second largest economy, so it has the capability to do it, just as the world's largest economy does. If the United States doesn't commit to its own massive move toward green energy and carbon neutrality, the future will belong to China and its tight-fisted communist underpinnings.

Tom McDonald is editor of the New Mexico Community News Exchange. Contact him at:

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