Stefan Schurig & I Talk The Renewable Energy Revolution (Video)

Aside from my Pecha Kucha presentation on the opening night of the Renewable Cities Global Learning Forum, I co-led a workshop on “communicating renewable energy” (not recorded due to Chatham House Rule), moderated a panel on “electrifying transport” (video forthcoming), was interviewed for a WWF film that will show during the Paris climate talks, and spent some time chatting with the wonderful Stefan Schurig on camera. Stefan is doing excellent work at the World Future Council and it was really fun chatting with him. And it turns out he’s a big fan of CleanTechnica! You can see some of what we talked about in this beautifully produced Renewable Cities video:

As a quick summary, Stefan and I talked about the unstoppable renewable energy revolution, the cost-competitiveness of solar and wind power, solar panels and wind turbines becoming such a normal part of daily life that they are showing up in kids’ drawings, and the fact that governments still need to do a lot to guide the transition, the response and future of utilities, and the fact that climate action is cheaper than climate inaction (trillions of dollars cheaper).

For a little background on Stefan’s already-impressive career, here’s the snippet from his World Future Council bio:

Dipl. Ing. Stefan Schurig is an architect by training, but devoted most of his career to energy and climate change issues. Before he started working for the World Future Council (WFC) in 2007 he was the spokesperson for Greenpeace in Germany and headed the Greenpeace Climate and Energy department for nine years. During this time he also co-founded Germany’s second largest green electricity supplier. In 2004 Schurig was appointed as member of the REALISE Forum, an international platform on renewable energy policies led by the European Commission.

As Director Climate Energy at the World Future Council Schurig initiated the international policy campaign on renewable energy and the worldwide promotion of ‘Feed-In tariffs’ as one of the best policies for a massive uptake of renewable energy. In 2008 Schurig became a member of the energy advisory board of the International Building Exhibition (IBA) and was appointed by UN Habitat as an advisor of the World Urban Campaign. Schurig also founded and coordinates the WFC international expert commission on Cities and Climate Change. He works as a direct advisor for governments and parliamentarians around the globe and authored various publications on climate change subjects.

Wonderful work, eh? It was genuinely an honor chatting with him.

See our Renewable Cities archives for more fun from Vancouver.