Ingmar Rentzhog: Impact and Climate Action
This week, the TTI Interview Series covers our member Ingmar Rentzhog. Ingmar is the founder and CEO at We Don’t Have Time, the social network for fighting the climate crisis. Ingmar discovered and gave visibility to Greta Thunberg, from her lonely protest in front of the Swedish Parliament to her first speech at the UN.
In this interview, he talks about how to mobilize climate action for immediate impact and the challenges we need to overcome before we run out of time.
The impact wake-up call
Ingmar, tell us more about your work and why you decided to embark on this journey.
I used to run an investment relations company, and had no intention to start working professionally with climate issues. But then Donald Trump was elected, and that was my wake-up call. I founded WeDontHaveTime.org one week after the presidential election. That was the moment I realized that the world leaders won’t solve the climate crisis for us. We need to do it ourselves, through the force of many. Therefore, we have created a network that connects everyone who wants to solve the climate crisis.
Impact, climate and action
What is your own definition of impact?
Creating real impact means getting our leaders, both political and corporate, and everyone else to start acting on the climate crisis before it’s too late. Impact equals action. Good things are starting to happen. Over the last few weeks, we have seen more than one example where a group of powerful business leaders demand more action and stronger regulations from politicians. The most obvious example is that 150 CEOs recently urged the EU to raise reductions of emissions from 40 to 55 percent in 2030. Also, more and more investors are withdrawing – or threatening to withdraw – from the fossil industry unless they start shifting to renewables.
“We need to stop the earth from heating up beyond repair, which means we need to get rid of fossil fuels and cut carbon emissions dramatically. Now. Not later. We’re running out of time.”
Making climate action the new normal
Based on your experience in climate action, what are the main challenges on the way of making global impact & sustainability our new reality?
I see three main challenges at the moment. The first is people's unwillingness to change their behaviors and their ways of life. The second one is dissonance. People express their worries about climate change one minute, then they buy a weekend flight for their whole family. The third one is fossil fuel interest and lobbyism. Big oil has enormous resources, which they use to create doubt about the reality of climate change. Until recently, they were very successful in doing so.
“At We Don’t Have Time, our vision is to influence society to act on the climate crisis before it’s too late. We don’t have time to wait.”
Impact is not just a sector
What are some of the misconceptions you still notice on what impact investing is all about?
Many investors still think impact is a sector-based investment. They don’t understand that impact is about creating change, and that all businesses need to have a purpose. From now on, the climate issue needs to be ingrained in every decision making on every level of society.
