NEW BOOK
STORIES FROM 2030
PUBLISHED
1ST NOVEMBER 2021
AT COP26 IN GLASGOW
‘The future is a beautiful, if challenging, partner. Your choice is whether you take the risk in having a first date or whether you are happy to accept a life of regret.’
The book tells the power of Visions and invites the reader to participate in the VISIONS 2100 Project by creating and sharing their own vision of life in 2100. The aim is to get widespread engagement and interest in comparing and telling visions of a better future and to drive 'water-cooler' discussions globally.
The context of the book is around the challenges presented by climate change and environmental issues, but concept is wider and is about how to change community, and then government, perceptions of how to approach long term global problems. Human psychology is not designed to cope with long-dated problems. We are very good at solving immediate crises but often fail to act on gradual, complex challenges - such as climate change - until catastrophe looms. The telling of visions enables people to engage with and be excited by what is possible - by the opportunities that change can provide.
This book is framed around eighty short visions by some of the world’s leading environmental thinkers and influencers including those leading the process of making global agreements on climate change. The visions are all written from viewpoint of the year 2100 looking back over the last century. They consider what life is like in 2100, the uncertain journey to get there, the fears and hopes for human activities and the benefits of their envisioned worlds.
“Having a vision of a better world is likely to result in the world being better.”
ABOUT
VISIONS 2100
STORIES FROM 2030
‘Vision without action is merely a dream’
Stories of restlessness, disruption, conflagrations, faraday tents, mythmakers, bubble-worlds, local nomads, transformation, resilience and the power of the exponential.
The 82 contributors to Stories from 2030 work on identifying risks, harnessing finance, developing or deploying solutions and driving government action. They are the people that are driving the critical actions of this decade. In their stories, they address climate justice, collaboration across countries, companies and communities, adaptation of cities and economies, of ecosystems and biodiversity, of health and wellbeing. They tell what you can do to help.
Contributors are from business, innovation, finance, journalism, politics, storytelling and the environment. Many are unsung heroes delivering immeasurable progress for world.
Some have a bigger stage, such as Connie Hedegaard, Tony Juniper, Sir David King FRS, David Lammy MP, Katharine Hayhoe, Hunter Lovins, Jules Kortenhorst, Achim Steiner, Sharan Burrow and Bill McKibben.
Read their stories as they report back from 2030 and decide on the part you will play this decade.
'It is time to stir!'
ABOUT JOHN O'BRIEN
John O’Brien is a Partner with Deloitte Australia and leads its decarbonisation practice.
John has 30 years’ experience in the Australian and global clean energy and clean technology sectors. He works extensively with global clients on translating decarbonisation ambitions into practical financial and strategic actions. John is also part Deloitte’s global committee on climate services and leads climate work for the global Mining and Metals sector.
John started his career in the oil & gas industry in Scotland and Syria, engineering roles in London and Adelaide before joining Origin Energy in corporate development. In 2007, John established Australian CleanTech, a boutique advisory firm that led the development of the cleantech sector in Australia for ten years.
John is widely published with his last book, Visions 2100, launched at the Paris COP21 Climate Conference in 2015. His most recent book, Stories from 2030, was launched at COP26 in Glasgow and sets out practical steps of what is likely to happen locally and globally over the next decade.
He has engineering degrees from Oxford and Trinity College Dublin and an MBA from Adelaide. John lives in Adelaide, Australia with his wife, Kate, and has two annoyingly tall sons.
Rational arguments for rapid action abound. We do not need any more of those. What is needed is a different way of communicating that inspires and attracts the widest possible group of humans towards wanting to travel on this same journey.
The rational arguments along with pessimists' catastrophes are essential but insufficient to inspire more than a small minority.
"
OTHER BOOKS BY JOHN O'BRIEN
Opportunities Beyond Carbon
Looking Forward to a Sustainable World
Opportunities Beyond Carbon presents climate change as potentially the 'best crisis we ever had'.
It maps the many opportunities for communities large and small, local and international, making the transition to a low carbon economy.
Published in 2009 and featuring a young looking photo of John, it is a collection of essays by key politicians, investors, business people, activists and academics on how to make the most of the current predicament. This fresh, lucid and practical optimism for the future offers a foundation for an entirely new and proactive attitude to climate change.
