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<v ->Hi, I'm Mai-Britt, and I'm here in Davos together</v>

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with Alan Thomson, who is leading

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BCG's global energy practice.

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Hi, Alan.

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<v ->Hi Mai-Britt, what a delight</v>

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to be with you this afternoon.

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<v ->You've been in many conversations,</v>

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and sustainability is certainly

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on the top of the Davos agenda this year.

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What interesting insights can you share

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from the conversations you've had with leaders

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from all over the world?

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<v ->Sustainability, absolutely has been top of mind,</v>

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and particularly the focus on climate change and carbon.

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Those have been paramount priorities in many

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of the conversations I have had.

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But I've also heard a broader view of sustainability,

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which isn't just climate and isn't just carbon.

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It includes the reality that many people

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in the world are suffering

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from not only economic poverty but energy poverty as well.

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And the need to balance the reality of climate change

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with the need to continue to provide energy sources

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to many people around the world.

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An interesting statistic I heard - that three billion people

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today live off of effectively biomass fuel sources,

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so this is wood, crop byproducts, animal dung.

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And it's a reality for many of the people in the world,

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and in one of the tragedies of this,

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is that two million people per year die

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from indoor-air-quality-related complications and issues.

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And so this is a real tragedy that is fundamentally related

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to how people use energy and an opportunity

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not only to deal with the climate change issue,

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but deal with this tragedy of energy poverty

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around the world.

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<v ->Absolutely, I agree.</v>

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So the sustainability agenda is much broader.

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Climate is one pillar, but there are lot of challenges.

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<v ->Indeed, and I think we have</v>

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to have a broad enough aperture as we think

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about sustainability, and look at all of these issues

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in the context of a global challenge for our clients

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and society, and for BCG.

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<v ->Yes, we need to think about it end to end.</v>

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From a CEO perspective, now you talk with many CEOs

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and those that you work with.

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How do they craft their agenda around sustainability?

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What are the key topics that you see?

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<v ->Well, I guess there are three things that come</v>

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to mind that are consistent across many of the clients

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in the energy practice that, within the oil and gas sector,

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and the power and utility sector.

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Number one, a real commitment to reduce the emissions

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and the contributions from existing assets

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and existing operations.

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So this is running a more energy-efficient asset,

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it's dealing with leakage in infrastructure,

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it's running the types of fuels that contribute

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to a lower carbon emission.

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And that's something we seek,

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consistently across many clients right now.

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Technologically it's achievable,

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economically in most cases it's obvious they should do this.

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So we're seeing a strong focus

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on reducing own operations emissions.

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Number two, we're seeing significant portfolio choices

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around being more carbon friendly for the future.

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On the utility sector side, it's reducing the dependents

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on coal fire generation.

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Growing renewables, whether that's solar and wind,

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nuclear, hydro, and making the portfolio more attractive.

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For oil and gas companies, it's really thinking

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about not investing in oil sands and focusing

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more on natural gas, and in some cases

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also investing in renewables

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as part of their non-oil and gas portfolio.

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The third area we see a lot of common themes,

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is really one of dealing with technology,

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and the importance of carbon capture and sequestration

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as an important enabler for the broader carbon agenda

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and climate change agenda.

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And all of our clients have a vested interest in seeing

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that technology proliferate, scale,

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become more cost effective,

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and becoming a true part of the solution going forward.

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<v ->Wow, it's very ambitious.</v>

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It's a very bold agenda, it must require a change

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in leadership behavior, more risk-taking,

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and betting on that investors will also recognize.

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<v ->Absolutely, and you're spot on.</v>

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The challenge in doing all of this, is doing it in a way,

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where it's financially accretive,

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shareholders will reward these companies

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that are leaders in this area.

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And the CEOs and the executive teams

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of these companies get recognized and rewarded

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for the decisions they're making,

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the risks they're taking, and most importantly

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the impact they're contributing to.

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<v ->Yes, I fully agree and I think the biggest challenge is</v>

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that some of these initiatives will play out

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in the medium to long term and not in the short term.

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So we need to have that long-term horizon.

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<v ->Exactly, and just to summarize</v>

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I think we need a wide aperture.

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And we need enough of a runway

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to really make things impactful for the world in the future.

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<v ->It will be an exciting future we are looking into.</v>

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Thanks for being here.