Gonzalo Muñoz, Founder of TriCiclos and Champion for the COP25.
For the COP25, Chile is promoting progress in the protection of oceans, the Antarctica, electromobility, renewable energies, circular economy and the protection of forests, ecosystems and biodiversity.
To achieve these objectives, the role to be played by the Founder of recycling company TriCiclos and Champion of the COP25, Gonzalo Muñoz Abogair, will be the key, as he will be in charge of the coordinated work with the United Nations.
“In addition, this year we have the Climate Summit by the UN Secretary-General, which is an additional opportunity that has been held a few times in history. In addition to this activities, I have a lot of work to spread, encourage and inspire several groups that necessarily need to take part in the actions comprised by the solutions to this climate crisis,” he assured.
You declared in an interview that talking about sustainable business is redundant, why?
Because a business that doesn’t incorporate sustainability is destined to failure. It couldn’t be sustained in the future and it’s therefore a failed project. So the words ‘business’ and ‘sustainability’ are naturally linked to each other. And today we know that both words must include social and environmental criteria at every level of decision making.
How might Chile reach a culture focused on environmental sustainability and social inclusion?
Chile has improved very much in this matter. It has a large entrepreneur base with a big focus on purposes and scale, thanks to a culture by Start Up Chile, Endeavor, SistemaB, CORFO and many other promotion-and-support platforms. It also has a huge culture of individual commitment, given by natural disasters and the work done by organisations like Techo and Desafío.
What we need now is to see a relevant replacement in decision making at the level of higher-income families. That’s where a radical change can be stimulated in order to ease Chile’s transition to a growth and development culture based on respect to the environment and social inclusion in a broad sense. I trust new generations to have the determination that this is their distinctive seal respecting to what was achieved by their parents and grandparents.
What were the keys for TriCiclos to be certified as the first B Corporation out of North America? How can Chile reach a strong circular economy?
The first thing was the determination that helped us create the company. The name comes from the compromise to triple results (social, environmental and financial), and that compromise was translated into the statutes, long before we knew the existence of B Corporations (certified B-corps back then).
What we lacked was the validation by a trusted third party organisation speaking to us in that matter. So, at the time we met the founders of BLab in America, we found the certification we needed and simultaneously we proved our belief that a company can only become stronger when it works for and with others. The main purpose becomes a common cause for thousands, they visualise the objective together and make a bigger impact.
The same thing is happening to circular economy. We need to strengthen this ecosystem and, in that sense, it has been useful that way the government is making progress. Several sectors have included the concept in their annual programs and there are many entrepreneurships that are innovating based on the principles of circular economy.
Now it’s time to make progress on the main Chilean industrial sectors. We need circular mining, agriculture, fishing, salmon farming and construction. Those sectors need to evolve quickly or we will lose competitiveness and credibility as a country.
Do you think our country has a good environmental institutionality? What is your opinion on still not having a climate change law? Do you think the REP law was well drafted?
I think Chile has huge challenges in terms of regulatory issues, including self-regulatory and auditing cultures. Nonetheless there have been huge improvements like the REP law and recently submitted climate change bill. We have a long way to go, but at the same time, I think we are taking huge steps in the right direction.
What is your analysis after the government’s announcement in the matter of decarbonisation?
The first interesting and outstanding thing is it is about a commitment in line with what’s expected in this matter in every country in the world, as we need all countries to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 as deadline.
In that sense, anticipating the closure of coal-powered stations by 2040 is a helping measure that offers multiple chances as it represents a basis on which we all have to work in order to anticipate the deadline.
The government brought its cards and now it’s up to all sections of society to specify our commitments to anticipate that deadline. That is what an ambitious climate plan is about. In that sense, I celebrate that in this country we have a large group of people with high expectations in this matter. I trust that together we can reach a deadline anticipation and keep positioning sustainable development.
COP25
How did you receive your appointment as Champion for the COP25? What were your first actions?
I received it with huge gratitude as it is a great opportunity to contribute to what we call the most urgent among many causes. If we don’t solve climate instability, we will meet a very hostile situation that will make many activities disappear, including their respective causes.
During my first months in the job, I’ve had to take over the agenda in terms of global climate action. This includes a large quantity of international organisations contributing with projects, partners, data, and particularly, evidence of what’s happening in this matter all throughout the world. At the same time, it includes a series of tools to boost in order to project this climate action agenda far beyond 2020.
In that sense the first part has dealt with knowing the actors and learning from them, so now we are in the phase of proposals and designing strategies for this and the next year.
What will be your main role and what are your objective as Champion for the COP25?
The main role for the High Level Climate Champion is promoting climate action through non-governmental actors. This includes civil society, NGOs, local governments, academic world, entrepreneurs and businesses. And the role scope is global.
Therefore my core objective is to radically increase climate action all throughout the world, so it generates a change of mind on people regarding to the sense of urgency and how much can be achieved every day by these changes, regardless of your role in the society.
How do you seek to achieve the objective of encouraging the incorporation of businesses and citizens in the commitments we must achieve in order to fight climate change?
Fundamentally we are showing evidence so citizens and businesses have no excuses to joining this cause. What we are making clear is that the size of the change is gigantic. We all can and must take part in this escalation on climate action.
In your opinion, what commitments are key to materialise between 2019 and 2030 in terms of environmental issues?
The first main commitment is to endorse what science says. We can’t waste any minute in that discussion. It would be equivalent to start discussing whether the red fluid you watch coming out of your body is blood or not.
In second instance, next year we must review the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC), which define the ambition degree each country adopts to comply with the Paris Agreement.
In that sense, we know that before 2030 we must reduce our emissions in at least 45%. Moreover, in the whole world we must assume a high commitment to protect the oceans and biodiversity in the broadest sense.
What is the review of the Climate Conference held in Germany and its contribution as precursor to the COP25?
My personal review was quite good as we made a huge progress on the climate action agenda for 2020, the coordination with the Secretary-General and many other aspects relate to the COP25. Now he hope to consolidate a very relevant agenda that helps us reach newer degrees in ambition and implementation prior to 2020.
What does Chile have to show the world in terms of electromobility and renewable energies for this COP25? Can we lead any aspect of the global fight against climate change?
Chile is already leading by currently having 100% of power generation projects being built based on renewable energies. The start-up of Cerro Dominador has the potential to change the logic of the energy grid in Chile and also to inspire other countries to do the same.
In terms of electromobility, the electric bus fleet in Santiago makes our capital city to become the second city in the world with the largest fleet. We hope now to achieve relevant advance in this issue for micromobililty, cargo transportation and passenger vehicles.