From powering a cleaner planet to unlocking the mysteries of space, three visionaries at Monday’s TIME100 Talks in London explored a crucial challenge: how to transform promising breakthroughs in science into real-world solutions.
In a discussion moderated by TIME senior correspondent Alice Park, Phil Caldwell, CEO of clean energy company Ceres Power, space scientist and science communicator Margaret Aderin-Pocock, and Michael Short, former chief scientific adviser at the U.K. Department for International Trade and visiting professor at the University College of London, shared insights from their work at the intersection of scientific innovation and practical implementation.
Tackling climate change
The panelists underscored the urgent need for technological solutions to help address the climate crisis.
“There’s no greater issue that we face at current than climate change, and I think that the risk is we’re just not going fast enough,” Caldwell said. He noted that while technologies like solar and electric vehicles are being rapidly adopted, the last 20% of decarbonization—including things like steel, fertilizer and aviation—will likely prove the most stubborn.
Ceres Power hopes to accelerate decarbonization in these particularly challenging sectors through the development of green hydrogen and fuel cells: technology that converts renewable energy into green molecules that can be used for energy. “Those technologies are here now,” Caldwell said. “We just need to invest in the scale and adoption.”
Read more: Green Fuels Are Accelerating Shipping Decarbonization
Beyond mere mitigation, Aderin-Pocock said that science and innovation, particularly satellite technologies, offer sophisticated tools for responding to climate challenges. “Maybe we can do better prediction; maybe do monitoring when a disaster does hit,” she said, pointing to the potential for improved weather forecasting and early-warning systems.
Science: bridging or widening inequity?
Aderin-Pocock acknowledged that while science and technology bring huge benefits, the benefits are distributed unequally. She explained that many people in areas worst affected by climate change are the most poorly supported by technology.
“There are people who aren’t really at the table,” she said. She added that efforts are underway to make sure “what we develop is available to everybody,” citing the work of humanitarian nonprofit, the International Rescue Committee, where Aderin-Pocock serves as an ambassador.
Mobile connectivity is an example of where technology can help tackle global inequality, Short said. “Many countries do not have banks in every corner,” he said. Mobile apps are making it easier for people to send money, facilitating trade. It also makes it easier for those in developing countries to receive vital remittances from loved ones overseas.
Read more: How Digital Technology Can Help the U.N. Achieve Its 2030 Agenda
But Short noted that even these innovations are not equally distributed, pointing to the fact that roughly a third of the world’s population still lacks internet access. And even for those who are connected, barriers—such as unsupported languages and a lack of locally relevant context—remain. “When you put all those together, it’s not just science and technology,” Short said. “We have to make sure that the technology is both inclusive and can be adopted by everybody.”
Overcoming growing science skepticism
The panel confronted how deep-seated fear of change or distrust in science can impede the translation of groundbreaking research into real-world solutions.
“In the past, as scientists, we told people, ‘this is the science. This is what you need to know.’ That didn’t work,” Aderin-Pocock said, stressing the importance of having an open dialogue about scientific knowledge. That includes, according to Aderin-Pocock, ensuring that people from all walks of life get exposure to science. As the CEO of Science Innovation Ltd., which she founded in 2004, she organizes public engagement activities that inspire schoolchildren and adults, especially from underprivileged communities, by showcasing the wonders of science. “We can bring out [the inner scientist] in everybody so they can participate,” she said.
Caldwell said that part of overcoming resistance to innovation is selling a positive vision of the future. “We’d like to say that ‘people like change.’ I don’t actually think people do like change so much,” he said. Caldwell added that “technology is seldom the answer on its own,” saying that, in the case of green energy, technological solutions already exist but won’t reach the scale needed without both political will and business drive behind them. “I think we have to communicate the benefits of clean energy, rather than the fear,” he said.
The Power of Innovation: How Science Can Drive Global Solutions was presented by PMI.
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