Today's guest is Rodrigo Prudencio, who works in Worldwide Corporate Development at Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund. Amazon started the Climate Pledge Fund with the goal of getting to carbon net neutral by 2040. Amazon is using the fund to invest in companies that will help them meet this goal, across transportation, sustainable products and practices, and other key areas of decarbonization. Rodrigo has lots of experience in cleantech well before his time at Amazon, including 12 years as a cleantech VC, and as CEO of a cleantech software company during the last cleantech wave. Earlier in his career, he focused on policy at the National Wildlife Federation and later at the State Department, where he was part of the negotiating team during the Kyoto Climate Change Convention. We discuss a lot in this episode, including what got Rodrigo initially passionate about climate change, the lessons he learned from the last cleantech wave, what led him back into cleantech and his role at Amazon, and a deep dive into the Climate Pledge Fund, its areas of focus, and how Amazon will measure its success. Enjoy the show! You can find me on twitter @jjacobs22 or @mcjpod and email at info@myclimatejourney.co, where I encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and suggestions for future topics or guests. This episode was recorded live on October 22, 2020 as part of the Co_Invest Cleantech annual flagship event. We’d like to thank Clean Energy Trust for putting on this event, and allowing us to participate.

Today's guest is Rodrigo Prudencio, who works in Worldwide Corporate Development at Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund.

We discuss a lot in this episode, including what got Rodrigo initially passionate about climate change, the lessons he learned from the last cleantech wave, what led him back into cleantech and his role at Amazon, and a deep dive into the Climate Pledge Fund, its areas of focus, and how Amazon will measure its success.

This episode was recorded live on October 22, 2020 as part of the Co_Invest Cleantech annual flagship event. We’d like to thank Clean Energy Trust for putting on this event, and allowing us to participate.

In today’s episode, we cover:

• Climate Pledge Fund profile, focus areas, and early investments
• Rodrigo’s history and background
• How cleantech has changed in the years since Rodrigo last focused on it
• Key lessons learned from Cleantech 1.0
• Amazon’s Climate Pledge
• Role of big companies like Amazon in the climate fight
• Role of policy and regulation vs innovation
• Role of activism
• Future of capitalism

Links to topics discussed in this episode:

• The Climate Pledge: https://www.theclimatepledge.com/
• Amazon’s Carbon Footprint: https://sustainability.aboutamazon.com/environment/sustainable-operations/carbon-footprint
• Amazon Sustainability: https://sustainability.aboutamazon.com/
• Climate Friendly Badge: https://www.forbes.com/sites/prakashdolsak/2020/10/06/will-amazons-climate-pledge-friendly-label-transform-online-shopping/#743aa58ef9e5
• Chamath Palihapitiya Tweet: https://twitter.com/chamath/status/1318910679856807937
• Amazon PAC: https://www.eenews.net/stories/1063716163
• Carbon Pricing: https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2018/7/20/17584376/carbon-tax-congress-republicans-cost-economy

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• MCJ Podcast / Collective / YouTube

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