Climate Alpha with Parag Khanna
Fresh out of the studio, Parag Khanna, founder and CEO of Climate Alpha unveils the story of his new company which leverages artificial intelligence to decipher how real estate will transform amid climate adaptation. Parag offers his observations on the ongoing global issues from the potential resolution of the Ukraine-Russia war to the easing of tensions on the Taiwan straits. Last but not least, he comments on the recent COP27 conference and offers his view on what great looks like for Climate Alpha.
"The vision is to future proof global real estate. Now why real estate? One thinks that it's just one industry, right? Well, it's 300 trillion dollars. There is no asset class, no industry that is remotely as valuable. Not all the treasury bonds in the world, not all the stock exchanges in the world, and not all the real GDP of the economies of the world add up to the value of global land and property assets: 300 trillion dollars. Now, what will any of it be worth tomorrow, one year from now, five years from now, 10 years from now in different places in the world? We used to have a pretty stable answer to these questions. The truth is the valuation model is broken because it's very antiquated, and not only is the appraisal or valuation model broken, it's even more broken because it never took climate change into consideration." - Parag Khanna
Introduction
- Parag Khanna (@paragkhanna, LinkedIn, personal site) Founder and Managing Partner of Futuremap, CEO of Climate Alpha and author of “Move”, “The Future is Asian”
- Since our last conversation, what have you been up to?
Observations on Global Geopolitics
- There has been a lot happening across the globe. Given that you are one of the avid geopolitical watchers in the world, what are your thoughts on the following issues?
- China's COVID-zero policy and the ongoing protests. [Please note that the interview was done in early December before the Chinese government switched gears and started opening up in mid-December]
- China and US sabre-rattling around Taiwan
- Any potential chance of a peaceful resolution between Russia and Ukraine
- Is an energy crisis coming to Europe in this winter?
Climate Alpha
- Let’s establish the baseline before we go deep into Climate Alpha. I have your friend Ravi Chidambaram on the show where he talked about the article you both collaborated on investing in climate adaptation in Harvard Business Review. To refresh my audience, why should we invest in climate adaptation, and how this leads to the market opportunity of Climate Alpha?
- What is the inspiration behind starting Climate Alpha?
- As the CEO of Climate Alpha, what is the vision and mission of the company?
- How does the AI platform in Climate Alpha work and what does it purportedly solve for the customer?
- What are the customer profiles which Climate Alpha targets?
- What are the specific features in the product suite in Climate Alpha and how do they leverage analytics and AI to make forecasts and predictions?
- Can you share some customer highlights who have used Climate Alpha? [Customer stories]
- What are the revenue sources for Climate Alpha?
- How do you scale Climate Alpha as it grows and where do you see the business multipliers come from?
- What factors will you look out for and will change real estate in the next few decades due to climate change?
- What are the likely scenarios for humans to solve climate change? What is your optimism after the recent COP 27?
- What does great look like for Climate Alpha?
- It’s the end of the year 2022, and what do you look forward to in 2023?
Closing
- Any recommendations that have inspired you recently?
- Parag's recommendations: Corruptible: Who Gets Power and How It Changes Us by Brian Klass
- How can my audience find you?