{"id":31632,"date":"2021-04-01T16:38:39","date_gmt":"2021-04-01T20:38:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/test.greenmoney.com\/2025\/?p=31632"},"modified":"2021-04-30T19:37:27","modified_gmt":"2021-04-30T23:37:27","slug":"krystal-williams-parsing-the-argument-for-equity-in-climate-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.greenmoney.com\/2025\/krystal-williams-parsing-the-argument-for-equity-in-climate-action\/","title":{"rendered":"Krystal Williams: Parsing the Argument for Equity in Climate Action"},"content":{"rendered":"
>> Back to April 2021 Issue<\/a><\/div>\n
Credit: Illustration by Melanie Loon<\/a><\/em><\/h5>\n

\"CCMKrystal Williams<\/strong> is an impassioned advocate on issues of energy, equity and social justice. Her work with public utilities and renewable energy developers as an energy attorney at Bernstein Shur and Pierce Atwood has deeply influenced her view of both the climate economy and systemic inequities. A member of the Maine Bar Association.<\/em> Williams has launched the Providentia Group<\/a>, a law and business advisory firm \u201cfocused on creating economic belonging for traditionally underrepresented groups.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

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Recently she spoke with David Garrison, co-founder of Climate & Capital Media<\/a>, where he guides the business, strategy, and brand as publisher.<\/p>\n

DG:\u00a0 \u00a0What\u2019s the burning opportunity in climate change?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong>That\u2019s a big question with at least two responses. If you subscribe to the idea that for-profit companies exist to maximize shareholder value, then this is about finding opportunities to maximize shareholder value to make the most money in the climate space.<\/p>\n

But you can also look at this as identifying opportunities to move the nation forward and create climate-resilient infrastructure, irrespective of shareholder impact.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m separating those out, because in the public utility space where I operate as a lawyer, there\u2019s a lot of conversation around that second one \u2014\u00a0system resilience \u2014 and how quickly we can recover after a major climate event. Particularly for power systems (think electric public utilities), we\u2019re concerned about what happens when, for example, a transmission line goes down.<\/p>\n

And there\u2019s absolutely an opportunity to invest in system resilience. Developers, for example, if they\u2019re building along a coastline, can create underground parking spaces that are high enough that that\u2019s the area that\u2019s flooded instead of the offices.<\/p>\n

Another example: For public utilities, the opportunity is in electrical infrastructure. When I was growing up, you\u2019d buy a string of Christmas lights, and if one light went out, the whole string was worthless. It\u2019s the same basic idea here, but on a larger scale: How do we protect the system from itself?<\/p>\n

Those are two specific ways we can be proactive in how we think about existing and new infrastructure, but these are both responding to common sorts of problems across the globe.<\/p>\n

But here\u2019s the issue: If you\u2019re only answering the first question (where is there an opportunity to maximize shareholder value), the range of activity gets a lot smaller. That\u2019s because there is not an ability yet to fully recover the cost of building these structures.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

DG:\u00a0 \u00a0Why not?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong>I hate to make a statement like this, but there\u2019s still enough of a debate around the reality and severity of climate change that it\u2019s difficult to price a response into the infrastructure that private developers build \u2014 and then fully recoup that investment.<\/p>\n