Microsoft President Brad Smith Compares Climate Tech Development to JFK's Race to the Moon

Microsoft President Brad Smith recently told CNBC that efforts to build new climate tech remind him of the massive undertaking spearheaded by President John F. Kennedy in 1961 when he announced plans to land a man on the moon.

CNBC reports that Microsoft President Brad Smith recently spoke to CNBC’s Karen Tso at the Web Summit technology conference in Lisbon where he compared the race to develop new climate crisis technology to the race to put a man on the moon in the 1960s.

Senator John F. Kennedy (1917 – 1963, left) at his home in Georgetown, Massachusetts, with his brother Robert (1925 – 1968), 1955. A painting by John Kennedy hangs on the wall behind him.

In this April 1972 photo made available by NASA, John Young salutes the U.S. flag at the Descartes landing site on the moon during the first Apollo 16 extravehicular activity. NASA says the astronaut, who walked on the moon and later commanded the first space shuttle flight, died on Friday, Jan. 5, 2018. He was 87.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella shows his fist ( Stephen Brashear /Getty)

“We will need to invent new technologies,” Smith said at the conference, “This is a little bit like John F. Kennedy saying in 1961 that America would go to the moon by 1970. No one had yet designed a lunar lander.”

Smith went on to add: “We have the capability, I believe, to invent the technology that will be needed. That’s where the markets and a lot of this new investment, in part, will need to go.”

Smith added that he believes the climate tech industry will result in the formation of many new companies in years to come, saying: “When I look at carbon removal, carbon capture and storage, sustainable aviation fuel, long-duration battery storage — the companies that unlock the secrets to those innovations, they will become unicorns if they don’t exist today. They will be the household names in the year 2050.”

Smith took issue with those saying that these ideas were “make-believe,” pointing out the efforts to develop and roll out coronavirus vaccines in such a short time during the pandemic was an example of how fast technology can be developed.

A number of world leaders at the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland, recently made pledges to reduce carbon emissions. Smith said it is important to “convert pledges to progress.” Smith added: “We have a lot of work to do.”