00:00:00 Since the beginning of the industrial revolution, there's been an impossible-to-break link

00:00:16 between producing energy on the one hand and releasing greenhouse gases on the other.

00:00:22 There is an accepted notion that the buildup of CO2 in the atmosphere will result in global

00:00:28 warming.

00:00:29 Global warming has a number of consequences, sea rise, change of agricultural yield and

00:00:33 so forth.

00:00:34 BP approached Princeton first with the idea that they needed long-range thinking and they

00:00:39 needed basic science injected into this very, very complicated problem.

00:00:43 The general public, I think, is very concerned about climate change and the environment,

00:00:48 the impact we have on the environment.

00:00:50 This is another example of how BP is investing in fundamental research and options for reducing

00:00:56 our impact on the environment and actually providing cleaner energy solutions.

00:01:01 The Carbon Mitigation Initiative is a project designed to help to figure out solutions and

00:01:07 to provide the solutions that we need to prevent the problem.

00:01:12 Many of us are working on the carbon cycle, the global carbon cycle, and we've been studying

00:01:16 it for years because we think it's important.

00:01:18 It's important for the future of the planet and humankind.

00:01:21 I work on the basic science of climate regulation, on the basic forces, on understanding the

00:01:29 regulation and the prediction of climate.

00:01:32 So the grand goal of the grant is really to help industry in general find ways to not

00:01:38 to still deliver energy but not put CO2 in the atmosphere so as to avoid global warming

00:01:43 and the consequences of global warming.

00:01:45 It gives a chance to scientists who have been studying the carbon cycle for many years to

00:01:51 get involved in solving the problem of the CO2 buildup in the atmosphere.

00:01:55 So that's one aspect of it, a chance to not just study something but to resolve a problem.

00:02:00 And the question is not, I think, so much what it means to Princeton, but it's really

00:02:04 what it means for the world and for the future.

00:02:08 The grant with Princeton University is one of a number of partnerships we're putting

00:02:12 in place to allow us to invest in fundamental science, which is important for our future.

00:02:18 The Carbon Mitigation Initiative is an attempt to make it possible to continue to produce

00:02:29 and consume energy at the scale that's necessary for life as we've come to understand it.

00:02:37 That's why Princeton University's interested in it.

00:02:39 That's why BP's interested in it.

00:02:41 That's why really everyone ought to be interested in it.

00:02:43 I was sure during my entire professional life that this was a problem that my children

00:02:50 or my children's children were going to have to face.

00:02:53 But now I'm not so sure.

00:02:55 It's just possible that we can do something about it this generation.

00:03:00 And because it's possible, we really have to try.

00:03:02 We have the responsibility to do it now.