Both True: Decarbonization at Any Cost? Not Anymore.

Your next best move?

Are you wondering how the opening for practical decarbonization creates opportunities for your business? Reach out to explore how a private briefing could help your leadership team turn The Myth and The Moment into an actionable plan.

The Myth in the wild: The return of the realist

I love the convening role my firm, Adamantine Energy, gets to play with frontline industry leaders. With our partner, Stanford University’s Natural Gas Initiative, we regularly host meetings with leaders representing the value chain of oil and gas companies. At last month’s meeting, the consensus was unsurprising for those of us who work in this space: Achieving real-world decarbonization is (and will be) messy, nonlinear, and deeply dependent on tolerance for the long game.

The good news? The incremental approach is working—and gaining traction in the wild.

The Three Ts of Energy Realism—timeframe, tradeoffs, and truth—are in vogue! Across the country, climate-centric stakeholders tasked with implementing state, county, or company net-zero goals—the problem solvers—are having to manage the Three Ts in real life. The Myth is crashing headfirst into reality—and those stakeholders will be turning to you to help pick up the pieces.

Here’s what you need to know to engage your problem-solver stakeholders who remain committed to climate goals:

Get credit for every step forward. Highlight specific project outcomes (such as equivalent trucks off the road or percentage of state emissions reduced) rather than abstract emissions targets. This tactic connects directly to your stakeholders’ goals and reveals the true benefits of incremental progress—making the invisible tangible.

Provide frequent, verifiable updates. Stakeholders are delighted by transparency, especially now, when their goals seem far from politically viable. Even when emissions go up—due to cost shifts, new assets, or adjusted targets—you can drive the narrative by conveying where you started, what has changed, what matters, and your ongoing commitment. This keeps stakeholders hopeful—and on your side.

Lean into the challenges, honestly. Explanations of how decarbonization speeds fluctuate with markets, tech, and regulations have never been so warmly received. (After all, you’re still talking about reducing carbon intensity and emissions! This is a win for the problem-solvers!) Convey the specific challenges, helping your climate-centric stakeholders understand not just why progress is hard but—more important—how it is still feasible.

Share in choosing the tradeoffs to manage. Industry leaders are finding success when they co-create goals with problem-solving stakeholders and tie project benefits to those stakeholders’ specific priorities. These solutions are, of course, bespoke—but a typical shared vision might include lower emissions here, manageable cost increases there, and an emphasis on improved systemwide reliability everywhere.

Here’s a phrase gaining traction in at least one state: “affordable decarbonization.” It’s language that won’t work everywhere, but it might just work for you. And it’s a sure sign of the times.

Book + briefings

Coming soon to your desk: The Myth and The Moment: From Polarization to Progress in the New Energy Landscape. Until then:

• Book a fall briefing to map your strategy for the post-Myth landscape.

• Got a “Myth in the wild” story? Send it my way.

• A fan of incremental progress? Hit that heart to incrementally support my work!

To clear-eyed collaboration,

Tisha