It's TED Talks Daily. I'm Elise Hu. Earth Day is this Thursday, April 22nd, so we thought it would be a great time to share another lesson from our friends at TEDEd. This is part of a video series designed to cut through the complexity around climate change and explain the science in a clear way. It's all inspired by Bill Gates's new book, How to Avoid a Climate Disaster.

This lesson is about how a lot of the smartest solutions to reduce carbon pollution actually

already exist and how they're getting stuck in the valley of death.

How can we get them out of this trap?

You can watch all seven lessons for free at ed. ted.com slash plan for zero.

That's plan F-O-R-0, one single word.

They've passed every test, cleared every hurdle, jumped through every hoop.

Now all that remains is to unleash them on the world.

But wait, what's this? Ah yes, there's one more challenge. They must now cross the valley of death.

All new products must pass through here before they reach the market.

Many never make it out. And sometimes that's okay. If they don't work, don't fill a need,

or for any number of other reasons. But inventions that could help address massive global

issues also face this risk. That's because a technology's potential

isn't the only factor that determines whether it will succeed. The Valley of Death is especially

risky for innovations involving complex physical objects as opposed to software, and for those

in highly regulated industries like medicine,

building materials and transportation,

regulations and other obstacles aren't inherently bad.

They're often designed to keep people safe,

but they do tend to scare off investors.

And that's what traps good ideas in the valley of death.

Their funding dries up before they can become profitable.

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