Tech Solutions (#3): How one of China’s biggest tech companies is tackling carbon removal (with Xu Hao)

Support for this episode comes from the University of Illinois Geese College of Business MBA program, known as the IMBA. You deserve a flexible online degree program that delivers the level of rich interaction and impact you'd experience on campus.

Katrina Church Chimolowski, who set to graduate January of 2026, is using the program to shape her next chapter. When I applied, people said that I was crazy. And they're like, what are you doing?

Why are you supposed to be retired and taking it easy? I'm like, that's boring. I am Katrina Church Chimilowski and I am a student at the University of Illinois Geese College of Business and I am the IMBA program.

After 30 years, I went back to school because we were empty nesters and I needed something to do and I needed some focus. And I thought this would be a great opportunity because it would help us in our businesses. It could potentially help some of our children who are looking at starting businesses.

And it was something that I've wanted to do for 30 years. My current role is a chief of staff in the Alaska State Legislature for District 36, which is the largest district in the United States. So GEEs has offered me quite a bit actually.

I live in a really rural community in Alaska. We are on the road system, but it takes me 150 miles to get to the first stoplight. I wanted to have interaction and I needed to have interaction. And so the live sessions that they have, you can see the speakers, you can see the instructors,

you can see your fellow classmates. This summer I was chosen to attend the immersion in Brazil. We went to Brazil and we presented our project and solved a problem for a real live company company wanted to expand and so we came up with two different scenarios and we did a

short-term and a long-term vision for that expansion. The feedback that we got from that program is that it was brilliant and this is coming from a really tough professor. And to have the company actually say that it was valid and that it was something

that they could pursue in the future was a great feeling. Yeah. It's been really fun because I've been able to meet people in all different stages of their life,

all stages of their careers. I think what surprised me the most is everybody's willing to help you. I have two classes left in order to graduate from GEES,

so I'm super excited that I'm very, very close. Right on. No matter your career path, the Geese College of Business online MBA fits your schedule while helping you grow the skills to reach your goals.

Explore the ever-evolving coursework designed to keep pace with today's business challenges at geeseonline.illinois.edu. This podcast is brought to you by WISE, the app for international people using money around the globe. With Wwise you can send, spend and receive in over 40 currencies with no markups or hidden fees.

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Welcome to TED Tech, a podcast from TED. I'm your host, Sherelle Dorsey. Today, we're continuing our special mini-series about climate solutions and the technology that can lead us into a greener, more equitable future. Across four episodes, we're bringing you conversations from TED's Countdown Climate Summit in Nairobi, Kenya, where some of

The world's greatest visionaries shared cutting-edge solutions to the ongoing climate crisis. It's the defining challenge of our time. So how will we meet it? Before we dive into today's conversation, let's pause to consider a sobering fact.

Even if we halted all emissions today, the carbon already in our atmosphere would continue to warm the planet for decades to come. That's why the world's attention is increasingly turning to carbon removal, and why leaders like Dr. Xu Hao are so pivotal in shaping the solutions of tomorrow.

Dr. Hao serves as vice president of Sustainable Social Value at Tencent, one of the world's largest technology firms in the company behind WeChat, with over a billion active users. In this role, he leads Tencent's Carbon Neutrality Lab and directs CarbonX, the company's ambitious

platform investing in breakthrough carbon removal and decarbonization technologies, particularly in hard-to-abate sectors like cement, steel, and chemicals. Under his leadership, Tencent isn't just focused on reducing its own operational emissions. It's actively funding and accelerating early-stage high-risk climate solutions through its lab,

accelerator, and infrastructure tracks, moving ideas from concept to commercialization. Today, we'll explore with Dr. Howe what it takes to push carbon removal technologies from promising prototypes to real-world impact. And because it's important to challenge and contextualize these efforts, we'll

also ask, why should a company like Tencent, known more for social platforms and gaming than heavy industry, be so invested in carbon removal? What role do tech giants truly have to play in the global climate movement? It's an important conversation at a pivotal time, and I'm thrilled to welcome Dr. Xu

Hao to help us make sense of what's next. Before we dive in, a quick break to hear from our sponsors. Support for this episode comes from the University of Illinois Geese College of Business MBA program known as the IMBA.

You deserve a flexible online degree program that delivers the level of rich interaction and impact you'd experience on campus. Katrina Church Chimolowski, who set to graduate January of 2026, is using the program to shape her next chapter.

When I applied, people said that I was crazy. And they're like, what are you doing? Why are you supposed to be retired and taking it easy? I'm like, that's boring.

I am Katrina Church Chimilowski, and I am a student at the University of Illinois Geese College of Business, and I am the IMBA program.