HER
Hearing in high school that rising seas would threaten large parts of her native Shanghai was enough to convince Hara Wang that she must dedicate her career to fighting climate change.
But it wasn’t until a college internship at a solar panel manufacturer in China that she realized how entrepreneurs around the world need support to develop climate tech at scale. Up until that point, she thought climate tech innovation revolved around Silicon Valley.
“It gave me this perspective that it’s never just one or two Silicon Valley entrepreneurs that drive all the process and change in climate technology,” she said. “It’s actually a global supply chain.”
This realization—that rapid and ample climate tech development required an efficient global ecosystem—focused Wang on eliminating the systemic challenges hampering innovation.
INSPIRATION
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Her Inspiration
Climate projections hit home
Wang grew up in Shanghai, a coastal city of 26 million people and one of Asia’s most important economic engines. A research paper published in 2019 found that the East China Sea would consume the heart of the city by 2050. Wang first learned of this risk by watching a documentary about climate change in high school.
Toyota Prius invited Wang to share her journey.