How Canadian filmmaker Jeff Skoll is fighting climate change in the Trump era

In the past decade, many of An Inconvenient Truth's ominous predictions about the consequencesofclimate change have come to pass.

SuperstormSandyflooded Manhattan, including the Sept. 11 memorial site. TheFortMcMurraywildfires were amongan increasing number ofworldwidenatural disasters.

But for JeffSkoll, it wasn't dire warnings but rather optimism and the opportunity to empower today's audiences that excited him aboutre-teaming with Al Gore for their new documentary,An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power.

• 'Mother Nature's joined the debate:' Al Gore returns with An Inconvenient Sequel

"We felt what we could do is give an update on what's happened and remind people that there are solutions at hand a lot of good news," the billionaire Canadian engineer-turned-philanthropist andHollywood producertold CBC News.

Jeff Skoll on why An Inconvenient Sequel matters

7 years ago

Duration 1:56

The Canadian billionaire web entrepreneur and film producer talks to CBC News about why his latest climate change documentary is critical.

Skoll's real sense of satisfaction comes from putting his money to work.

With a net worth of approximately $6.4billion,Skoll eBay'sfirst president is one of Canada's richest citizens. Since leaving the online auction site in 2001, he's created different initiatives to reshape the world, including Participant Media, the production company behind socially progressive films such as The Cove, Spotlightand An Inconvenient Truth.

Participant's latest venture, An Inconvenient Sequel,reunitesSkollwith his friend Gore, the former U.S. vice-president and frontman of the earlier, Oscar-winning 2006 documentary.

Much of the film's footage was gathered as Gore workedbehind the scenes at the 2015 Paris Climate Change Conference. An Inconvenient Sequel reveals delicate, backroomnegotiations and last-minute deals reached as executives and government ministers struggled to reach aconsensus.

But the sense of victory of the accordpassing deflates with the onscreen acknowledgementofU.S. President Donald Trump's subsequent decision to withdrawfrom the agreement.

How much has Trump changed the equation?"In the grand scheme of things, not much," according to Skoll.

"The economics of clean energy are upon us. We're going to get there."

One major challenge for Gore and Skoll is that theconversation about climate change has become politicized. To break through thispartisan divide,Skoll's strategy is to focus on people's wallets.

"A lot of the people that voted for Trump care about those same issues.They want to have solar cells on their roof in Nevada, because it's less expensive and it's easier for them to control and, by the way, they're not allowed right now," he noted as one example.

Where Gore pounds the pulpit with a righteous fury on camera, Skollworks behind the scenes.

He remainshopeful, though the former engineer admitted he gets frustrated by the pace of change.

"We're on the cusp of so many breakthroughs for a better world, peaceful, prosperous worldand yet it feels like it's taking too long. It's taking too long. "

Canadian roots, global outlook

Whether it's confronting climate change or workingto end pandemics, Skoll credits his global perspective to growing up in Canada. As a young man pumping gasin Toronto to savefor university, he took Canada's health-care and education systems for granted until hestarted travelling.

"I backpacked around the world and went to places like Mexico City and Pakistan, where I'm like, 'Oh. Things aren't quite as good,'" he recalled.

"Looking at America, which has so much wealth and potential and yet has so many deep-rooted problems,I think it gives us as Canadiansan opportunity to be on the world stage onthe climate change issue."

Beyond trying to make the world a better place, the Montreal-born, Toronto-raised Skoll has another great passion: hockey.

When illness forcedthe self-describedworld's biggest hockey fan (the Habs, specifically) to slow down last year, he found one silver lining.

"I got to watch a lot of hockey on the NHL app. That was fun."

An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Poweropens in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver on Aug.3.