The company's international
breakthrough came the next year when the former Brick executive who'd retained Splice's services ended up at the helm of Art Van Furniture, a U.S. retailer based in Michigan.
That's all fine, but this also means that the climate talks, which head to Durban, South Africa,
next year, are not the place to watch for the
breakthroughs — social, financial or technological — that will be required if the world is serious about providing some 9 billion people mid-century with the suite of services that
come with abundant energy (mobility, communication, illumination, desalinated water and more) while also greatly cutting emissions from burning fossil fuels, which still dominate the global energy mix.