Nearly every generation has that looming existential threat that makes them fear an unsustainable future, from the Great Depression to the Cold War. For millennials and Gen Z, our threat is the planet itself, as ever-rising global temperatures make a sustainable climate less likely by the day. In 2040, Australian actor turned documentary director Damon Gameau provides a more optimistic glimpse into what solutions to the climate crisis could look like if implemented with budding innovations of today. It’s a much more hopeful take on your traditional environmental documentary, even if the structure feels very apolitical.

Gameau narrates the film as a video diary of sorts to his adolescent daughter, Velvet, promising to give her a future worth living in. To do this, he travels the globe to locate various technological innovations that could help spearhead this green energy utopia. The catch: they can only be inventions that currently exist in 2019—no sci-fi blueprints allowed. These include a community micro-energy grid in Bangladesh, carbon absorbing soil in Australia that enhances meat quality, and an aquatic method where seaweed is used to reduce ocean acidity. All are small solutions, yet 2040 implies they unlock the key to reducing our carbon footprint.

The hypothetical impact of these ideas is depicted in segments set during the titular year. Here, we observe a mid-20s Velvet go about her everyday life in a futuristic world where solar energy is distributed like Venmo and community gardens have sprouted on rooftops and inside former parking lots. Of course, that doesn’t save her from scenes of middle-aged Damon and his wife, Zoë, acting like complete dorks (in weird yoga poses) in front of their daughter, but at least that’s all she has to worry about.

The film’s format involves a lot conversational interviews between Gameau and experts, with the occasional POV input from various kids on what they want to see in the future. When addressing the visual impact of Earth’s climate crisis, sequences take on a surrealist format akin to classic Bill Nye science videos, full of Claymation models and 3-D graphics that superimpose household objects with erratic ocean and weather patterns, making 2040 accessible to an all-age viewership.

The central economic message guiding these ideas is what one interview subject calls the “doughnut” model. Here, climate change is one of many ecological ceilings that threaten the idea of universal, sustainable living, with humanity currently trapped in a “hole” of inequality. The way out is through technological innovations that reform our approach to energy, housing, and social justice, among other necessities. It sets goals for humanity to meet but also limitations on how far to push before we reach unintended consequences.

This is a simple yet inspiring way to understand these “larger than life” existential problems and, as a regular volunteer for New York City’s Sunrise Movement Hub, I understand the appeal. 2040 implies that advocating for community-based environmental/economic plans is key to turning the tide on permanent planetary devastation.

Unfortunately, Gameau’s unwillingness to name human obstacles hinders his message a bit. There are a few references to Big Agriculture getting in the way of small farms and businesses encouraging climate denial through bots, but no government bodies or political leaders are addressed directly. Nor do we see the implications of climate change on various ethnic or class-based populations of the world. Damon probably could have addressed Trump and the modern GOP’s embrace of climate denialism as policy, but he clearly wants his film to be accessible to a wider audience. Without that grounded, uncomfortable sense of realism, though, the film maintains a wish fulfillment fantasy vibe that it never manages to fully shake off.

Still, even if politics are the underlying theme guiding this story, it’s not the message Gameau wants to promote. He’s endorsing hope, the idea of a future where these prototype climate solutions have been embraced by his daughter’s generation as the social norm. In that sense—even if feels like a 90-minute Travel Channel special—2040 succeeds at being inspiring as it makes you believe that Earth is still salvageable, if we act now with the available resources at our disposal.