Agenda

We are at a critical juncture in the climate tech landscape, where the urgency of the climate crisis is pressing. This demands a paradigm shift in how innovation is funded and nurtured. Climate tech in particular has been selected because it is growing fast – in terms of number of start-ups and the scale of investment, with investment going from $28.4b in 2020 and particularly significant politically, with growing interest among policy-makers to ensure that governments better use industry policy to catalyse its growth Uniquely placed to solve the current climate finance crisis, the current trajectory of climate tech is that it is becoming dominated by the broader VC-driven approach. This often sidelines true innovation and imposes unsustainable growth pressures on climate tech startups. It leads to the core dynamic of ‘techno-optimism’. This approach prioritises rapid scale-up and high returns, with the ambition of solving the climate crisis through technical innovations and mechanistic approaches (e.g. poorly suited and highly prescriptive models of impact measurement and management). This lacks real consideration or awareness of alternative enterprise design ideas (e.g. from the new economy movements), emerging models of investment design or social and political factors that require a consideration of systemic factors.