If you haven’t heard of ‘ClimateTech,’ hold onto your hats; ClimateTech is the latest big thing in the mission-driven venture capital economy.
ClimateTech-aligned sectors attracted $70.1 billion in investments in 2022, an 89% increase over 2021 and a bright spot in an otherwise down-trending year for venture capital investments. But the world has seen many ‘tech’ trends come (and many go) over the last decade. How about CleanTech, GreenTech, EnergyTech, BioTech, InfoTech and, of course, AgriFoodTech, the primary focus of this blog to date?
So, what then is ClimateTech? Just another trendy buzzword? Or something that can make a difference?
By most definitions, ClimateTech is the big picture, all-inclusive look at technologies that mitigate the multi-faceted challenges of climate change, making ClimateTech a pretty big deal, actually, when we consider the current state of our planet. Just for starters, there’s the United Nationals Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) plea to halve the world’s emissions by 2030 in hopes of keeping the planet from going above a 1.5°C warming threshold to avoid the worst predictions of climate change catastrophic impacts.
ClimateTech wraps up into one big package the technologies we’ve been debating and the answers we’ve been demanding for years, like CleanEnergy. But ClimateTech focuses on faster, more impactful, and more disruptive technologies. Moreover, ClimateTech is ‘carbon culture’ orientated, with a sense of urgency encouraging not just the adaption to climate change impacts but, preferably, stopping and even reversing climate change altogether.
Not a big surprise, but AgriFoodTech has a starring role in ClimateTech. The global food system not only contributes more than a quarter of the world’s annual greenhouse gas emissions, but the worse climate change gets, the harder it will become to produce food. According to global economic market intelligence company Holon IQ, food and agriculture brought in the third most investment money and the second most investment deals out of their 10 ClimateTech-specific sectors.
So, why aren’t we just staying in our lane and talking about AgriFoodTech? Well, because here at CS Partners, we believe that many ClimateTech technologies are closely intertwined with the AgriFoodTech sector. Expanding our horizon is an opportunity to inspire, borrow and cross-pollinate ideas plus develop new pipelines of funding and talent, all within the over-arching mission-driven philosophy of solving climate change.
Here at CS Partners, we’ve been diving deep into the rapidly expanding world of ClimateTech technologies.
6 ClimateTech Approaches to Solving Climate Change
Here are six strategies, and ClimateTech companies, we are excited to be talking about.
1) Biomass Approach to Renewable Energy
The biomass approach to renewable energy uses biology, chemistry and bio-processing techniques to turn plant, animal and human biomass waste into heat for power or biofuels for transportation.
Using biomass to generate energy is a familiar concept – anaerobic digesters built over dairy (or swine) manure pits to capture and scrub methane into biomethane, a type of renewable natural gas (RNG), have been around, in theory at least, since the 1960s. But recent advances in biochemical technologies are finding new ways to turn a broader slate of materials into a more extensive menu of renewable fuels, diverting our dependence on fossil fuels and (hopefully) reducing emissions.
Licella – Uses hydrothermal liquefaction (aka water under high pressure and temperature) to turn biomass and even plastic wastes and residues into high-quality oil, a direct substitute for fossil fuel-derived crude oil.
BioGasol – Unlocks sugars from plant materials using biochemical conversion technology, creating replacements for fuels, chemicals and materials.
2) Clean Hydrogen as a Pathway to Decarbonized Resources
New chemistry and bio-processing technologies are finding ways to produce low-carbon or carbon-free hydrogen, an essential energy resource in many industrial processes, including steel, chemical fertilizer, plastics and even oil production.
This creates a new decarbonization pathway for critical resource production and once again enables the necessary shift away from fossil fuels.
ZEG Power – Replaces fossil fuel energy with clean hydrogen using an integrated carbon capture and separation system. Can use biogas (generated from gasified biomass) to achieve negative emissions energy production.
3) Chemistry & Biology Solutions to Material Production
Sustainable materials use chemistry to turn renewable, biological feedstocks into building blocks valid for manufacturing products typically made from petrochemicals or carbon-intensive resources.
Sustainable materials are often built upon technologies similar to alt-meat and precision-based fermentation food production startups. In this case, however, these companies are growing products in their labs, not food.
Checkerspot – Uses chemistry to engineer microalgae into molecular building blocks that can be turned into wood-replacement building materials or even a biocarbon-wicking treatment used in high-performance textiles.
Modern Meadow – Uses DNA-editing and precision fermentation to turn proteins into products typically produced from petrochemicals or animal-derived products. For instance, they create a ‘vegan leather’ replacement material by growing collagen, the protein in skin, from yeast.
4) The Biosphere Answer
Biosphere technologies take a restorative approach to the biosphere we live in, aka land, forests, oceans, air and even polar ice caps, looking to mitigate and adapt to the impacts of climate change.
In many cases, biosphere strategies are based on AI, satellite tracking and software solutions, but sometimes use biology and chemistry as a pathway to mitigation and adaption.
Loam Bio – Uses microbial organisms to remove atmospheric carbon and store it in agricultural soils.
5) The Circular Economy Strategy to Climate Change Mitigation
The circular economy element of ClimateTech takes the recycling approach. Rather than mining for resources, producing a product and then disposing of waste, circular economy solutions look to flip the switch and transform waste into a resource of new raw materials.
Circular economy strategies offset the demand for the world’s resources and the carbon-creating processes of mining them, thereby reducing the emissions generated from production.
Novoloop – Upcycles plastic waste using molecular chemistry to cut plastic’s carbon chain and create a new polyurethane polymer with high durability, flexibility and abrasion resistance. For instance, athletic footwear made from recycled plastic bags.
Gradiant – Uses multiple technologies to deploy cleantech water solutions for advanced wastewater treatment strategies appropriate for numerous industries, including pharmaceuticals, mining and lithium, food and beverage, power generation, renewable energy, refining and chemicals and textiles.
6) Carbon Capture and Utilization
Carbon capture is “capturing” CO2 generated through conventional power and industrial production before it enters the atmosphere and securing it, either in storage reservoirs or by locking it into a secondary product.
Carbon capture and utilization strategies decarbonize fossil fuel-based technologies by significantly mitigating (and ideally eliminating) their climate-change impact.
Econic – Uses novel catalyst technologies enabling plastic-based manufacturers to reuse their waste CO2 as polymer feedstock, replacing 50% of the fuel-based raw materials used for plastic products in the automotive, consumer goods, apparel and home furnishings sectors.
What Do You Think of ClimateTech?
There are more strategies under the vast umbrella of ClimateTech, like nuclear power, data and financing solutions, and plenty of ideas focused on climate-proofing transportation. But these are the areas that most intrigue us, with the most obvious parallels similar to the technologies we’ve been fans of in AgriFoodTech.
So, what do you think of ClimateTech? Is there any particular idea or company that has caught your attention lately? As scary and overwhelming as climate change is, ClimateTech offers solutions. So, now let’s get to them!
Are you interested in talking ClimateTech, AgriFoodTech or how CS Partners can help you find the executive talent team you need to bring your mission-driving startup to the next level? Feel free to reach out at any time!
Contact C.S. Partners, or feel free to email me directly at s.leich@cs-partners.net.
Cheers!
Simon Leich, CEO
CS Partners
