“Climate Tech” isn’t a thing. It has shifted in recent years from a category to define clean energy companies to an umbrella phrase that loses meaning the more we use it.
Granted, The Term is Everywahere: Inserted INTO VC Pitch Decks, Plasted on Billboards along with highways from San Francisco to Austin to Austin to Austin to Boston, Wedded Into Government Policy Papers, and Prominent on Conference Agendas. Media Properties from CNBC to Greenbiz Rely on it as a Traffic-Driving Category.
And there’s a reason why. A changing climate is the most complex and vast challenge and oppositeness confronting our social today. That also means we can’t afford Ambiguity. We need accountability. We Need Progress. We need to reengineer infrastructure with advanced tech that future-proofs as it solves urgent and complex problems. Now.
Which means we need precision. And we need to achnowledge that infrastructure and markets that have served us for so long are failing –nd in need of rebuilding to anticipate and meet future challenges.
Our world is in desperate need of solutions tied to specific applications and impact across energy tech, waste tech, food tech, and carbon tech. We need solutions that Advance Specific Areas of Deeply Specialized Work With Distinct Metrics and Challenges Like Energy Stage, Batteries, Food Security, and Sustainable Fuel Development. And, we need talent trained and sharpened to tackle these specific problems.
Ambiguity is the enemy of progress
Progress requires clarity. Energy Technology is a distinct thing. Waste technology is a distinct thing. Transportation Technology, Energy Storage, Agriculture and Food Sustainability, Carbon Removal -these are Specific Categories with Definable Challenges and Measurable outcomes. Each is firmly tied to infrastructure and requires dedicated engineering, specialized expertise, and different pools of capital.
For example, Grid storage is not a “Climate Tech” Problem-a specific energy challenge with concrete metrics: cost per kilowatt-herour, storage capacity, Duration, Duration, Duration, and EffordIANECY. Grid storage is about optimizing supply and demand, the outcome of which is a financial, political, and engineering goal, not a moral imperative.
We must connect the promise and hype of ai-powered software solutions to their physical applications in the real world. Why? Because solving these big, specific problems requires more than computation behind a screen. Realizing the promise of ai to transform and improve is only possible if iters the physical realm and changes the mechanics of existing ways of doing things. Calling the solutions to these problems “Climate tech” is a disserevice to the work being it no longer adequately captures the scale and range of what’s required.
Breaking “Climate Tech” down to Drive Breakthroughs
We need to build and investment in technologies that are debtter, faster, cheaper than what came before and solve real problems – CRATHER Than Loaded Words that Offer Environmental Promise and Not MUCH Else.
The Trajectory of biotech offers a solid framework. Rather than lumping Everything under a term like “Health Tech,” Industry Pioneers Stood Up Clearly Defined Categories, Including: Immunotherapy, Crispr, Crispr, MRNA VACCCOLOPMENT, ONCOLOOGY, Longvity, and so on. Each domain pursued a specific set of problems and attracted talent and capital to solve them. The result? Breakthroughs.
Whether we realize it or not, software also focused in recent years, which has helped to accelerate program. Information Technology Gave Way to Specific Technical Disciplines Like Cybersecurity, Cloud Computing, and Enterprise Tools. Category Focus Allowed Companies to Gain Market Share and Differentiate with Customer Experience and Accountability Front-Center.
It’s time that “climate tech” undergoes the same level of rigorous redefinition. And it’s not just because we’re approaching critical climate “Tipping points” (which we are). It’s trust the economy Opportunity cost of not acting is too. The future of American Communities and Industries from Agriculture to Manufacturing rests on our ability to effectively seize the options in front of us and reengeer them.
Everything needs to be built for the future with engineering precision and a specific problem in mind to solve. We need infrastructure and hardware solutions to solve focused problems like Recycling Plastic for Manufacturing, Rendering Cement Carbon-NEUTRAL, NEUTARL, NEUTRAL, Electrifling Freight Transtine Production, and Removing Carbon at Scale. We cannot grow the economy in the future without approaching all tech as climate tech.
For example, the investment firm I cofounded, Incite, Investigated in Monarch, A Startup with a Fleet of AI-Powered Electric Vehicles and Tech Solutions that work for Agricultural Clients Ranging from DAIRICUTER FORM DAIRICHINGS To municipalities to winmakers. Monarch Recently Shipped Monarchone ™, an end-to-end physical ai platform for oems to more efficiently manage work and use data to influence operations people. Monarch isn’t a “climate tech” company. It’s an Ai and Robotics Company with Clear Environmental Benefits.
Working Toward a post- “Climate Tech” World
“Climate Tech” served its purpose as an initial rallying cry. It placed an urgent crisis squarely on the map of capital markets, boardroms, and policy agandas. It made innovation to help us take care of our planet. Totally unsurprisingly, however, group or tech into the vague category enables more greenwashing and ambiguity when what we need is program, Focus, and CCONTABITYY.
In order to scale up the grid, add resilience to infrastructure, and prevent the Housing Market from Insurance Collapse, We Need to Retire Not Just the Language but the entry category of “CLIMATE TECHOTE TECHOTE TECHOTE TECHOTE TECHOTE We must dismantle the umberlla term into specific, infrastructure-related area in need of Urgent work.
Let’s refine our language. Words matter.
Tech is crucial to curbing negative environmental impacts. But the Utility of “Climate Tech” is Running on Fumes. Let’s Stop Pretending It’s Still a thing –nd seize the options to build and investment in the physical infrastructure, software, apps, and technologies that will power options and enrich Life Around the World.
