I think Yuval Harari gives a compelling answer to the age-old question “what to do with my life?”. He begins by explaining very convincingly that humanity faces three existential threats this century, these risks being nuclear war, ecological collapse and technological disruption. He then logically concludes that unless you can’t figure out anything else to do with your life, just pick one those three risks and try to make a difference there.
What exactly is meant by ecological collapse? According to all-mighty Wikipedia:
Ecological collapse refers to a situation where an ecosystem suffers a drastic, possibly permanent, reduction in carrying capacity for all organisms, often resulting in mass extinction.
Although there is no single cause for ecological collapse, several attributing factors can be pointed out. Again, according to Wikipedia:
Important pressures contributing to current and future ecological collapse include habitat loss, degradation, and fragmentation, overgrazing, overexploitation of ecosystems by humans, human industrial growth and overpopulation, climate change, ocean acidification, pollution, and invasive species.
Of all the pressures mentioned above, climate change has probably received most attention lately, and rightfully so. It’s safe to say that unless successfully dealt with, climate change might become the main reason we face ecological collapse.
A simplified definition of climate change is that it “includes both global warming driven by human emissions of greenhouse gases and the resulting large-scale shifts in weather patterns”. The main driver of warming is the “emission of greenhouse gases, of which more than 90% are carbon dioxide and methane”. These emissions come mainly from fossil fuel burning (for energy), but also from agriculture, deforestation, and manufacturing.
This is where Climate Tech enters the picture. It deals specifically with addressing climate change and can on a high-level be defined as “any new business model and technology that mitigates the impacts and drivers of global greenhouse gas emissions (i.e. climate change)”.
Going a bit deeper, PwC defines Climate Tech as follows in their recent report The State of Climate Tech 2020:
Climate Tech encompasses a broad set of sectors which tackle the challenge of decarbonising the global economy, with the aim of reaching net zero emissions before 2050. This includes low-to-negative carbon approaches to cut key sectoral sources of emissions across energy, built environment, mobility, heavy industry, and food and land use; plus cross-cutting areas, such as carbon capture and storage, or enabling better carbon management, such as through transparency and accounting.”
It’s worth pointing out that Climate Tech is distinct from Clean Tech at least in two ways, because as the PwC report points out “Clean Tech remains a dirty word for many venture capitalists, who lost out in the boom and bust of the late 2000s”.
First, Clean Tech is a much broader term (i.e. not as focused as Climate Tech) and may refer to any new business model or technology that increases performance and productivity while minimizing negative impacts on the environment. This could include anything from “clean energy, clean air, water treatment, transportation, recycling and waste reduction, supply chain improvement, the built environment, manufacturing, and more”.
Second, the world is a lot different now almost 15 years later, when Climate Tech is emerging and gaining momentum among entrepreneurs and investors. The global tech ecosystem has developed tremendously, not only when it comes to technological advances and lower startup costs, but also when it comes to the quality and experience of entrepreneurs and the support they get from venture capitalists and other players in the ecosystem.
So if you’re like me, a tech enthusiast wondering what to do with your life, why not focus on Climate Tech then? After all, as the PwC report points out:
There is arguably no greater innovation challenge for today’s founders, technologists, industry leaders and investors: the world has 10 years to halve global greenhouse gas emissions before we reach 1.5°C of global warming, beyond which scientists warn that dangerous impacts will kick in.
I for one am going to start paying much more attention to Climate Tech going forward, and I definitely want to learn as much as possible about the various technologies and opportunities emerging out there. Seems like a perfect object to focus on in order to find something meaningful to do with the time and resources I have at my disposal.