Climate Tech Makes it Rain
Funding for clean tech is taking off, with investors more than doubling their investments in decarbonizing industries compared to a decade ago, according to an extensive report published by The Economist this week. Investors committed more than $500 million dollars to clean technology startups in 2020, the vast majority of which went to renewable energy innovations and electrified transport.
The shift has come from institutional capital in all its forms. While venture capital firms have led the charge, funds ranging from family foundations to private equity firms to government innovation programs have all pitched into the trend. The boom comes on the heels of the successful IPOs of Tesla and Beyond Meat, both of which have returned billions to their investors. The latest wave of investments are a welcome trend in an industry where the Economist points out that ānearly 95% of founders have failed to secure follow-on funding.ā
Countdown to COP26
The climate tech spending spree couldnāt come at a better time, as financing will be at the top of the agenda for the COP26 climate negotiations set to take place this November in Glasgow, Scotland. Scotlandās Net Zero Secretary Michael Matheson said the quiet part out loud earlier this month when he told the Scottish press that, āCOP26 in Glasgow represents the world's best chance ā perhaps one of our last chances ā to avert the worst impacts of climate change.ā
To that end, U.S. Climate Envoy John Kerry landed in Tokyo this week to discuss the main priority of the conference: securing agreements from countries like Japan and China to draw down their use of coal. But how and who should pay for that transition will also be on the table.
Earlier this year The Biden Administration pledged $5.7 billion annually to the UNās Green Climate Fund, which was established to help vulnerable nations bear the costs of a sustainable transition. While the figure represents an increase of pledges from the Obama Administration, the United States is still well behind pace on its overall commitments to the fund.
Climate Goes to the Polls
Mounting climate catastrophes are leading up to a moment of truth for political leaders on disparate continents this week. Polls in Norway indicate that the Labour Party and its Green Party allies will replace Conservative Prime Minister Erna Solberg in upcoming electionsā this in a country that currently holds the title of Western Europeās most prolific oil producer.
Meanwhile in Canada, relentless heat waves that have shattered records have led to climate change taking top priority among voters, according to pre-election polls. Roughly 18% of likely voters in Canada said climate was the most important issue in this election. The traditional political parties in both countries have so far walked a tightrope between promoting economic interests tied to fossil fuels and complying with ambitious climate commitments.
In Norway, this will mean a coalition of pro-environment parties with differing approaches to oil exploration. In Canada, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will have to square his pro-climate rhetoric with a 1% increase in Canadaās greenhouse gas emissions during his tenure.
Out of Thin Air
Swiss carbon removal startup Climeworks raised $10 million dollars over ten years from reinsurance firm Swiss Re this week, marking the biggest investment to date in direct air capture technologies. The deal represents an effort by Swiss Re to fulfill its own carbon neutrality commitments, but the company also hopes it can serve as a beacon to other actors in an industry already paying for the impacts of climate change.
Climeworks uses geothermal energy and excess steam from industrial processes to power fans that suck CO2 directly from the air, and inject it into rock formations for permanent storage. The deal does not specify how much carbon Climeworks will capture at the end of 10 years, but the startupās newest facility in Iceland will reportedly be able to capture and store 4,000 tons of CO2 each year. According to the latest IPCC report, carbon capture technologies will play a vital role in removing the estimated 100 billion to 1 trillion tons of carbon necessary to maintain a livable planet.
Sweet Survival
Rumors of chocolateās demise in future climate scenarios may have been greatly exaggerated. That is one of the conclusions of researchpublished by Biodiversity International in Peru this week, which projects that more resilient wild cacao trees may thrive where cultivated cacao declines. The forecast for cacao as it is produced today still looks grim: about 10% of the land currently dedicated to farming cacao will be inhospitable to the small tree in coming decades. The researchers caution that this doesnāt mean chocolate and coffee lovers arenāt out of the woods yet. Their model didnāt account for possible pests and disease, and the hardier strains of cacao bean will likely grow in areas harder to reach by human hands.
This edition of This Week In Climate was written by Julian Moore.
Climate Opportunities
Applications now open to Scale For ClimateTech
Scale For ClimateTech is recruiting for Cohort 4! Avoid costly mistakes and navigate the manufacturing landscape as an industry expert with one of the few programs in the country that supports innovators step-by-step from prototype to mass production. The free program is designed for early to growth stage hardware companies that are developing products that reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and addressing the climate crisis. Learn how to apply and register here for more than a dozen events to experience what the program is like and see if it is the right fit for you and your team. To learn more, click here.
New Climate Jobs
Project Drawdown - Project Drawdown presents 100 solutions for humanity to reach climate drawdown, the point at which greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere begin to decline on a year-to-year basis. Project Drawdown's research and analysis includes the work of a broad coalition of researchers, scientists, graduate students, PhDs, post-docs, policy makers, business leaders and activists to assemble and present the best available information on existing climate solutions in order to describe their beneficial financial, social and environmental impact.
- Climate Finance Senior Research Fellow, Drawdown Labs (Remote)
- Climate Philanthropy Senior Research Fellow, Drawdown Labs (Remote)
Noya - Noya is accelerating the world's transition to a carbon negative existence. We're doing this by radically reducing both the upfront capital cost and the time required to build direct air capture processes. We retrofit existing pieces of industrial equipment like cooling towers and turn them into direct air capture machines.
- Founding Mechanical Engineer (San Francisco, CA, USA)
- Founding Chemical Engineer (San Francisco, CA, USA)
Farm - Farm is a platform for restoring undervalued land. Our mission is to increase the number of healthy acres & productive investments that benefit America's natural ecosystem.
Ecosia - Ecosia, the search engine that plants trees, is one of the world's largest social businesses and the first B Corporation in Germany. As part of our mission to cultivate a more environmentally, socially and economically sustainable world, we are planting and protecting forests by enabling people to channel their everyday actions into environmental good. So far our 15 million users have planted over 100 million trees. Our reach is expanding as we continue to grow and plant native and biodiverse trees worldwide!
- Design System Lead Frontend Engineer (Berlin, Germany)
- IT Administrator (Berlin, Germany)
- Accountant (Berlin, Germany)
- UX Copywriter (Berlin, Germany)
- Senior Frontend Engineer-Design System (Berlin, Germany)
- Tech Lead SRE (Berlin, Germany)
- Data Engineer (Berlin, Germany)
Tomorrow.io - Tomorrow.io is the world's only Weather Intelligence Platform that is customizable to any industry impacted by the weather. They are hiring for dozens of roles in the following departments:
- Business Development
- Customer Success
- Operations
- R&D
- Sales
- Engineering
Tradewater - Tradewaterās mission is to improve our environment and create economic opportunity through the collection, control, and destruction of potent, high impact greenhouse gases. We believe that a company committed to cleaning up the environment can be just as successful ā if not more so ā than a company that achieves its goals without regard to environmental impact.
- Data & Analytics Developer (Remote)
- Tradewater Courier (Remote / Baltimore, MD, USA / Cleveland, OH, USA)
- Program Manager Latin America and the Caribbean (Remote / San Jose, Costa Rica)
Rocky Mountain Institute - RMI is an independent nonprofit founded in 1982 that transforms global energy systems through market-driven solutions to align with a 1.5Ā°C future and secure a clean, prosperous, zero-carbon future for all. We work in the worldās most critical geographies and engage businesses, policymakers, communities, and NGOs to identify and scale energy system interventions that will cut greenhouse gas emissions at least 50 percent by 2030.
- Community Builder - Third Derivative (Remote)
Mission Control Communications - Mission Control Communications is an award-winning global climate-tech agency founded to evangelize the impact of scientific and technological breakthroughs that will sustain our world. We support pioneers at the intersection of clean energy, advanced mobility, renewable resources, sustainable infrastructure and deeptech discoveries.
- Account Director (Remote)
Altus Thermal - Altus Thermal is a Boston-based startup rethinking home energy use. Weāre developing a smart hardware product that will drive higher efficiency, provide greater comfort, deliver a more modern user experience, and increase benefits to the electrical grid.
- Vice President of Software Engineering (Boston, MA, USA)
HowGood - HowGood is an independent research company with the world's largest database on product sustainability. With more than 33,000 ingredients, chemicals, and materials assessed, HowGood SaaS and impact data offerings help leading brands, retailers and investors improve their environmental and social impact.
- Senior React Engineer (Remote)
- Director of Customer Success (Remote)
- Director of SaaS Sales (Remote)
- Product Marketing Director (Remote)
- Senior Python Engineer (Remote)
- Statistics and Data Integrity Specialist (Remote)
Cloverly - Cloverly, an API for carbon offsets, uses technology to help businesses, organizations, and individuals become carbon neutral or even carbon negative. Cloverly has made carbon offsetting available in a wide variety of business segments for everything from ridesharing and flights to fintech and supply chains.
- Front-End Developer (Remote)
- Mid-Level Python Developer (Remote)
Patch - Patch is the platform for negative emissions. Businesses can leverage their API to programmatically calculate their emissions and make any transaction climate positive.
- Senior Software Engineer (San Francisco, California, USA)
- Lead Visual Designer (San Francisco, California, USA)
FarmTogether - FarmTogether allows it's users to diversify their portfolio and increase their passive income by investing in farmland with FarmTogetherās all-in-one investment platform.
- Farmland Manager (Remote)
- Growth Marketing Manager (Remote)
Finite - We are a venture-backed company disrupting sustainable finance. Our product simplifies the investment process of funding sustainable infrastructure enabling widespread adoption. We believe everyone can make a difference and enable individuals and institutions to align their capital and goals.
- Marketing Associate (Remote)
Propagate Ventures - Propagate helps farmers & landowners make regenerative agriculture work for them by balancing short-term income with long-term returns. Their platform makes it easy to access the operational know-how, implementation tools, financing and off-take agreements needed to reduce business risks while integrating fruit, nut and timber trees with animal or crop farming systems.
- Director of Engineering (Remote / Denver, CO, USA)
- Senior Software Engineer (Remote / Denver, CO, USA)
Recurrent - Recurrent is the future of how used electric cars are bought and sold. Weāll be entering the established online auto marketplace business on the basis of a unique differentiator, our independent EV battery reports. As the first mover on used EV battery analysis, we have the best set of cross-manufacturer battery aging data to develop the most accurate predictive algorithm for future battery life and range.
- Senior Backend Software Engineer (Remote)
- Head of Sales (Remote)
Advanced Energy Economy - Advanced Energy Economy (AEE) is a national association of businesses that are making the energy we use secure, clean, and affordable. AEE is the only industry association in the U.S. that represents the full range of advanced energy technologies and services, both grid-scale and distributed. Advanced energy includes energy efficiency, demand response, energy storage, wind, solar, hydro, nuclear, electric vehicles, and more.
- Sales Development Representative (Washington, D.C., USA)
Renewable Energy Buyers Alliance - REBA is an alliance of large clean energy buyers, energy providers, and service providers that, together with NGO partners, are unlocking the marketplace for all nonresidential energy buyers to lead a rapid transition to a cleaner, prosperous, zero-carbon energy future.
- Director of People (Washington, D.C., USA)
- Associate, Western Markets (Boulder, CO, USA)
- Manager, Federal Policy (Washington, D.C., USA)
Axiom Cloud - Axiom Cloud provides "apps for commercial refrigeration" to solve our customers' largest energy and maintenance challenges through automation. Our subscription-based apps help to reduce painful unplanned refrigeration outages, generate significant operational cost savings, reduce energy bills, generate a new revenue stream (demand response) and reduce the number of alarms.
- Principal Software Engineer (Remote)
- Operations Engineer (Remote)
Pachama - Pachama is a mission-driven company looking to restore nature to help address climate change. Pachama brings the latest technology in remote sensing and AI to the world of forest carbon in order to enable forest conservation and restoration to scale.
- Strategy & Finance Manager (Remote)
- Forest Carbon Specialist (San Francisco, CA, USA)
- Forest Remote Sensing Specialist (Remote)
- Product Manager, GIS/Machine Learning (Remote)
- Deep Learning Engineer (Remote)
- Client Partner (Remote)
- Director of People (San Francisco, CA, USA)
- Senior Data Engineer (San Francisco, CA, USA)
- Policy Advisor (Remote)
Flux - Flux is commercializing the first total-cost of ownership electric vehicle lease. The more you drive, the more you save. We plan to leverage EV's lower operating costs to drive greater adoption for all consumers by lowering barriers to entry.
- Lead Product Manager (San Francisco or Los Angeles, CA, USA)
AMP Robotics - AMP Robotics is a pioneer and industry leader in artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, and infrastructure for the waste and recycling industry. Weāre working to reimagine and actively modernize recycling by applying AI and automation to increase recycling rates and economically recover recyclables reclaimed as raw materials for the global supply chain. We build and deploy cutting-edge technology solutions that solve many of the central challenges of recycling to make it more efficient, cost-effective, scalable, and sustainable. They are hiring for dozens of roles across:
- Software Engineering
- Hardware Engineering
- IT
- Recruiting
- Accounting
- Operations
- Project Management
- Sales
- Business Development (
Coollist is Live!
Our friends at Earth Partners just dropped the Coollist! What is the Cool List? A hand picked list of the hottest companies helping us keep the š cool. Check it out here.
View more jobs on Climatebase.org
š Get discovered. Complete your profile to be see by hundreds of employers hiring on Climatebase.
š New here? Subscribe!
š Hiring? Post your jobs on Climatebase to reach thousands of eyeballs and inboxes.
ā¤ļøļø Share a link to this week's edition, or check out last week's edition.
š¦ Let's connect! Follow us on Twitter @Climatebase, and you can find me @evanhynes_
|