The Paris Agreement is an international climate change treaty seeking to limit global warming to below 2° C, with an aim of below 1.5° C, and achieve a climate-neutral world by 2050. Since the treaty first came into effect in 2016, creating a more sustainable future has become a top priority for nations across the world.
Despite this shift in focus, projections from the World Economic Forum suggest that global emissions in 2030 will still be roughly twice as high as needed to limit warming to 1.5° C.
The challenge of decarbonizing the planet seems insurmountable at times, but there is hope. Innovative clean-tech solutions hold immense potential and, in many cases, are already accelerating the world towards a cleaner and greener future. Indeed, in the first nine months of 2021 alone, a record-breaking $30.8 billion was invested into climate-focused startups — a figure that is expected to grow in the coming months and years.
Here are nine technologies supporting the fight against climate change.
1. Electric Planes
Since 1999, airplane emissions haveincreased by 4.3%every year and it’s predicted that this will account for 25% of the world’s carbon emissionsby 2050.
We know that electric planes, which operate via large chargeable batteries, could eventually be far more energy-efficient than their fuel-powered counterparts. But limitations in battery technology have thus far stalled significant advancement in this area.
Nonetheless, several airlines are making progress, especially when it comes to short-haul flights. Last July, for example, United Airlines announced that its newly acquired zero-emission electric plane would take flight in the U.S. as early as 2026. Meanwhile, UK-airline EasyJet has partnered with a U.S. startup to develop a 186-seat 800-mile range commercial passenger jet that is due to enter service by 2030.
2. BioSolar Leaf
The UK-based company, Arborea, is on a mission to feed the world with healthy and sustainable food.
Its ground-breaking cultivation system, which has been named the BioSolar Leaf, facilitates the growth of microscopic plants to produce healthy food ingredients while mimicking the process of photosynthesis on a mass scale.
Arborea’s foodstuffs and proteins are vegan, non-GMO, hormone-free, and mostly carbon neutral.
3. Interconnectors
Interconnectors are high-voltage cables running under the seas, underground, or via overhead cabling. They enable the sharing of surplus renewable energy — from sources such as wind or solar farms — between different regions or even neighboring countries.
For example, the North Sea Link between the UK and Norway will soon enable the UK to access carbon-free Norwegian hydropower when UK supplies from wind and solar farms are low and vice versa.
4. Green Cement
A whopping 30 billion tonnes of concrete are used worldwide each year, which is three times as much as 40 years ago. Making cement is the most carbon-intensive part of concrete production, since it requires fossil fuels to heat the limestone and clay to more than 1400 °C. This process alone accounts for 8% of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions.
Solidia has developed two solutions to address these challenges. Its cement manufacturing technology uses less energy and reduces gas emissions by 30–40%. Meanwhile, the company’s concrete-curing technology cures concrete with carbon dioxide instead of water to save as much as three trillion liters of freshwater each year.
5. The Hive Network
Honeybees perform approximately 80% of all pollination worldwide, and yet their numbers are on the decline. Beekeepers across the U.S. lost 45.5% of their managed honeybee colonies from April 2020 to April 2021
A project launched by The World Bee ProjectandOracle, known as the World Hive Network, seeks to better protect the world’s bee population via a combination of AI, IoT, and Big Data-driven technology to monitor bee colonies and gather relevant data. It is hoped the project will enable conservationists to better predict bee behaviors. The program now has 50,000 intelligent hives in its network.
6. Lab-grown Foods
Lab-grown foods have boomed in recent years, particularly with regard to cultured meats.
In 2020, KFC announced its plans to put 3D-printed chicken nuggets on the menu; in 2021, a Singaporean restaurant became the first in the world to serve lab-grown meat; and there are now more than 70 startupsaround the world focused on developingcultured meat products.
Finnish food-tech startup Solar Foods is taking a particularly unique approach to lab-grown food: producing a natural edible protein with just electricity and air. The technology combines hydrogen — extracted from water — with carbon dioxide, water, vitamins, and minerals to feed and grow a microbial biomass.
7. Low-methane Cows
Zelp (Zero Emissions Livestock Project), a UK-based agri-tech company, has designed a cattle harness to help beef and dairy companies reduce their carbon footprint and monitor the health of their herds.
Methane has more than 80 times the warming power of carbon dioxide for the first 20 years after it reaches the atmosphere, and 25% of today’s warming is driven by methane from human actions.
Zelp’s harness sits over a cow’s nostrils — without impacting feeding or interaction within the herd — to capture and oxidize the methane it exhales. The gas is then released into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide and water vapor.
8. Emissions-free Steel Production
Steel production accounts for around 8% of all global carbon emissions, significant amounts of contaminated wastewater and other hazardous solid wastes, and is renowned for being one of the most difficult sectors to decarbonize.
But Boston Metal has found a way to reduce these impacts. With support from NASA and the American Iron and Steel Institute, Boston Metal has developed a coal-free and emissions-free method of industrial steel production known as molten oxide electrolysis. The process produces steel efficiently, cheaply, and with zero greenhouse gas emissions.
9. Direct Air Capture
Direct Air Capture (DAC) is a process by which carbon dioxide is removed directly from the atmosphere and sequestered underground. The technology operates much like an enormous vacuum cleaner to perform the role of photosynthesis at a significantly faster rate.
Furthermore, the carbon dioxide that is collected can be reused as needed — whether for carbonated drinks products or land fertilizer. At present, 19 DAC plants are operating worldwide and capturing more than 0.01 Mt CO2 each year.
