3/18/2024 10:44:07 AM | less than a minute read

Why aren’t VCs funding tech to help us adapt to climate change?

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David Hunt

CEO & Founder

Get in touch

David Hunt

CEO & Founder

I love it when a plan comes together! (anyone else remember watching the A-Team!!) Some time ago I wondered why we in the cleantech ecosystem were afraid to talk about Adaption. Did it mean accepting defeat in the mission to fight climate change? Not at all in my mind. Born from a conversation in Munich with cleantech VC Ulrich Seitz we explored this theme. We even recorded a podcast specifically on the ‘Adaptation’ theme. You can watch it here Now Ulrich has gone on to found the ‘Adapt to your wolrd’ conference in Muncih in April, you can sign up or find out more here It's a start, and it's a complex issue. Who pays? Is it morally correct to make money saving people from death and suffering? Is it a problem we can bury our heads in the sand against? Of course not. We need to accept adaptation is needed. Adaptation needs big investment.

What are your thoughts?

David

hat’s where adaptation tech comes in. As the name suggests, these solutions help us adapt to climate change — and receive just 7.5% of the global climate tech funding pie, according to data from the Oxford Climate Tech Initiative covering 2019-2020. While there’s not much VC backing for adaptation hardware and infrastructure, VCs do have a soft spot for software-based adaptation tech. Sifted has learnt that one London-based software startup, Climate X, is raising Series A funding. But many of the most needed technologies, particularly hardware and infrastructure for the Global South, while intriguing VCs, have yet to tempt them to open their wallets en masse.

sifted.eu/...