Humans have an innate desire to name things, but to be honest, we're not always good at it.
Take climate technology: broadly speaking, a category of companies and technologies that seek to reduce or reverse our impact on the climate. As terms go, climate technology is actually not that bad, as the focus of the sector is defined in two words.
It is its predecessor; Certainly more than pure technology. Today's startups operating under the banner of climate technology are likely to call themselves more than a decade ago. But that wasn't a very good description. For the uninitiated, clean tech can just as easily refer to robotic vacuum cleaners or innovative home appliances. Weather technology is easier to understand.
But climate technology is about a decade old, and humans like to feel like they're on the cutting edge of something new. Beyond that, the field of climate technology has grown to the point where it's becoming a little more flexible. Some started. Explore other options. A year or so ago.
Planetary health emerged as an early alternative; First invented. In Journal of Medicine Lancet In 2014, some investors Accept and believe.In the section dealing with the issue of scope. Many companies do not seek to address carbon pollution, but are still focused on technologies that address the impact humanity has on the planet. It has its charms, but most people stick to climate technology.
Then Donald Trump was elected for a second term. “Climate” hasn't exactly gone from buzzword to dirty word, but people are actively talking about it. Stay away. From the expression. You can try to fight it if you wish, but the migration really started before the election. In five years, We'll call climate technology something else entirely.
What will it be? People started throwing things at the wall to see what the stick was. Planetary Health is an obvious alternative. It is descriptive and has an early lead. Hi American activism The platform has a clean energy board; But that term only applies to a single VC firm — a16z; His partner, Katherine Boyle, created it and runs a practice under that name — and the defense; It includes many other things, including public safety. Education housing and more.
Frontier tech Although you might think that climate technology is very broad, it's not. You definitely won't love how overwhelming the frontier tech is. Critical infrastructure? Although it overlaps with climate technology, the Venn diagram is not a perfect circle. Deep tech is another thing that encompasses climate technology, but AI; Including more like robotics and quantum computing.
recently proposed. Advancement technology. It is not the intention to throw stones. But I didn't see it caught. That's too general — aren't all venture-backed startups looking for growth? — it doesn't capture the essence of what these startups are driving. Is climate technology likely to unleash a wave of growth and industrial innovation? You don't have to look much further than China to understand this. But I think there are better terms.
Because I am not one to criticize without giving a solution. This is my word. If you really need it, I'd recommend the resilience technique. It is not perfect; I will think of something better in the future. But I guess it will do for now. It captures the essence of what is driving climate technology: making the world and humans more resilient.