Climate tech: Harnessing the power of technology for a sustainable future

In this Capgemini Research Institute report, Climate tech: Harnessing the power of technology for a sustainable future, we explore climate technologies in depth, recognizing their importance for addressing climate and ecological issues.  

Climate technologies have become crucial to formulating an effective response to current sustainability challenges. Leaders of organizations agree with this sentiment, with three-quarters of the executives we surveyed saying their organizations will not achieve their sustainability goals without climate tech. Not only the reach but also the impact of these technologies will be significant, with 37% of executives expecting climate tech to help their organizations achieve 37% of their decarbonization / net zero goals.

Despite the great potential of climate tech solutions, cost currently poses a major barrier to widespread adoption. Existing green premiums for climate tech adoption – i.e., the difference in cost between low-carbon products and their high-emitting alternatives – are often significant. For this reason, there is a long way to go to make climate tech solutions commercially viable.

One solution to these cost challenges is the use of digital technologies such as AI and digital twins. They can be employed to reduce development costs, increase efficiencies, and speed up innovation processes. Of these technologies, executives view AI as the most promising for accelerating climate tech adoption, with 77% putting it in this category. Significantly, 71% of organizations have already realized cost advantages from using digital technologies to scale climate tech.

We conclude this report with recommendations for organizations to accelerate climate tech adoption in order to meet their sustainability goals – including four actions as well as three enablers that organizations can implement for this purpose. Download the full report to find out more about climate tech and its fundamental role in enabling organizations to create a sustainable future.

 

“Because of recent significant global events, energy priorities have been redefined. In this year’s World Energy Markets Observatory, we explore our urgent need to accelerate the energy transition while managing the security of supply, sovereignty of energy production, equipment and resources, and ensuring energy affordability.”
James Forrest
Group Industry Leader for Energy Transition and Utilities at Capgemini