Daniel Batten is a climate tech investor, author, analyst and environmental campaigner who previously founded and led his own tech company.
Why A Climate Tech Investor Got Excited About Gases From Garbage
Since 2013, climate technology has grown at a similarly astounding pace to bitcoin itself: up 210% in the last year, and up 20,933% since 2013. In fact, climate tech now represents 14 cents of every venture capital dollar invested.
Now, the two worlds are merging as Bitcoin mining emerges not only as the way that the world’s future financial system is secured, but also as one of the world’s most important climate tech propositions. In terms of its ability to tackle our most urgent emission problems at scale today, it is, incredibly, the best-positioned climate tech solution.
A bit of background: climate tech is the fastest growing area of venture capital for a reason. In the technology sector, you get commercially rewarded for solving the biggest pain points. The prevalence of climate tech suggests that collectively, humanity may have finally woken up to the fact our real issues are not a lack of retina display devices, but a lack of a clear path to a safe climate.
Climate tech companies are a little like Maslow’s hierarchy of needs: some are focused on the most urgent, pressing issues (akin to “Food, Water and Shelter”) on Maslow’s hierarchy. Others are more about the nuances higher up the pyramid.
When I explain Maslow’s hierarchy to people, I often say “If you don’t know where your next meal is coming from, self-actualisation is unlikely to be your top priority.”
About a year ago, I realized that unless we have our “survival-tech” sorted, the higher layers of climate tech will arrive too late to help us.
Based on the fact that a technology ready today has a more immediate impact than one ready in a decade, and the fact that methane emissions are 84x more potent than carbon dioxide emissions, we can get a sense of what Maslow’s pyramid looks…
