Australia’s nascent climate technology sector is already worth $4.2 billion and could create more than 2,000 new jobs over the next 12 months, according to a groundbreaking new report from Climate Salad.
ANZ Climate Tech Industry Reportsurveying nearly 171 climate-focused startups in Australia and New Zealand paints a picture of an industry that’s just getting started but already employs 4,000 people and can generate billions of dollars in export revenue.
Co-founded a year ago by Mick Liubinskas and Charlotte Connell, Climate Salad is a network of 200 companies and 500 entrepreneurs, mentors, investors, corporations and others designed to empower ANZ climate technology companies with tools, programs and community support to adapt to climate change. grab Change.
One of the sources is a list of investors in climate technology†
Liubinskas, CEO of Climate Salad, said there are three critical points from the report that represent a “triple victory” for the environment, society and the economy when it comes to investing in climate technology and the supporting ecosystem.
“We will contribute to making the planet sustainable again. We will take our research and innovation sectors to the next level. We will create a strong economy and a million new jobs for the future,” he said.
“This report shows very clearly that Australia and New Zealand already have a strong climate technology industry. The opportunity here is to support it and invest in it so that we can create more jobs, more innovation and more climate impact.”
Charlotte Connell, Climate Salad’a Ecosystem Director, said: “Climate technology plays a vital role in solving the most pressing challenge of our time and equally represents a huge economic opportunity.”
Together, they set a 2030 ambition to help these companies reduce or remove nearly 1,000 gigatons of CO2 from the atmosphere, amid other bold ambitions for the network.
“I started Climate Salad with the 2030 mission to help 1,000 climate technology companies and make at least 10 global successes,” said Liubinskas.
Investment opportunity
Olivia Utharntharm, program manager of the Climate Salad program and head of the industry report, said they defined climate technology as a scalable, technology-enabled solution that reduces, avoids or removes emissions, or helps mitigate/modify the effects of changing climate. to suit.
“To support this climate technology, we need to understand the industry they operate in, the forces at play, and the capability gaps that need to be filled,” she said.
The largest sectors in climate technology are data and finance, circular economy and agri-food. Biosphere is the smallest sector. The impact targets of the companies are dominated by a CO2 reduction of 48%.
Despite just getting started — 83% of the companies named in the report are in the pre-seed or seed stage, while 17% have raised Series A or B — local climate tech startups have recently launched Raised a total of $1.4 billion in capital in 12 months, including $700 million from international investors.
Paul Hunyor, CEO of Wollemi Capital, said a massive injection of venture capital will be needed to help those startups scale quickly.
“To achieve our decarbonisation goals, every sector of the global economy needs to be transformed, and an estimated $10 trillion a year in investment is needed to fund this transition over the next 30 years,” he said.
Go Global
There is a fairly even spread of companies across the growth stages at 27% at prototype and 16% at scale and they already have a global focus, with 90% of startups already active in at least one international market or looking to offshore expansion.
There is also a high level of innovation: 38% of startups develop new IP and 31% use patents.
NSW has the lion’s share of the sector with 38% of state-headquartered companies, 22% in Victoria, 13% in Queensland and 7% in New Zealand.
And women play a strong role in climate technology, in stark contrast to the startup sector in general, where 39.7% of the startups involved have at least one female founder.
Future Super CTO Stephen Jackal said this is the last generation with time to solve the climate crisis.
“But the good news is that we have the technology for that. It takes both technology and people power to fight the climate crisis, and we need to start today,” he said.
“Change requires that we all take collective action.”
You can read more on the ANZ Climate Tech Industry Report here.
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