Dubai Telegraph - Tech's green wave hits choppy waters

EUR -
AED 3.866955
AFN 72.068071
ALL 97.96268
AMD 410.784813
ANG 1.912938
AOA 960.166791
ARS 1050.977028
AUD 1.628194
AWG 1.895066
AZN 1.800113
BAM 1.951452
BBD 2.143046
BDT 126.837419
BGN 1.957984
BHD 0.396768
BIF 3134.302207
BMD 1.052814
BND 1.418533
BOB 7.334659
BRL 6.108712
BSD 1.061445
BTN 89.497258
BWP 14.401914
BYN 3.473644
BYR 20635.162949
BZD 2.139048
CAD 1.474709
CDF 3016.313099
CHF 0.936552
CLF 0.037221
CLP 1027.051998
CNY 7.626693
CNH 7.636047
COP 4722.441266
CRC 541.992496
CUC 1.052814
CUP 27.899583
CVE 110.019887
CZK 25.285451
DJF 189.010699
DKK 7.458232
DOP 63.927576
DZD 140.602323
EGP 51.954531
ERN 15.792217
ETB 129.54359
FJD 2.396153
FKP 0.831004
GBP 0.831932
GEL 2.874049
GGP 0.831004
GHS 17.14181
GIP 0.831004
GMD 74.749535
GNF 9147.446645
GTQ 8.201727
GYD 222.065261
HKD 8.193407
HNL 26.797298
HRK 7.509998
HTG 139.558415
HUF 407.071782
IDR 16789.442377
ILS 3.937437
IMP 0.831004
INR 88.927393
IQD 1390.422091
IRR 44315.590814
ISK 146.320304
JEP 0.831004
JMD 168.035634
JOD 0.746657
JPY 164.155901
KES 136.076314
KGS 90.938425
KHR 4300.398724
KMF 490.980229
KPW 947.532593
KRW 1478.583067
KWD 0.323877
KYD 0.884542
KZT 523.161902
LAK 23310.28845
LBP 95050.394414
LKR 310.231782
LRD 200.038234
LSL 19.067501
LTL 3.108687
LVL 0.636837
LYD 5.142592
MAD 10.553787
MDL 19.12657
MGA 4952.965296
MKD 61.587323
MMK 3419.500221
MNT 3577.463398
MOP 8.504175
MRU 42.253863
MUR 49.682017
MVR 16.265744
MWK 1840.499554
MXN 21.732343
MYR 4.717137
MZN 67.225692
NAD 19.067591
NGN 1773.445042
NIO 39.062787
NOK 11.757716
NPR 143.221916
NZD 1.79557
OMR 0.405343
PAB 1.061435
PEN 4.022838
PGK 4.266414
PHP 61.952874
PKR 294.912167
PLN 4.338674
PYG 8283.623607
QAR 3.869779
RON 4.976547
RSD 116.989756
RUB 105.284944
RWF 1456.854276
SAR 3.954354
SBD 8.826328
SCR 14.338018
SDG 633.269213
SEK 11.615333
SGD 1.41702
SHP 0.831004
SLE 24.019979
SLL 22076.997306
SOS 606.548671
SRD 37.143033
STD 21791.133205
SVC 9.287441
SYP 2645.227706
SZL 19.073506
THB 36.88328
TJS 11.309365
TMT 3.695379
TND 3.340757
TOP 2.465795
TRY 36.162891
TTD 7.213033
TWD 34.312064
TZS 2805.750792
UAH 43.849907
UGX 3895.321618
USD 1.052814
UYU 44.750301
UZS 13578.747927
VES 48.129878
VND 26741.486679
VUV 124.992245
WST 2.939027
XAF 654.498843
XAG 0.035116
XAU 0.000412
XCD 2.845283
XDR 0.799619
XOF 654.505046
XPF 119.331742
YER 262.98619
ZAR 19.314955
ZMK 9476.595013
ZMW 29.03459
ZWL 339.005819
  • RBGPF

    59.2500

    59.25

    +100%

  • SCS

    -0.3000

    13.37

    -2.24%

  • CMSD

    -0.0200

    24.73

    -0.08%

  • GSK

    -0.4100

    35.11

    -1.17%

  • CMSC

    0.0700

    24.61

    +0.28%

  • VOD

    0.2800

    8.75

    +3.2%

  • RYCEF

    -0.0400

    7.07

    -0.57%

  • RIO

    -0.5800

    60.62

    -0.96%

  • NGG

    -0.7800

    62.12

    -1.26%

  • BTI

    0.1800

    35.42

    +0.51%

  • BCE

    -0.4800

    27.21

    -1.76%

  • AZN

    0.1000

    65.29

    +0.15%

  • RELX

    -0.4700

    46.12

    -1.02%

  • JRI

    0.0200

    13.24

    +0.15%

  • BCC

    1.4200

    142.55

    +1%

  • BP

    0.4100

    28.57

    +1.44%

Tech's green wave hits choppy waters
Tech's green wave hits choppy waters / Photo: Odd ANDERSEN - AFP

Tech's green wave hits choppy waters

Tech entrepreneurs have spent years selling the dream that we can save the planet without changing our ways, but the current focus of innovation is dividing experts and investors.

Text size:

The tech industry loves splashy world-saving ideas and spends billions on the hunt for new energy sources, often clashing with calls from activists and experts simply to use less energy.

The Web Summit in Lisbon this week, one of Europe's biggest tech events, gave top billing to a Californian firm called Twelve that claims to be able to make sustainable jet fuel out of the carbon dioxide in the air.

"In a lot of ways we're mimicking trees and plants," Twelve cofounder Etosha Cave told the audience, describing a process that takes carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and converts it into fuel.

Cave painted a picture of a future where her company's tech could power long-haul flights and even help exploit mineral wealth on Mars -- a utopian vision that has helped her firm raise some $650 million.

The interviewer on stage with Cave told her it "sounds like magic".

Climate expert Mike Berners-Lee, a professor at the University of Lancaster in the UK, told AFP that world-changing claims about sustainable fuel or new energy sources needed to be viewed sceptically.

"Everyone's looking for a silver bullet that would mean we wouldn't have to do anything difficult," he said.

More broadly, the green wave in tech is entering a tricky period.

While Twelve and other major startups are attracting massive investment, Bloomberg recently reported that funding for climate tech was on track to fall 50 percent this year compared with last year.

- Big losses -

And climate tech has long been subject to the whims of politics and global economic trends.

The current green wave is the second this century.

The first -- now called Clean Tech 1.0 -- was fostered by US politician Al Gore, whose calls for funding were met with an estimated $25 billion of investments.

The period ended in 2011 after the global financial crisis ended cheap loans and China ramped up its solar panel output, wiping out most US startups and roughly half of investors' cash.

But those investments were not wasted.

They led to an era of inexpensive solar and wind power and laid the foundations for the electric vehicle revolution.

Clean Tech 2.0 began around 2018 as companies and governments committed to net-zero carbon targets laid out by the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement.

However, the US has re-elected Donald Trump as president with support from many leaders in the tech industry.

Trump -- an avowed climate-change denier whose campaigning slogan on fossil fuels was "dig baby dig" -- withdrew the US from the agreement in his first term and analysts believe he will do the same again.

And the global fight against climate change is still fraught, with national leaders meeting for the UN's COP29 climate summit in Azerbaijan this week divided on the idea of phasing out fossil fuels, the main driver of global warming.

- 'Severe reservations' -

All this leaves climate tech in a precarious moment, and startups without world-saving narratives are scrambling to get funding from a smaller pot.

Web Summit hosted dozens of them, hawking everything from blockchain-backed "virtual power plants" to smart widgets for stopping household leaks.

While some experts are cynical about the utility of these "shark tank" style events, Elisabeth Gilmore, a professor of environmental engineering at Carleton University in Canada, said she had no problem with young entrepreneurs making big claims.

"These innovations should be eyebrow-raising," she told AFP.

She said events like the Web Summit could focus minds, but cautioned that entrepreneurs must look beyond the profit motive and make products that help communities.

Berners-Lee questioned whether some of the most eye-catching ideas could be as good as they sounded.

"If these are real solutions that are ready to go, if they're as good as they look, they would be scaling up like crazy," he said.

Sustainable jet fuel, he said, was one of the toughest nuts to crack and would need major breakthroughs in storage and power usage.

Cave conceded on stage that Twelve needed "utility-level" renewables as well as power from the grid for her firm's plants, though she said it used far less land and energy than biofuels.

More broadly, Berners-Lee questioned whether the search for new power sources should even be an aim for humanity.

"I would have severe reservations about giving humanity an unlimited energy supply beyond carbon -- we're causing enough damage with the energy we've already got," he said.

S.Mohideen--DT