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

As organisations look for ways to urgently address the current environmental crisis, climate technologies – a diverse range of innovative technologies that includes renewables, batteries, low-carbon hydrogen, carbon capture, and alternative fuels – have emerged as an important means of doing so.

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

Climate technologies have become crucial to formulating an effective response to current sustainability challenges. Leaders of organisations agree with this sentiment, with three-quarters of the executives we surveyed saying their organisations 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 organisations achieve 37% of their decarbonisation / 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 organisations have already realised cost advantages from using digital technologies to scale climate tech.

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