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Talking Climate Tech 009 redux

Last week's newsletter - European startups, Project Drawdown, Oilfield Witness, Stammtisch, TAKEN is Ice and Pylon of the Month!

Kane Watkinson

Kane Watkinson

β€” 5 min read
Talking Climate Tech 009 redux
Photo by Zbynek Burival / Unsplash

Surprise, it's STILL January!

A little ray of light; by the time you've finished reading this over the weekend, you will already have completed 7% of next month πŸ˜„ πŸ™Œ

Back to normal after last week's πŸ’₯ Trump Watch interlude. Of course, the madness continues - have no fear, we shall keep a weather-eye on major climate impacts from policy, Executive Orders and his general shenanigans.

Let's go...

πŸ’Έ Startup Watch | πŸ”Ž Deeper Dive | 🏑 Konfab News | πŸ˜ƒ Good Stuff

πŸ’Έ Startup Watch

Back into our usual format. Let's get away from the USA for a while and see what's occurring in Europe;

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ Aegis Energy - multi-energy refuelling hubs for commercial vehicles, secured Β£100m Backed by Quinbrooke Infrastructure Partners. More on Aegis here.

❓
Why it matters - Yes, we need to decarbonise commercial vehicles. But, they aren't just focusing on truck-BEV, of which there are now viable range, payload and financially equitable options. Hydrogen has reared its inefficient, expensive and dirty head again. More on that here from Professor Mark Jacobs. The reality is, it won't be fuelled with Green Hydrogen and the national infrastructure will never be built to support the network. Expect this to turn into a BEV and [maybe] bio-fuel project only. 🚚

πŸ‡©πŸ‡ͺ OCELL - digital twins of forests secured €10m Series A - with Capnamic, Bayern Kapital, AENU, Summiteer and Angels. More on OCELL here.

❓
Why it matters - I mean, it's just really cool to start with! A digital twin of a forest! They process aerial imagery, LiDAR, and terrestrial forestry data and use AI to create the digital twin. Think about understanding forest growth, management, current carbon storage capacity, and other metrics for data-driven Carbon Credits. I'm no fan of carbon credits, most are green-washing nonsense. There is hope here with transparency and evidential accounting. 🌳

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ StormHarvester - SaaS for closes Β£8.4m in Series A funding with YFM Equity Partners and Emerald Technology Ventures. More on StormHarvester here.

❓
Why it matters - I am sure most people have heard of the disaster that is UK water quality. No doubt many other countries face similar challenges. They use machine learning and hyperlocal rainfall prediction for wastewater operational and asset insights. All helping prevent flooding and the volume of pollutants entering natural water systems - sounds like a winner to me πŸ’¦

πŸ”Ž Deeper Dive

Project Drawdown

I love the work of Project Drawdown and Jonathan Foley. In case you missed it on one of the earlier newsletters, here is his 10-min TED talk on what climate technologies we need to implement now, as quickly as possible. 🎯

Jonathan Foley - Focused Climate Solutions

One of the interesting take-aways, is the misalignment between funding and emissions cuts required. It's clear we need a more balanced approach and a more effective financial alignment. See all that VC money overloaded in Transportation, and also the amount of philanthropy cash literally being burnt in Carbon Removal.

Project Drawdown - Funding v Emissions Mismatch
Project Drawdown - Funding v Emissions Mismatch

Wonder why there is so much push-back on Carbon Capture and other variants of Removal - it's a predatory delay tactic from the Fossil Fuel industry to keep on drilling and burning. And in the accelerated timeline we need, it has no useful impact at scale.

It's that little green line bumbling across the bottom of the graph. We need to hit the 'Emergency Brakes' right now.

Climate Emergency Brake Actions
We need to HIT the BRAKES ASAP β›”

On the Front Line

Another team I admire very much is Oilfield Witness. The 'Methane Hunter' herself, Sharon Wilson and team are right there in Texas and other locations with high-tech thermal imaging cameras - showing you an the rest of the world what you can't see, and then unsee πŸ‘€

Take a look at exactly what the Oil & Gas industry let's into our atmosphere, treating it as it's free sewer. Methane is a massive issue for the climate. Incredible work, please take the time to watch some of the videos. 🀯

Oilfield Witness | Strengthening Climate Movements
We educate the public and policy makers to strengthen climate movements, using optical gas imaging technology to hunt for methane.
Oilfield Witness
The concentration of methane in the atmosphere has more than doubled over the past 200 years. Scientists estimate that this increase is responsible for 20 to 30% of climate warming since the Industrial Revolution (which began in 1750). NASA

🏑 Konfab News

Geothermal Stammtisch

I was kindly invited to the London Geothermal Stammtisch on Monday 27th at this lovely pub, The Sekforde, a RIBA award-winner that has its own GSHP heating and cooling system!

The Sekforde Pub near Farringdon
The Sekforde Pub near Farringdon

An informal meeting of stakeholders from across the UK Geothermal sector, including geologists, consultants, investors, insurers, developers and DESNZ.

Part of the ongoing collaboration and accelerated deployment of this critical solution to heat decarbonisation in the UK. ♨️

What's a Stammtisch I hear you ask?

A Stammtisch (German for "regulars' table",[1] [ΛˆΚƒtamtΙͺΚƒ]) is an informal group meeting held on a regular basis, and also the usually large, often round table around which the group meets. A Stammtisch is not a structured meeting, but rather a friendly get-together.

There is a lot we can learn from Germany and Europe on Geothermal deployment, business models and strategies for decarbonising heat in the UK...more to come on that.

πŸ˜ƒ Good Stuff

Nature

This week in our regular 'Nature is Speaking' spot, it's the hard-man of classic blockbuster 'Taken' and now hard as Ice - Liam Neeson - or perhaps not so hard, slightly soft and melting?

Remember - he will find you, and he will kill you if you don't watch this and pay attention πŸ˜†

Liam Neeson - Pay Attention or Pay the Price

Pylon of the Month

Time-warping back to this ethereal beauty of February 2022...

The Gwent Levels pylons, near Severn Estuary, Wales
The Gwent Levels, near Severn Estuary, Wales

That's a wrap for this week 🎬

Stay warm/cool and safe, wherever you are πŸ™

Kane 🌱

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