Category: Opinion
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The Opportunity Cost of Climate Tech
Written by
on
Opportunity cost refers to the loss of potential received value by choosing to not do something or by choosing a different route. One opportunity cost of sleeping late, for example,…
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The Only Two Climate Investment Criteria that Matter
Written by
on
Whether you’re investing your time or your money (or someone else’s money) in impact work designed to address, mitigate, or reverse climate change there are really only two criteria that…
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Climate Tech’s New Monsantos: Upgrading Nature and Downgrading Humans
Written by
on
A growing sector of climate tech and green investments is concerned with what can best be described as “upgrading nature”. Things like ‘better’ insects, ‘improved’ trees, ‘enhanced’ wood, ‘supercharged’ vegetables,…
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The Subversion of the Climate Performance Potential Thesis
Written by
on
Climate Performance Potential, or variants thereof, is the “in” term for measuring the investability of a climate startup. Although there is no standard or agreed upon way of measuring this…
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Composting Capital
Written by
on
We need to invest less and compost more to start harvesting meaningful climate outcomes. Financial investments into startups, including climate tech startups, expect a one-to-one return. Of course in terms…
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Bullshit Climate Jobs
Written by
on
I am not using the term “bullshit” for shock value. I am referencing David Graeber’s Bullshit Jobs Theory where he asserts that “roughly two out of every five people are…
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Not Speed and Scale. Care and Depth.
Written by
on
80 climate startup pitch decks on my desktop. 58 claim they will be doing things at scale. Most of the rest have similar goals. Typically in some variation of “decarbonising…
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The Very Hungry Miner
Written by
on
In 2021 I watched aghast as Nacho Gimenez, then Managing Partner of BP Ventures, spoke to a packed room about BP’s commitment to decarbonisation. This was during Carbon13’s venture builder…
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What if we need a hole, but you’ve got a hammer?
Written by
on
Here’s a dilemma. What if the thing you’re good at is not needed? What if your hard-earned skills are making the climate crisis worse? What if you’re great at hammering,…
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Why I Quit My Climate Tech Startup in 2022
Written by
on
In September 2021 I boarded a train to Cambridge to join Carbon13’s second Climate Tech cohort. Carbon13 is a venture builder whose stated mission is to create high-growth startups that…
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AI will make Malta’s Traffic Problem Worse
Written by
on
Why Alexei Dingli’s artificial intelligence system will not only not improve Malta’s traffic problems. It will make it exponentially worse. Two different solutions to Malta’s traffic problems made the news…