Undercurrents: November 2024
SeaGen's roundup of company news and perspective on all things climate.
Paddy Estridge, CEO
Baku, Boris, Bert, and Trump Take Two.
It has been yet another eventful month for the world and our changing climate.
COP29 opened with a positive(ish) agreement for international carbon standards (which is expected to result in a global carbon market), and closed with a last minute $300 billion finance deal to help developing countries adjust to climate change and decarbonise.
But the remaining climate picture this month was far from rosy.
Bert battered the UK, storm Boris battered Italy, and Spain had its worst flooding for a century. Over 200 people lost their lives in Valencia. President Trump is heading back for a second term in office, with Elon Musk by his side and both the Senate and House in Republican hands. It’s almost certain that one of his first moves will be to remove the US, once again, from the Paris climate agreement. With rumors of defunding the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), it’s clear that US development and domestic agenda will take precedence over global climate action.
Anyone could be forgiven for feeling disheartened and pessimistic about the future of the world, particularly those working in climate. Does that mean that we give up and go home? That we stop working to build a new future economy? Absolutely not!
No matter what is coming out of COP, how extreme the weather is getting, or who is in power, we’re in the midst of a much needed and very timely transition. We must shift the foundation of our global economy away from fossil fuels. We need to move on from extraction, pollution, plastics, chemicals and destruction to something better.
This isn’t, and never has been, a change that humanity will make because it is the right thing to do. Small amounts of funding and change will come about philanthropically, or because of climate fear. But large scale change and funding will only emerge because of genuine opportunity - of the money making (or saving) variety.
It will be a collection of changes made as technology improves and alternatives become the better option. Becoming that better option is the challenge that ‘climate tech’ companies are actually taking on. A change similar in size to the industrial revolution when we first saw the potential for fossil fuels and built a world around them.
The vast majority of climate tech isn’t going to be adopted, no matter who is in charge, just because it’s better for the planet. Tech solutions will be adopted, across a variety of different industries, because they are better, period.
The same logic applies to industries that strive to undo the damage already done. Removing excess carbon from the atmosphere, rehabilitating nature and biodiversity, stopping further pollution. This again, is not something that anyone (governments, corporations, communities) will do out of charity, but because they believe that there is no other option.
We see this already, in the policies being implemented for nature gain in the UK and the EU, or for carbon in Japan. These are policies that look to the future, and see the need for massive change, or massive pain. These are policies that are recognising massive opportunity.
There will, if we don’t change and adapt faster, be a time of extreme turmoil. Where food systems, water availability, physical safety and natural life will all be in jeopardy. The corporations and countries where change has been made in time to increase resilience (and where they get lucky with the weather!) will be the ones that do the best.
It truly is a time to be brave. To shake off the shackles of the norm and enter a brave new world where technology and human ingenuity can come together. It’s a world we at SeaGen believe can happen and luckily others do too - just take a look at this month’s New Scientist…
Progress and Press
Could seaweed be the ultimate carbon capture solution?
New Scientist’s Future Chronicles column imagines the world-altering innovations of tomorrow, casting a hopeful spotlight on how creative technology could address global challenges. This month Rowan Hooper “looks back” on a world with SeaGen’s AlgaRay robot and the role that seaweed could play in a cleaner, greener future.