Greentech: What’s next?

New technologies have a critical role to play in finding solutions more quickly – and at the greater scale required – to drive the global transition to net zero as part of a greener future.

“The only way to accelerate the transition and slow down [climate] warming is by leveraging technology,” said Poman Lo, Vice Chairman and Managing Director at Regal Hotels Group, Founding Managing Partner at AlphaTrio Capital. 

From energy and food, to property and transportation, innovation via ‘greentech’ can help accelerate the goal of decarbonization. Plus, using technology enables these efforts to be more effectively measured.

“As more companies commit to net zero goals, the ability to prove decarbonization achievements is becoming more important,” said Ross O'Brien, Senior Contributing Editor at MIT Technology Review. “This requires technologies to create more tools that can accurately assess, analyze and track the data relating to carbon footprints, to help us predict the future impact of economic decisions. Then it becomes possible to make a real difference.”

At the same time, technology is essential in creating the tools and applications that allow for carbon capture.

The increasing focus on extracting carbon from the atmosphere is a key trend, added Toby Chan, Co-Founder and Partner at Audacy Ventures. “Emissions are still increasing, especially amid the resumption of industrial activity and air travel after the pandemic.”

Speakers highlighted several areas where new technologies are making it possible – and ever-cheaper – to achieve breakthroughs that spur sustainable solutions across various industries.

Property is a case in point, especially in Asia, where Lo said buildings account for nearly 60% of all carbon emissions, compared with around 30% in Western markets.

As a result, ‘prop tech’ is a key opportunity. “We need to leverage innovation to help decarbonize buildings. This can come in the form of new building materials, sustainable living solutions and artificial intelligence (AI) assisted energy, water and waste saving solutions.”

AI and big data can be particularly powerful in informing better real-time decisions and more efficiencies. “AI can help accelerate sustainability by enabling building designers to use more sustainable materials and with less manufacturing processes involved,” added O'Brien.

The energy transition is another beneficiary of innovation, with ‘clean tech’ creating compelling investment opportunities.

“We have invested as the energy transition has progressed,” said Chan, “starting with solar and, more recently, focusing on hydrogen economy, sustainable transportation and carbon capture technologies. “

Meanwhile, agriculture and food tech, or ‘agri-food tech’, is another aspect of the green revolution that is capitalizing on advancements in technology. Lo considers this to be urgent, given that the world needs to feed an ever-growing population, which is forecast to reach 10 billion by 2050.

“The only way to achieve this is to harness technology to increase the amount of food we can grow per square foot of arable land,” she explained, “and also while minimizing the use of natural resources such as water and reducing the use of pesticides, which harm the soil.”

She advocates a greater use of the Internet of Things (IoT), big data, machine learning and other technologies to drive precision farming to produce more food as well as reduce wastage. Alternative protein is among the solutions to drive more sustainable food production and consumption patterns, she added.

The transport sector is another great example, with the development of the sustainable aviation fuel space gathering pace.

Chan sees this market at an inflexion point. “There are now strong signals, especially coming from the EU in terms of mandatory targets. The demand needs to be filled by other pathways given that we need to increase production by around 1,000 times.”

History with solar shows that when investment and scale increase, then costs will reduce, he added. With fuel, this requires solutions around logistics and finding blends to try to lower production costs.

The next phase in meeting decarbonization targets will require the wider commercialization and further scaling of new technologies.

According to Lo, this will happen by fostering more collaboration between the public and private sectors, as well as academia. This is needed in the agri-food tech space, for example, to speed up implementation in the farming community and bring solutions to new countries, including China and across Southeast Asia.

Chan believes biotech is an example of an area which will benefit from greater commercialization once regulatory hurdles are overcome.

Regulatory initiatives will also support the development of greentech. For example, a lot of governments plan to implement the International Sustainability Standards Board’s (ISSB’s) disclosure standards, which includes recording the impact of solutions, said Ronald Wu, Head of ESG & Sustainability Research at UBS.

Another technology-led innovation likely to move economies and societies closer to green goals is the use of intelligent data. According to O'Brien, when it becomes possible to inform consumers of the real carbon impact of a product, and assign a price to it, then there is a much higher chance of becoming carbon neutral.

The views expressed are those of the interviewees and do not necessarily reflect those of UBS.