The Pathway to Net Zero
How do we get to net zero? And how do entrepreneurs leverage the opportunities and build scalable ventures? This article will provide you with an insight into the pathway to net zero available to entrepreneurs and startups in the net zero economy, to support the effort to reach net zero targets set across the globe.
The above infographic simplifies and maps the UK’s pathway to net zero for the next three decades, showing the breadth and depth of opportunity available in the net zero economy for entrepreneurs.
An entrepreneurial opportunity arises when a customer has a problem, and they need to spend money to solve it. This infographic lays out the problem areas and potential range of innovative solutions that entrepreneurs will supply. These areas for innovation range from creating sustainable biofuels, expanding electricity systems, to creating new fuel efficiency for shipping.
Corporates need help
Collectively over 900 corporates in industries including manufacturing, banking, construction, retail and transport have adopted Science Based Targets, including several hundred who have adopted net zero pledges. The history of business tells us that it is not going to be possible for these corporates alone to make the change and transition necessary to deliver this pledge. Many of the innovations will come from entrepreneurs, building new value propositions and processes for customers and new business models which replace carbon-intensive ways of doing business and deliver the foundations for the pathway to net zero.
It is these net zero pledges and their equivalents which are already driving corporates to invest and work with startups.
Now, you may think that unless you’re a petrochemical engineer that your career isn’t suited to this mission of reducing our carbon impact on the world, but there are huge opportunities in just about every industry. Our infographic, is inspired by the Committee on Climate Change’s work to maps our path to net-zero. It includes the opportunities for entrepreneurs in a wealth of industries and specific examples of where innovation is needed.
Want more inspiration?
To better understand the types of startups already working on the path to net zero:
Agriculture – developing new practices for industrial farming to adopt:
Construction – maximising new technologies when developing buildings:
Energy – finding new ways to power the world:
Finance – leveraging opportunities from the green industrial revolution:
See: kWh Analytics
Retail – changing the landscape of how we consume:
Telecoms – developing infrastructure compatible with climate change solutions:
See: Omniflow
Transport – continuing our mobility, without the climate implications:
COP26 + Covid-19 means now is the opportunity for entrepreneurs
Next year the UK will host the UN Climate Summit, COP26. As a nation, we were the first major economy to pass a net zero emissions law but it will take a collective and collaborative effort from all industries globally to deliver the new landscape of business that’s compatible with our continued existence on Earth.
The unprecedented circumstances Covid-19 has left us with means that we are now able to see that changes we may have thought people and corporates were not willing to make, will be made, if they are given the right incentive. The same goes for aspiring entrepreneurs. If you’re looking to take your skills and network and adapt them to creating a venture to attack the climate emergency, then Carbon13 exists to support you on this journey.
What about you?
Carbon13 helps talented entrepreneurs create scalable startups in the net zero economy. We do this by providing support with startup decision-making, investment, co-founders, contacts through our domain experts and entrepreneurs in residence with our Venture Builder programme.
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Sources:
The Committee on Climate Change, 2019: https://www.theccc.org.uk/publication/net-zero-the-uks-contribution-to-stopping-global-warming/
The UK Government, 2019: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-becomes-first-major-economy-to-pass-net-zero-emissions-law
Science based targets, 2020: https://sciencebasedtargets.org/companies-taking-action/
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