Climate Tech
Definition
Climate Tech is the set of technologies rebuilding how the world makes energy, materials, food and movement. It is a response to the climate crisis, and it is also one of the largest economic opportunities of this century.
It is not a niche sector. It is a rebuild of the systems the whole economy runs on: how power is generated, how steel and cement are made, how goods move, how food is grown. That rebuild is where the opportunity sits.
40% of the cumulative emissions reductions required rely on technologies that have not yet been commercially deployed in mass-market applications, according to a report by IEA. Each of those technologies is a market without an established incumbent. The companies that industrialise them first will define the industries that replace today’s.
Context
The climate crisis is not one problem with one fix. It shows up as extreme weather, rising seas, failing harvests, collapsing habitats and degraded land, and each of those pressures lands on a different part of the economy.
That is why Climate Tech spans so many sectors at once. Tackling it demands a systemic transformation across nearly every industry and value chain, which is exactly what makes the market hard to see whole.
Framework
Defining Climate Tech can be tricky, but the EU Taxonomy gives it a foundation. It is the European Union’s framework for classifying which economic activities count as environmentally sustainable, and it sets out six environmental objectives.
An activity qualifies by contributing substantially to at least one of those objectives without doing significant harm to the others. Read against that framework, Climate Tech is the set of innovative products, services and technologies built to advance them.
Activities that substantially cut or avoid greenhouse gas emissions, or increase permanent removals, in line with holding warming to 1.5°C.
Climate change mitigation
Activities that reduce the adverse effects of today’s and future climate, or the risk of them, without shifting that risk onto others.
Climate change adaptation
Activities that prevent or reduce pollutants entering air, water or land, including better handling of chemicals, waste and industrial emissions.
Pollution prevention and control
Activities that keep materials in use for longer through efficient resource use, durability, reuse, repair and recycling, and that cut waste.
Transition to a circular economy
Activities that conserve or restore habitats and species, and support sustainable land, agricultural and forestry management.
Protection and restoration of biodiversity and ecosystems
Activities that protect the good status of water bodies and marine waters, or prevent deterioration, through better water use and less pollution.
Sustainable use and protection of water and marine resources
Classification
At Net Zero Insights we classify Climate Tech by the challenge a solution addresses, not by the industry label a company happens to sit under. Challenge areas cut across value chains, which is how a hydrogen electrolyser, a cement kiln retrofit and a grid balancing platform can be compared on the same terms.
The map below sets out the ten challenge areas, and every one of them resolves into far more specific layers underneath. What you see here is the top of that structure, not the whole of it.
How far the taxonomy goes
The challenge areas above are the top layer. Underneath, every area resolves into solutions, technologies and specific sub-technologies. One path through hydrogen:
This structure is the backbone of the Net0 Platform: every company, deal and infrastructure project we track is classified against it. It is not a fixed list. Each time our research team takes on a new topic, the taxonomy gains another layer of depth, so the map keeps pace with the market rather than describing where it used to be.
Datasets
The taxonomy is only useful because things are attached to it. Every company, investor, fund, deal, agreement and project we track is classified against the same structure, which is what lets a hydrogen electrolyser and a cement retrofit be compared on the same terms.
The value is not the lists. It is the activity between them: who funded whom, who committed capital to which fund, who signed an offtake with whom, and which projects those agreements sit against.
Every entity and every connection in this model is searchable, filterable and exportable in the platform.
Platform
Market intelligence for emerging climate and energy markets.
Barry AI
NZI’s AI assistant for repeatable workflows with defensible outputs.
MCP Connector
Access Net Zero Insights data in your favorite AI tools.
API
Integrate structured Net Zero Insights data directly into your systems.
Browser Extension
Access Net Zero Insights data while browsing any website.
For Investors
Move Faster With Conviction in Emerging Transition Markets
For Corporates
Make Execution-Ready Decisions In Emerging Transition Markets
For Advisors
Bring Structured Proof To Your Next Client Engagement
All Insights
Reports, Research And Funding Data In One Searchable Library
Reports
State Of Climate Tech And In-Depth Market Reports
Newsletter
Our Latest Research And Reports In Your Inbox
Company
Events