As officials from almost 200 countries seek to forge agreements at the United Nations COP28 climate summit in Dubai, they will also be considering the deployment of nascent technologies.
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The amount invested worldwide by venture capital and private equity into climate technology startups - in projects ranging from carbon capture and green hydrogen to food waste reduction and cleaning up heavy industry - totaled $US490 billion ($A735 billion) this year, according to a report by accounting firm PwC.
While that's down 40 per cent from 2022 as economic uncertainty, stubborn inflation and high interest rates bite, it marks a relatively healthy showing given the investments across all business sectors dropped 50 per cent across the same period, PwC said.
Here are some of the investment trends:
* CARBON REMOVAL
- The world emits about 37 billion metric tons of planet-warming carbon dioxide from fossil fuel and industry each year
- One family of technologies, called carbon capture and storage, would tackle that by trapping those emissions before they reach the atmosphere, and storing them underground or using them to make products
- A big question is whether it can work given the costs and the amount of energy required
- The International Energy Agency, the West's energy watchdog, said in November that the oil and gas industry is relying excessively on carbon capture, and called the approach an implausible "illusion"
- Even so, carbon removal is attracting loads of money.
- The United States this year announced it would grant more than $US1 billion ($A1.5 billion) to two carbon removal projects, in Texas and Louisiana, that would suck more than two million metric tons of carbon emissions per year from the sky using a carbon removal technique called direct air capture
* FUSION
- Fusion can generate massive amounts of zero-emissions power by harnessing the energy produced from pushing atoms together, instead of splitting them apart - but the reaction is hard to produce
- International fusion companies raised about $US1.4 billion ($A2.1 billion) in mostly private money according to the Fusion Industry Association, down from about $US2.83 billion ($A4.24 billion) in new investment last year
- On the hopeful side for fusion, the number of companies getting investments rose to 43 from 33, spanning a dozen countries, according to the FIA, including the US which has about 25 companies
- Other countries pursuing fusion include Australia, China, Germany, Japan, and the UK
- John Kerry, President Joe Biden's climate envoy, is expected to announce a global strategy in nuclear fusion at COP28
* GREEN HYDROGEN
- Hydrogen is a fuel that can be made by electrolysing water, and which burns clean
- If it is produced using renewables such as wind or solar power, as opposed to fossil fuel-generated power, it is called green hydrogen
- If it is produced with nuclear power, it's called "pink" or "purple" hydrogen
- The US is trying to kickstart clean hydrogen, and in October announced $US7 billion ($A10 billion) in grants to seven "hydrogen hub" projects across the country
- The US Inflation Reduction Act also provides tax credits for hydrogen production
- Governments and companies think green hydrogen could be a way to clean up hard-to-decarbonise industries such as steel and cement-making and other industrial manufacturing
- Like carbon removal, it is expensive and energy intense, meaning it is unclear if it is doable at scale
- PwC said technologies such as green hydrogen and reducing food waste have relatively high emissions reduction potential but are receiving a small share of start-up investment
- In 2023, green hydrogen got 3.9 per cent of global climate-tech venture funding, while food waste got 0.7 per cent, PwC said
* OTHERS
- There are scores of other technologies in development that promise to be game-changers for the climate - if they survive
- They include everything from lab-grown meat to advanced batteries and insects as a food source
- Lab-grown meat has made some advancements - in June, US regulators cleared the first sales of chicken grown from cells in a vat, with the meat served in small portions at high-end restaurants
- The industry says that if it manages to overcome high costs, challenges to scaling up production, and the "ick-factor", it could revolutionise agriculture and eliminate the considerable emissions related to raising livestock
* ASIA, AFRICA ON THE RISE
- Companies in the US still get the most climate tech investment at about 49 per cent of the global total, according to Deloitte, a professional services network.
- Other countries have been eating into that share - funding in China, for example, was 22 per cent from 2020 to 2023, up from 2.0 per cent in 2010 to 2014, while it has also increased in France, the UK and India and other countries in Asia and Africa
- David Schatsky, a managing director at Deloitte, said investments in biofuels development have risen in Asia, while electric bike and motorcycle companies are doing well in Africa
- "Entrepreneurship taking hold outside of the developed world has the potential to help attract more capital to these regions if an ecosystem around climate-related technologies can arise," Schatsky said
Australian Associated Press
