Hear from S4C and 4Ei’s envoys on the Innovate UK Global Expert Mission to see what can be learned from Climate Tech market leaders in California. They share their initial reflections ahead of the mission’s detailed Insight Report, due to be published early in 2025.
November 13th, 2024
Space4Climate’s lead, Krupa Nanda Kumar, and Jonathan Hendry from our members 4 Earth Intelligence (4Ei) were among the delegates on the California Climate Tech Innovate UK Global Expert Mission. Here they share their initial reflections ahead of Innovate UK’s detailed Insight Report which will highlight all the outcomes of the mission.
By Krupa Nanda Kumar, Space4Climate, and Jonathan Hendry, 4Ei
After a whirlwind, time-zone hopping trip to the US West Coast the UK Global Expert Mission has returned, inspired and fired-up with ideas for future collaborations to accelerate climate innovation.
The mission was organised by Innovate UK, and supported by the British Consulate General in San Francisco and the European American Business Organization.
New Climate Tech connections
We were joined on the mission by UK leading experts – Meyrick Evans, Vice President, Brilliant Planet Ltd; Peter Hammond, Chief Technology Officer, CCm Technologies Ltd; Sholto Moger, CEO, Harrier Ltd; Sushma Shankar, Co-Founder, CTO and COO, Deep Planet Ltd.
We travelled to California in the last week of October and met professionals from a broad range of climate tech applications ranging from direct to air capture, soil carbon credits to marine diversity restoration and wine production.
We were privileged to be taken behind the scenes of the thriving Climate Tech ecosystem in San Francisco ranging from climate centric co-working spaces to venture capitalists, networking with California’s key climate innovators and hearing about groundbreaking technologies and solutions.
Carbon market differences to learn from
An in-depth report containing the considered insights of the delegation will be published by Innovate UK early in 2025 to share knowledge and learnings we gained. However one of the most immediately obvious differences between the climate tech communities in the US and UK was the driving force of commercialisation in America.
This was most clear in the developing carbon market. In the UK we see a good balance between regulation and innovation and a good balance of adaptation and mitigation. The difference in attitude we experienced during the mission is that in America, where there is not yet a comparable regulation framework, climate applications to benefit and restore nature are viewed as a revenue-generating opportunity.
There is a bold eye on attracting capital investment and the opportunity to interest large corporates in buying up successful start-ups in this area.
Satellite data plays vital role
Satellite data is clearly evident as a crucial tool for every kind of climate application and it felt very validating that it plays such as important role.
As well as touring businesses we were kindly hosted at receptions thanks to Virgin Atlantic and the British Consulate in San Francisco as well as a post VERGE 24 reception alongside representatives from companies in Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
The following are the organisations we met and activities we were involved in:
- University of California, Davis – leading academics discussion their impactful work across climate adaptation, their inter disciplinary approach to tackle systemic issues, California’s wildfires and water challenges, the state’s latest policy frameworks and the evolving landscape of carbon capture and sequestration
- Yes SF and 9Zero – thriving climate tech community and co working ecosystem in SF
- Roundtable on scaling AI for climate adaptation at British Consulate-General in San Francisco with US and UK innovators and policy makers
- VERGE24 – three day climate tech conference displaying the ambition and funding going into climate tech innovations
- Aircapture – scaling up modular innovation in direct air capture technology
- Boomitra – scaling carbon credits with regen agriculture on a global scale and 2023 Earthshot Prize winner
- Bodega Bay Marine Lab – witnessing firsthand the impacts of climate change on our oceans such as the critically endangered white abalone, and the inspiring, cross-disciplinary efforts to tackle the climate crisis
- Cathay Innovation – global VC with valuable perspectives on the direction of US investment in climate tech—where capital is flowing, and what emerging trends are shaping the future.
- Planet – on satellite imagery becoming a crucial tool in responding to global change.
- ScoutAi – AI driven solution using ground cameras for vineyard sustainability in the Napa valley
Insights into US Climate Tech market
We hope that by meeting and exchanging views with so many experts in San Francisco and San Jose we can play a role in inspiring UK businesses to grow and scale-up, help to build international partnerships to increase business opportunities in the UK and promoting the UK as a global hub of climate innovation.
It certainly gave us insights into the American Climate Tech market, its research, development and innovation priorities and we look forward to building the new connections we made into strong relationships for the wider UK satellite data climate community.
Climate change is a global challenge and satellites provide a global view of its impacts, as well as the chance to monitoring what actions work. The only way it can be addressed successfully is on a global scale and for that we need global collaborations.