Clean technologies, also known as ‘cleantech’, are those that contribute to sustainability and care for the environment. This encompasses both the reduction of emissions and the protection of biodiversity and water treatment.
Cleantech is an emerging concept that, in recent years, has moved beyond specialized sustainability circles to reach a more generalized public. And like any terminology that is integrated, it can generate some confusion. However, there is a consensus among experts in the energy sector: cleantech’ refers to clean technologies. This implies the presence of a technological and innovative part with the central goal of promoting sustainability and decarbonization.
Common examples of these green technologies include renewable energies, the electric car, recycling and waste management processes, water reuse and the development of bioplastics, according to the experts consulted.
Avaesen, the association of renewable energy companies and other clean technologies of the Valencian Community, specifies the definition. Its general director, Pedro Fresco, points out that the purpose of ‘cleantech’ is to “reduce or avoid the environmental damage of processes that we currently carry out with other more impacting technologies”. And he adds: “When we talk about ‘cleantech’ we are not only talking about large technological developments, but we also include services or business models that have a certain technological base”.
Processes aimed at greater efficiency can also be incorporated into this concept. For Covadonga Pevida, CSIC researcher at the Institute of Carbon Science and Technology, the term comes from the clean technologies that were already being used to reduce emissions from fossil fuels. “In the current context of transition to renewables, the concept of ‘cleantech’ is being extended to include not only technologies that enable cleaner fuel use but is also more closely linked to the sustainability aspect”. In his opinion, this would even include processes aimed at promoting the circular economy.
Investment in ‘cleantech’: betting on green technology
Nuances aside, the sector that seems to encompass this concept is in good health. The Energy Technology Perspectives 2023 report, published by the International Energy Agency (IEA), shows that the global market for green technology will be worth around $650 billion by 2030. This is a tripling of the current volume of business, although it is conditional on countries implementing the energy and climate plans they have announced.
In this sense, there are entities such as ‘Cleantech for Iberia’, which has the support of Breakthrough Energy, an initiative founded by Bill Gates, and which BBVA has recently joined. Its main goal is to create a global center that joins the Iberian Peninsula’s position as a leader in the cleantech sector.
Investment in clean technologies on the Iberian Peninsula has increased sixfold in the last five years, reaching 676 million euros in 2022. A total of 160 companies have already invested in this cleantech sector and it is estimated that 600 more will do so in the coming years.
The evolution over time is clear. “There is a steady increase in investment in everything that has to do with clean energy and decarbonized technologies, in frank increase since the Paris Agreement,” says Fresco, who has first-hand knowledge of the subject, as Avaesen leads the Cleantech Climate Launchpad renewable technology business idea competition at the national level. “Startups are showing an increasing technological orientation and greater readiness to face the demands of today’s market. More and more young people are joining ‘cleantech’ entrepreneurship, bringing a distinctive technological approach to this dynamic landscape,” supports the association’s CEO.
Researcher Covadonga Pevida also highlights the evolution of cleantech. “Those of us who have worked with coal or fossil fuels see that for many years commercial climate technologies of denitrification (DeNoX) or desulfurization (DeSoX) have been developed to eliminate nitrogen oxides and sulfur oxides.” However, he believes that talk of ‘cleantech’ technologies now goes beyond achieving climate neutrality.
Today, the concept cannot be separated from the climate challenge facing the planet. “The challenges of ‘cleantech’ are intimately linked to the climate challenge facing humanity,” points out Fresco. “We have to make a radical change in technologies in 30 years and to do so requires an enormous amount of investment, well above what we are investing now.”
What are ‘climatetech’ or climate technology?
In this context, there is another term that is appearing, which is even less well known and more recent than ‘cleantech’. It is ‘climatetech’, which is subtly different from the earlier one. “We could say that ‘climatetech’ would focus on technologies and services that reduce the climate impact of our activities, while ‘cleantech’ is somewhat broader, as it focuses on broader environmental issues, such as the water cycle, waste treatment or the protection of biodiversity,” explains Fresco.
Thus, climatetech’ technologies would be those aimed at mitigating the elements that cause climate change. Cleantech’ encompasses all the above and adds others related to environmental protection. In other words, all ‘climatetech’ are ‘cleantech’, but not all ‘cleantech’ are ‘climatetech’.
Carbon capture, both from the air and in industry, would be a typical case of ‘climatetech’. “There are activities that have what are called process emissions. They cannot avoid emitting carbon. A very clear example is the cement production process, which inherently generates carbon dioxide (CO2), which is associated with the raw materials themselves. These emissions are going to be generated, and this is where CO2 capture technologies would come in to achieve climate neutrality. They add an added process that selectively separates that CO2 so that it can be stored,” says Pevida.
Although the race is not without obstacles. The consulting firm PwC warns of a slowdown in investment in ‘climatetech’ startups in 2023. And it warns that the planet needs to decarbonize seven times faster than it does now to keep the level of warming at 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels. However, there are also signs for optimism. The share of private investment and public subsidies for ‘climatetech’ technologies out of the total grew to 11.4% in the third quarter of 2023. This is certainly not a negligible percentage.
SORCE: BBVA Sustainability
