It’s never too late #ICYMI — Skoll World Forum Recap: The future of #ClimateTech collaboration and systems change
The latest IPCC report warns of ‘irreversible’ impacts of global warming — and evidence suggests that to accelerate a just, green and resilient climate transition major coordinated action must happen. The climate tech sector is part and parcel of this action plan, and engaging the full spectrum of players in the climate tech ecosystem is essential to this process.
To launch the Oxford Climate Tech Initiative, our 100% volunteer driven team hosted an action research workshop at the Skoll World Forum’s Ecosystem Day. We held this in partnership with On Deck’s Build for Climate, and kicked off with an interactive “lightning” panel moderated by OXCT’s Courtney Savie Lawrence. We learned from Nigeria Climate Innovation Center’s Bankole Oloruntoba, SDG x Near Future Lab’s David Galipeau, Acumen Pakistan’s Dr. Ayesha Khan, LowerCarbon Capital’s Mia Diawara and Catalyst Investment Management’ Ennis Rimawi. We also got a snapshot of the background and vision of OXCT from Dr. Abrar Chaudhury and Jamil Wyne. You can check the session recording here or just scroll on to scan what we covered.
Diving into the unresolved questions
Our panelists represented a wide range of geographies from Silicon Valley to Lahore, and from Lagos to Amman and Singapore, and also brought with them an equally diverse range of questions and observations that can help in shaping climate-tech collaborations in the future.
For instance, Bankole Oloruntoba opined on the need to think of behavioral change as part and parcel of the larger climate-tech agenda — if consumers and incumbent firms are not willing to adjust what they purchase and how they allocate resources, new products and solutions that are helping to promote green, sustainable growth may not scale.
In parallel, Dr. Ayesha Khan vocalized the need to factor in the notion of inclusion into climate-tech development and investment decisions. With developing countries predicted to experience the lion’s share of fallout related to climate change, ensuring that the most vulnerable populations benefit from the creation of new climate technologies is of paramount importance. By the same token, Mia Diawara articulated the need to ensure that the actual teams that are building and investing in new climate-tech are also inclusive, being composed of skilled professionals who are indeed representative of the global population.
Meanwhile, David Galipeau and Ennis Rimawi both encouraged attendees, as well as the larger climate-tech space, to be mindful of the balance between “today’s ideas with tomorrow’s technology”. For instance, Rimawi vocalized the need to make more effective usage of emerging blockchain-enabled technologies in pricing carbon credits (and other similar assets) as the demand for streamlining the carbon offset process grows.
We emerged from this discussion with a deeper appreciation of how the most pressing trends surrounding global climate-tech investments are not purely an investment or R&D matter, but one that encompasses human capital and behavior, as well as social and economic inclusion and developing an opinion on how various social and technological trends will collide in the future, as well as how this may vary from country to country. These insights are also critical as well to shaping the rules of the global climate-tech playing field, as they have large implications on how investors, entrepreneurs, policymakers, and other key stakeholders will navigate their way through an increasingly crowded field.
Following the lightning panel, we held 16 breakout rooms, with nearly 40 volunteer facilitators, and asked participants to share their points of view and perceptions to 9 key questions on the Miro here. We then used “virtual post it notes” to crowdsource responses to that feed into a larger research project and horizon scan underway. What you see in the Kumu Map below is the output from the conversations that happened in all of the “side rooms”. This documentation is still open- please add your own considerations: Click here to view, explore and join!
What’s Next?
Get involved- you can see the latest lines of enquiry and ambition for the initiative at oxclimate.tech and join our Linkedin Community of Practice to reach out to the growing field ranging from Climate Tech leaders to the Climate Curious.
