Websites, apps and startups rush to follow government climate tech incentives
Take some time with people in the climate tech world, and you’ll soon learn that many of them share one thing in common: They’re not used to having a lot of money.
That’s because for years, climate represented a cost for many businesses, not an opportunity. Fortunately, that has begun to change recently as investors have flocked to the space, looking for opportunities in “double-digit trillion dollar markets” that are “largely disconnected from mainstream technology investing,” said Joshua Posamentier, managing partner at Agreedhe told TechCrunch+.
Investments in climate technology have been accelerating over the past five years or so. While the industry hasn’t been completely immune to the slowdown that has hit the rest of the startup world over the past two years, we saw signs of a rally in the third quarter.
This continued strength is due in part to the commitments of both the US and Europe to industrial climate policies. Between the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and the bipartisan Infrastructure Act in the US and the Green Deal in the EU, nearly $1 trillion in tax credits, grants and other incentives are available for climate-related investments and purchases and energy.
But that trillion dollar forecast may actually be conservative. A stand-alone IRA can yield more than that, since many of the tax deductions are uncapped. Goldman Sachs estimates that the climate law’s provisions could pay $1.2 trillion in stimulus, spurring about $3 trillion in private investment.
That’s not enough to drive the US or EU economy to net zero carbon emissions (or to offset historical emissions), but it’s such a big advance that it might be hard to keep track of it all.
In fact, climate tech today is in the unusual position of being so flush with cash (relatively speaking) that there are plenty of websites, apps, and startups rushing to track it all and help companies and customers make the most of the incentives.
Making sense of everything
“Unfortunately, there isn’t a comprehensive database out there of all these discounts and incentives,” said Thomas Stephens, co-founder of In advancea startup that catalogs incentives for marketers.
For companies, it’s a cost of doing business to gather, understand and incorporate these incentives into their sales proposition, according to Tom Carden, chief engineering officer at Rewiring Americaa non-profit organization that supports the electrification of the economy.
