Investment into UK climate tech is growing exponentially and is set to double in 2022, according to the Climate Tech Report published by growth platform Tech Nation.
Tech Nation’s Climate Tech Report 2022 has revealed that international investment into UK climate tech companies has almost doubled, rising from $4m in 2021 to $7.5bn so far in 2022.
While the trend is increasing for the UK and on a global level, this is not the case for all countries.
Investment in the US, Germany and Sweden seems to be slowing down; receiving $2.139bn, $4.458bn and $2.173bn less investment in 2022 so far (compared to 2021) respectively.
The UK is on track to see climate tech companies raising nearly $20bn per year by 2030.
According to Tech Nation, this means that UK climate tech investment is ahead of overall UK tech investment, as despite a strong start to 2022, the rest of 2022 has been significantly down on 2021 figures.
The UK is second only to the US for the number of companies working to address the climate crisis, with over 5,200 climate tech companies in the UK to date (compared with 14,300 in the US).
Further demonstrating the country’s strength, the report highlighted that the UK has eight climate tech unicorns: Octopus Energy, Newcleo, Depop, ITM Power, Ceres, OVO Energy, Smart Metering Systems (SMS plc) and Vertical Aerospace. There are a further 19 future climate tech companies reportedly on their way to becoming unicorns.
In light of this, Tech Nation is calling on the government to protect R&D funding to help the country drive towards net zero and an innovation-led economic recovery.
The company also champions supporting climate tech companies on a global scale.
Tech Nation’s report also revealed that technologies combating energy have the highest cumulative emission reduction potential, with one emerging ‘top five’ technology being algae engineering; utilising algae to create biofuel, bioplastics and carbon sequestration.
As the report emphasises, the contribution climate tech companies must play to help the planet reach net zero emissions is undeniable, and Tech Nation said investment into these technologies must continue to increase.
Sammy Fry, Net Zero lead at Tech Nation, said, “The outsized role technology must play in tackling the climate crisis is undeniable. There has never been a more crucial time to take action, and while we should be encouraged by the immense growth of the UK’s climate tech sector – along with the high carbon reduction potential of climate tech companies and the resilience of the sector in the midst of difficult economic times – this is certainly no time to be complacent.
“We must continue to fuel the areas curtailing emissions with investment and shape policy that allows real change to become possible. This is the only way to preserve our planet for future generations.”
Earlier this year, Climate investment platform Raise Green closed its seed round on $1.2m, as it looks to accelerate project finance and deployment.
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