Diego, which emerging climate technologies aren't receiving
enough attention?
Well in my perspective, a lot of the emerging technologies that
got the attention in the last years are related to
low-investment assets. So digital stuff, AI and things
like that.
But there are a lot of technologies that could actually
bring implementation up to speed in terms of climate change and
CO2 reductions. And those are, by example, direct air capture
or some of the sequestration technologies that are not
directly putting the CO2 underground, but more into the
ocean. And then some technologies where you can use
CO2 to produce materials. So carbon capture utilization. On
top of that, things related to energy, by example, hydrogen and
nuclear energy haven't had the attention they deserve. So I
think those five are the most interesting in my perspective.
And there's a lot of talk here about finance, but what about
the science problem? What's keeping impact tech out of
reach? - I think there are mainly
three problems. One is a strategic one, the second is
tactical and then the third one is technical. The strategic one
is related to the partnerships. I think when you think about the
process science needs to get deployed, it's first discovery,
then
development, and then deployment. In between those
three blocks, you require partnerships and scientists are
not always approaching the right people, but specifically they
are not using the right communication style.
I think scientists require, to get closer to the financial
people, to the commercial people, to the marketing people,
to be able to communicate properly where they want to say.
That's from a strategic perspective. And communication
wise, it's very linked to it. The style and the words used to
convey a message to the market, that is the one who at the end
is going to decide what to buy, is not getting to the mass. The
communication about climate change, about the key metrics,
is not always clear. So when changing the wording and making
the mass understand what is on stake might change also the
decision on what to buy and consequently what to produce.
And finally,
I think the materials developed over the last years are not yet
at the scale they need to be to be deployed. And that means
putting a lot of attention in, by example, materials to absorb
CO2, on new materials to reduce the energy consumption in the
processes and to make them with a higher yield. So a lot of
attention needs to go towards synthetic biology, material
science, and fermentation processes. So I think the
scientists need to focus on those three things. - Well,
Diego, thanks very much for joining us.
Thank you so much for the opportunity.