By Pardeep Garg and Swapnil Shrivastav
The world is moving faster than ever before. The last decade has seen a lot more innovation than there has been in hundreds of years. Human behaviour is also drastically changing with the availability and consumption of information all the time. It is hard to look at life without technology playing a huge part in the change. The result of the change can also be seen in our respective environment.
The Industrial Revolution was the base of this change. With people shifting towards urban life, the demand for more industries providing jobs to support life and the economy made a significant impact on the overall environment.
The 21st century is a transitional era but the gradual effects of overexploitation of natural resources can be seen in our daily life. One of the major problems waiting at our threshold is the climate crisis and the depletion of our limited natural resources which demands for an immediate solution.
Sustainable development is the need of the hour. Fixing the past tragedies is a Herculean task and thereby we can only transform what’s coming next. In order to achieve the objectives of sustainable growth, we have to utilise technology in the right way and invest more on the startups promoting the same cause.
Sustainable mobility dealing with electric vehicles (EVs) manufacturing and clean logistics have attracted much attention in the last few years as the rising price of gasoline and rising pollution level affects the people and their environment directly.
Taking this into consideration, the fashion industry, meat industry, automobile industry and others are also moving towards the required change by looking for alternatives to their unsustainable manufacturing that will reduce the carbon footprint, the byproduct of their products.
Technology is our blessing in disguise with startups coming up with new initiatives to turn the world sustainable. Renewable energy sources when combined with the right technology can make the impossible possible.
According to experts, “the irreversible transition from a fossil-fuel model to a lower- or net-zero economic order is highly required” and one approach to make this happen is to help climate tech startups grow.
The purpose of climate tech has been clearly stated in the State of Climate Tech 2020 Report, as “Climate tech encompasses a broad set of sectors which tackle the challenge of decarbonising the global economy, to reach net-zero emissions before 2050”.
Many climate tech startups are working towards replacing the overused non-renewable resources with an alternative solution to attain the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, focusing on the need for an environment-conscious world.
Various new startups have developed climate applications that will allow users to go carbon neutral immediately and sustainably.
There are apps that will calculate the carbon footprint, and then will offset emissions by supporting verified climate projects that remove or reduce the same emissions elsewhere.
The climate fintech services are also growing to raise awareness and funds among the masses who will become the next global leaders. Moreover, the evolution of AI is playing a significant part in building the next generation technology.
The concept of sustainable development will be boosted with more and more startups working on innovative ideas. It will surely create a much required difference for the planet and the lives dependent on it.
More importantly, it took many years for us to reach this depressing point but tech startups can be a gateway to the misery faced by everyone in the near future as people have started collectively acknowledging the problem and therefore, finding solutions in the best way possible.
Pardeep Garg is the Co-founder of Uravu Labs, and a strong technologist with adomain expertise in thermal sciences.
Swapnil Shrivastav is the Co-founder of Uravu Labs, and has been active in the water and sustainability domain for almost 6 years
