‘Established actors must dare to invest in new technology today’
2021-01-20
Three quick questions to Charlotte Becker, Head of Communications & Investor Relations at the cleantech company Climeon, about technology’s role in counteracting climate change and the challenges and opportunities facing the cleantech sector.
Climeon’s activities have the explicit aim of counteracting climate change. What role does technological development play in striving to achieve this aim?
– I am convinced that technological development is the key to counteracting climate change. Few want to lower their current living standards or forgo the ones they are striving to achieve. And the truth is there is already an abundance of technologies, including Climeon’s, that can achieve considerable emission reductions. We just need to implement them quicker.
One goal of the EU’s Green Deal is for the EU to be climate-neutral by 2050. What do you see as the biggest challenges to achieving this goal?
– The major challenge is to implement current technology sufficiently quickly. We know that we must dramatically increase the share of renewable energy. At the same time, when it comes to energy projects, the decision-making and permit-issuing processes are often protracted, and the need for capital is great. Established actors must dare to invest in new technology today, not in a few years when it has proved itself. Climeon’s installations have already saved several thousand tons of CO2, and our ambition is, of course, to continue to be a part of, and contribute to, the energy transition globally.
In your opinion, what measures taken by decision makers at the national and international level, and by society in general, are needed for the work to bear fruit?
– More than half the energy we produce in the world goes to waste in the form of heat. In industry and the transport sector, there are huge amounts of waste heat that could be used to produce electricity and significantly reduce carbon dioxide emissions. However, so long as wasting energy is inexpensive, it is difficult to create large-scale change. This is where decision makers, nationally and internationally, could really make a difference.Despite the political and media focus on the coronavirus, I also feel that the interest in cleantech and green investments has grown; so we feel hopeful.
Charlotte Becker was interviewed by Johann Arnljots, consultant at New Republic. ‘Three Quick Questions…’ is a series of interviews conducted by New Republic.