⛳️ Introduction to Level 1
Welcome to Level 1! You are in the right place if you are brand new to climate action, and need a basic overview of terms as well as some questions you probably want answered!
- Be able to define climate tech.
- Gain fundamental climate knowledge.
- Browse solution frameworks.
- Consider joining a core community.
In Level 1, you will read up on climate definitions, and it is recommended that you read some of the articles that are linked in this level for a comprehensive background.
What is Climate Tech?
The term "climate tech", short for climate technology, is used in two related ways. There is a broad definition and a Silicon Valley-style industry definition.
|Climate Tech is any form of technology, physical or digital, that will help people implement climate change.
|Climate Tech is a recent financial movement to invest in startup companies that are focused on a solution to the climate emergency.
They are used interchangeably at times, but it is only a matter of one referring to a movement and the other being a physical thing that jump started the movement. The broad definition of climate tech is what we are mostly going to be using in this mini-course.
These climate technologies are focused on:
- reducing GHG (Greenhouse gasses - gasses in the earth’s atmosphere that trap heat) emissions
The main sources of GHG emissions are divided into the following sectors, or subcategories, which we will go more in depth with later on in this course:
Food, Agriculture, and Land Use
You have probably heard of clean tech before. What is it, and is it the same thing as climate tech?
What is clean tech?
|The term “clean tech”, short for clean technology, are technologies that reduce the environmental impact that existing technologies cause, as well as improve the quality of natural resources.
These clean tech technologies are focused on:
- Reducing usage of “dirty” technologies (coal, gas, oil, mining, transportation, manufacturing).
- Improving areas of natural resources: clean water, air quality, recycling, clean energy
It is important to note that “clean tech” has a negative association with a failed “Clean Tech 1.0” startup period from 2006-2011. Learn more about this here:
- How VCs can avoid another bloodbath as the clean-tech boom 2.0
- Eight lessons from the first climate boom and bust
Also, ever heard of “green tech”?
Green tech is just an umbrella term for climate tech and clean tech. Climate tech and Clean tech are green tech. Climate tech and Clean tech are different are simply different from one another, however.
What is a climate job like?
How well does it pay?
Early stage startups:
You will be dealing with a lot of early stage startups.
Roughly 3,000+ companies / organizations exist in our current database.
Early stage startups tend to pay lower salaries in exchange for generous equity packages.
That said, climate startups want to attract quality talent and hopefully understand that competitive pay is important.
Change the direction of your current company.
Or try to steer a bigger company that's been around for a while.
- Project Drawdown has a guide on this topic. Organizations like Climate Voice and Work for Climate specialize in this.
Companies like Microsoft, Google, Stripe, etc. have a specific corporate sustainability positions. There are also many consultancies you can join.
Think outside the box. For example, you are in procurement, you have a huge opportunity to order supplies that come from clean sources. Start a green team that doesn't exist in your current job
Don't forget Government Jobs:
There are plenty of government jobs
The salaries are lower, but some states and counties offer good health care and pensions
There can be a higher level of job security, predictability, and transparency compared to a fast moving startup environment.
Policy and academic roles are valuable as well (for example, analyzing the impact of voluntary carbon markets)
How do I learn the necessary skills?
There are two aspects:
What if you don't have tech experience?
Next is domain knowledge.
How secure are these jobs?
It varies by climate solution - some solutions are better established and others are very early.
The highest anticipated growth is in automotive, power generation, and electrical efficiency.
Voluntary Carbon Markets started as a popular solution, but have recently been hit by a round of layoffs, due to public criticism on overstated benefits.
How much do I need to know about climate science and politics?
It depends on:
For example, a solution involving the electrical grid can get quite complicated.
2. The job role
When it comes to the role, being a software engineer or running people operations are more transferrable.
But, you are in sales or marketing, you need to know as much as possible about your industry market.
How do I avoid greenwashing?
- Read and support journalism outlets such as DeSmog, Grist, Inside Climate News, Climate Desk, Drilled, and more.
This is a big topic and we are working on a guide
Tell us your findings on Slack and we'll report on it
Fundamental Climate Knowledge
The 2015 Paris Agreement:
The bottom line is that we are supposed to keep the global average temperature down to 1.5 degrees celsius.
This would allow us to avoid the most catastrophic impacts.
To do so, we need to cut greenhouse pollution down 50% by 2030 and 100% by 2050.
By 2050 we need to be at "net zero".
1.5 degrees versus 2 degrees celsius:
Reaching our 2030 goal is not likely.
However, we still have a chance of keeping the global average temperature near 2 degrees celsius within the next 23 years.
Our carbon budget:
There are many different calculations.
The world is emitting roughly 42.2 gigatons of greenhouse pollution per year.
We have roughly 995 gigatons left if we want some likelihood of staying below 2C.
We have 250 gigatons of CO2 left to stay below 1.5 degrees, roughly 5 years.
The global standard comes from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
SkepticalScience.com maintains a good list counter-arguments to over 200 climate myths.
One of the most important myths to debunk is the belief that global temperatures will decline as greenhouse emissions go down.
This implies that we can partially reduce emissions and keep global temperatures at a stable level.
In reality, carbon dioxide persists for hundreds of years
We need to cut emissions completely to stop any further damage.
Partial cuts will not work.
Time for the good news. We have solutions!
Project Drawdown is a non-profit organization that created a list of the 93 top climate solutions.
The list comes from a global coalition of leading scientists.
They calculated and ranked the highest likelihood of reducing greenhouse pollution based on available solutions today.
Reducing food waste
Alternatives to meat
The Handbook's Solution Page is mostly based off of Project Drawdown.
Speed and Scale
Created by venture capitalist John Doerr, this framework has both similarities and differences with Drawdown.
Rather than a big list of 93 Solutions ranked by gigaton reduction, the Speed and Scale framework uses Doerr's popular OKR system for measuring "objective key results."
Here is Speed and Scale's official OKR Tracker
Which framework to use?
Both are valuable and are not mutually exlusive.
Project Drawdown has some more granular solutions, while Speed and Scale has larger categories.
Speed and Scale has a great OKR system that is time bound and uses very specific metrics to track progress.
There are 26 Slack communities listed here.
Some are generalized for climate job seekers, and others are specialized toward roles (climate designers) and solutions.
Here are 3 to start with:
The Climate Tech Handbook
Our community is designed for people who want to level up their portfolio.
We're building the handbook together to show off our skills and knowledge.Join our Slack
Work on Climate
The largest Slack community for climate work.
This one costs $10 per month, but is well worth it.
Work on Climate is very heavy toward job seekers, while MCJ also has a strong startup / investor community.
The MCJ Collective are investors themselves.
MCJ stands for My Climate Journey
They have a great podcast here
Networking strategies will be covered further in Level 2.
You did it!
Now on to the next level: