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Sustainability

Climate tech: Harnessing the power of technology for a sustainable future

Report from the Capgemini Research Institute

As organizations look for ways to urgently address the current environmental crisis, climate technologies – a diverse range of innovative technologies that includes renewables, batteries, low-carbon hydrogen, carbon capture, and alternative fuels – have emerged as an important means of doing so.

In this Capgemini Research Institute report, Climate tech: Harnessing the power of technology for a sustainable future, we explore climate technologies in depth, recognizing their importance for addressing climate and ecological issues.  

Climate technologies have become crucial to formulating an effective response to current sustainability challenges. Leaders of organizations agree with this sentiment, with three-quarters of the executives we surveyed saying their organizations will not achieve their sustainability goals without climate tech. Not only the reach but also the impact of these technologies will be significant, with 37% of executives expecting climate tech to help their organizations achieve 37% of their decarbonization / net zero goals.

Despite the great potential of climate tech solutions, cost currently poses a major barrier to widespread adoption. Existing green premiums for climate tech adoption – i.e., the difference in cost between low-carbon products and their high-emitting alternatives – are often significant. For this reason, there is a long way to go to make climate tech solutions commercially viable.

One solution to these cost challenges is the use of digital technologies such as AI and digital twins. They can be employed to reduce development costs, increase efficiencies, and speed up innovation processes. Of these technologies, executives view AI as the most promising for accelerating climate tech adoption, with 77% putting it in this category. Significantly, 71% of organizations have already realized cost advantages from using digital technologies to scale climate tech.

We conclude this report with recommendations for organizations to accelerate climate tech adoption in order to meet their sustainability goals – including four actions as well as three enablers that organizations can implement for this purpose. Download the full report to find out more about climate tech and its fundamental role in enabling organizations to create a sustainable future.

Meet our experts

Florent Andrillon

Group Climate Tech leader
Florent leads clean tech business development with all sustainability teams across the Group. He has more than 20 years of experience in the energy and utilities sector, helping clients to achieve their sustainability goals and transition to a low-carbon economy. He has a strong focus on the energy, resources, and clean tech market, as well as on sustainability, climate, and energy transition issues. He leverages Capgemini’s capabilities and its external partners to deliver innovative and impactful solutions.

Corinne Jouanny

Head of Portfolio and Industry Centers of Excellence
Corinne is committed to leading sustainability acceleration. She has led numerous R&D projects in a variety of sectors for many international clients. A pioneer in the practice of design thinking in the industry, she has developed new service offerings and catalysis projects of major innovations that put people and the planet at the heart of developments, in open innovation dynamics. Corinne shares her passion and experience in diverse academic and industrial ecosystems to foster value creation and responsible innovation. Awarded “Innovation woman 2014” by L’Usine Nouvelle.

Alain Chardon

Energy Transition Director
An expert in new sustainability platforms, I help my clients prepare their next steps on energy transition and net zero economy, from strategy to implementation. I work with corporates in all sectors, as well as professional organizations and public authorities, and have delivered many strategy projects based on collaborative approaches and quantitative modeling. I’m proud to have coordinated and delivered innovative reports assessing the implementation of a circular economy , such as RACES, presented at DAVOS 2023, and Low carbon circular economy, with the French Institut National de l’Economie Circulaire, 2022. 

    Further reading

    Sustainability and Climate Tech

    Ideas focused on practicalities to accelerate global change action

    Accelerate to net zero, from commitment to sustainable results

    A World in Balance 2023: Heightened sustainability awareness yet lagging actions

    Low-carbon hydrogen: A path to greener future