IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp17794.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Climate Technology Entrepreneurship: A Primer

Author

Listed:
  • Naudé, Wim

    (RWTH Aachen University)

Abstract

This paper provides a primer on climate technology entrepreneurship, recognizing its limitations and potential adverse consequences. Climate technology entrepreneurship is needed to contribute to mitigation of and adaptation to climate change, and to help decouple economic growth from resource use. This paper identifies and describes three climate technology gaps: (i) an energy climate tech gap, an (ii) overshoot climate tech gap; and (iii) a resilience climate tech gap. The paper furthermore argues that policies for supporting climate technology entrepreneurship, including entrepreneurial ecosystems and mission-oriented approaches, have significant shortcomings. Furthermore, the paper concludes that Artificial Intelligence (AI) is unlikely to make a difference to the world’s climate change predicament. Hence, climate technology entrepreneurship is no panacea for climate change and ecological overshoot caused by human activity. On its own it will not save the world.

Suggested Citation

  • Naudé, Wim, 2025. "Climate Technology Entrepreneurship: A Primer," IZA Discussion Papers 17794, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17794
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp17794.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mariana Mazzucato, 2018. "Mission-oriented innovation policies: challenges and opportunities," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 27(5), pages 803-815.
    2. Roundy, Philip T. & Bradshaw, Mike & Brockman, Beverly K., 2018. "The emergence of entrepreneurial ecosystems: A complex adaptive systems approach," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 1-10.
    3. Court, Victor & Fizaine, Florian, 2017. "Long-Term Estimates of the Energy-Return-on-Investment (EROI) of Coal, Oil, and Gas Global Productions," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 145-159.
    4. Gries, Thomas & Naudé, Wim, 2011. "Entrepreneurship and human development: A capability approach," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(3), pages 216-224.
    5. Obwegeser, Nikolaus & Müller, Sune Dueholm, 2018. "Innovation and public procurement: Terminology, concepts, and applications," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 74, pages 1-17.
    6. Nicholas Stern & Joseph Stiglitz & Charlotte Taylor, 2022. "The economics of immense risk, urgent action and radical change: towards new approaches to the economics of climate change," Journal of Economic Methodology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(3), pages 181-216, July.
    7. Timothy M. Lenton & Johan Rockström & Owen Gaffney & Stefan Rahmstorf & Katherine Richardson & Will Steffen & Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, 2019. "Climate tipping points — too risky to bet against," Nature, Nature, vol. 575(7784), pages 592-595, November.
    8. Tsimafei Kazlou & Aleh Cherp & Jessica Jewell, 2024. "Feasible deployment of carbon capture and storage and the requirements of climate targets," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 14(10), pages 1047-1055, October.
    9. Leendertse, Jip & Schrijvers, Mirella & Stam, Erik, 2022. "Measure Twice, Cut Once: Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Metrics," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(9).
    10. Nathan ROSENBERG, 2009. "Why do firms do basic research (with their own money)?," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Nathan Rosenberg (ed.), Studies On Science And The Innovation Process Selected Works of Nathan Rosenberg, chapter 11, pages 225-234, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    11. Tsoutsos, Theocharis & Frantzeskaki, Niki & Gekas, Vassilis, 2005. "Environmental impacts from the solar energy technologies," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 289-296, February.
    12. Carolyn W. Snyder, 2016. "Evolution of global temperature over the past two million years," Nature, Nature, vol. 538(7624), pages 226-228, October.
    13. Hamish van der Ven & Diego Corry & Rawie Elnur & Viola Jasmine Provost & Muh Syukron, 2024. "Generative AI and Social Media May Exacerbate the Climate Crisis," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 24(2), pages 9-18, Spring.
    14. James D Ward & Paul C Sutton & Adrian D Werner & Robert Costanza & Steve H Mohr & Craig T Simmons, 2016. "Is Decoupling GDP Growth from Environmental Impact Possible?," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(10), pages 1-14, October.
    15. Almeida, Derick & Naudé, Wim & Sequeira, Tiago Neves, 2024. "Artificial Intelligence and the Discovery of New Ideas: Is an Economic Growth Explosion Imminent?," IZA Discussion Papers 16766, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    16. Martin L. Weitzman, 2011. "Fat-Tailed Uncertainty in the Economics of Catastrophic Climate Change," Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 5(2), pages 275-292, Summer.
    17. Jason Hickel, 2019. "The contradiction of the sustainable development goals: Growth versus ecology on a finite planet," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(5), pages 873-884, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Naudé, Wim, 2023. "We Already Live in a Degrowth World, and We Do Not like It," IZA Discussion Papers 16191, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Naudé, Wim, 2024. "Entrepreneurship Is Dangerously Obsessed with Growth and Incompatible with Current Visions of a Post-growth Society," IZA Discussion Papers 17158, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Naudé, Wim, 2023. "Melancholy Hues: The Futility of Green Growth and Degrowth, and the Inevitability of Societal Collapse," IZA Discussion Papers 16139, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Elias Carayannis & Marco Vinzenzi & John Draper & Nikos Kanellos, 2024. "Can Fusion Be the Next General-Purpose Technology? Theory, Policy, Practice, and Politics Perspectives on Stewarding Fusion Energy Research," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 15(2), pages 9497-9514, June.
    5. Hametner, Markus, 2022. "Economics without ecology: How the SDGs fail to align socioeconomic development with environmental sustainability," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 199(C).
    6. Komlósi, Éva & Madár, Miklós, 2024. "Digitális vállalkozási ökoszisztémák a Kárpát-Balkán térségben [Digital entrepreneurship ecosystems in the Carpathian-Balkan region]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(11), pages 1254-1279.
    7. Bovari, Emmanuel & Giraud, Gaël & Mc Isaac, Florent, 2018. "Coping With Collapse: A Stock-Flow Consistent Monetary Macrodynamics of Global Warming," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 383-398.
    8. Andreas Makoto Hein & Jean-Baptiste Rudelle, 2020. "Energy Limits to the Gross Domestic Product on Earth," Working Papers hal-02570677, HAL.
    9. Grashof, Nils, 2020. "Putting the watering can away Towards a targeted (problem-oriented) cluster policy framework," Papers in Innovation Studies 2020/4, Lund University, CIRCLE - Centre for Innovation Research.
    10. Uyarra, Elvira & Zabala-Iturriagagoitia, Jon Mikel & Flanagan, Kieron & Magro, Edurne, 2020. "Public procurement, innovation and industrial policy: Rationales, roles, capabilities and implementation," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(1).
    11. Naudé, Wim & Dimitri, Nicola, 2021. "Public Procurement and Innovation for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence," IZA Discussion Papers 14021, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    12. Angelo Cavallo & Alessandra Colombelli & Elettra D’Amico & Emilio Paolucci, 2023. "“Balanced” or “polarized” entrepreneurial ecosystem types? Evidence from Italy," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 48(5), pages 1860-1889, October.
    13. Edler, Jakob, 2023. "Demand, public procurement and transformation," Discussion Papers "Innovation Systems and Policy Analysis" 79, Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research (ISI).
    14. Paolo Castelnovo & Gelsomina Catalano & Francesco Giffoni & Matteo Landoni, 2024. "The outcomes of public procurements: an empirical analysis of the Italian space industry," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 49(1), pages 367-399, February.
    15. Jason Hickel & Stéphane Hallegatte, 2022. "Can we live within environmental limits and still reduce poverty? Degrowth or decoupling?," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 40(1), January.
    16. Minniti, Maria & Naudé, Wim & Stam, Erik, 2023. "Is Productive Entrepreneurship Getting Scarcer? A Reflection on the Contemporary Relevance of Baumol's Typology," IZA Discussion Papers 16408, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    17. Misty Sabol, 2024. "Innovative behavior and interactions in municipal innovation ecosystems," Journal of Economic Interaction and Coordination, Springer;Society for Economic Science with Heterogeneous Interacting Agents, vol. 19(2), pages 201-229, April.
    18. Althouse, Jeffrey & Guarini, Giulio & Gabriel Porcile, Jose, 2020. "Ecological macroeconomics in the open economy: Sustainability, unequal exchange and policy coordination in a center-periphery model," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 172(C).
    19. Juan Telleria & Jorge Garcia-Arias, 2022. "The fantasmatic narrative of ‘sustainable development’. A political analysis of the 2030 Global Development Agenda," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 40(1), pages 241-259, February.
    20. González-Serrano, María Huertas & Crespo-Hervás, Josep & Pérez-Campos, Carlos & Calabuig, Ferran, 2021. "Entrepreneurial ecosystems for developing the sports industry in European Union countries," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 667-677.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    climate change; entrepreneurship; climate technology; sustainable development;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L26 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Entrepreneurship
    • Q54 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Climate; Natural Disasters and their Management; Global Warming
    • O31 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives
    • L53 - Industrial Organization - - Regulation and Industrial Policy - - - Enterprise Policy

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17794. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Holger Hinte (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaade.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.