Nevertheless, there have been some advancements in the market. The level of electric vehicle adoption in the country remains low and the path to adoption is still unclear. A focus on electric mobility in Kenya The current state of the market Taking a closer look at the ecosystem, the above objectives spread across 4 key sectors that serve as the pillars of climate tech, namely: Source: Research conducted by Diane Cozianįrom a global standpoint investment in the climate tech space is continuing to show strong growth and the mobility and transport sector remains the most heavily funded area. The transportation sector’s carbon footprint and dependence on oil is of major concern. And the use of electric vehicles is arguably the most realistic medium-term solution to address these concerns. For purposes of this article, I therefore decided to focus on the e-mobility sector. Iii. Enhance our understanding of the climate Ii. Help us to adapt to the impacts of climate change What is climate tech and what promising ideas are out there?Ĭlimate tech is technology that is explicitly focused on reducing GHG emissions, or addressing the impacts of global warming. According to the State of Climate Tech 2021 PWC report, they can be categorized into those that: The vulnerability stems from the fact that agriculture has been and will continue to be the continent’s economic backbone and climate change will create food insecurity, poverty, and population displacement. It is estimated that climatechange threatens the lives of 100 million in extreme poverty. Why Africa and why now?Īccording to a report done by the African Development Bank, 7 of the 10countries that are most vulnerable to climate change are in Africa. Despite the continent having the least contribution to global warming and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, it will suffer the effects of climate change to a disproportional degree. He states that this is what could have happened on Venus, which now has an atmosphere dense with CO 2 and a temperature of about 450 oC. According to the Existential Risk paper by Nick Bostrom, the release of greenhouse gases can turn out to be a strongly self-reinforcing feedback process. Although moderate global warming is not an outright existential risk (learn more on this from The end of humanity: Nick Bostrom at TED*Oxford ), runaway global warming is a cause for concern. It is through thinking about this that I got to understand the value of climate tech. Instead, a proactive approach must be adopted. The effects of existential risk would be devastating and the approach cannot be one of trial and error as there will be no time to learn from mistakes. Crushing risks: Risks in which mankind is either utterly destroyed or irreversibly crippled in ways that radically reduce their potential to live the sort of life they aspire to.Ī crushing pan-generational risk can be classified as an existential risk.threats to Earth’s biodiversity, moderate global warming, and global economic recessions. Endurable risks: Risks that may cause great destruction but mankind can recover from it e.g.Imperceptible risks: Risks that are so slight, gradual, or subtle as not to be perceived. ![]() ![]() The X-axis represents the severity, that is, how badly each individual in the group would be affected. This is further classified into: In the figure above, the Y-axis represents scope, that is, the size of the group of people that are affected by the risk. Source: Existential Risk Paper by Nick Bostrom The more people involved, the more likely it is that each person will do nothing, believing someone else from the group will probably respond. I am not too sure when my ‘aha’ moment came to be, but what I do know is that, our future, and whether it will be a good or bad one, is dependenton how mankind deals with the climate challenges. We are currently experiencing global catastrophic risk with the thinning of the ozone layer and we are slowly moving towards an existential risk. Looking back, this was the diffusion of responsibilityphenomenon in action which occurs when people who need to make a decision wait for someone else to act instead. I could not comprehend how my actions would be significant in the grand scheme of things. Why should we care about the climate? This is a question I often used to ask myself. What is climate tech and what promising ideas are out there?.
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