How technology and innovation can help to tackle climate change

1. Let tech lead the transition

"From a source perspective we are still, despite all of our efforts, in an age of oil. To get to a net zero position by 2050 the economy needs to dramatically shift to an age of electricity. Any technology or invention that will facilitate or drive that transition will do well," says Eoin Cassidy, a partner at law firm Mason Hayes Curran.

“Examples of this will be technologies and inventions which improve battery performance and longevity for storage, which smooths out the intermittent generation from renewable sources.”

Other priority areas include clean hydrogen – already being used to power busses in Northern Ireland – energy storage, and carbon capture, storage and utilisation.

Digital technologies are a critical enabler for attaining sustainability goals too.

“Artificial intelligence, 5G, cloud and edge computing, and the internet of things can accelerate and maximise the impact of policies to deal with climate change and protect the environment,” he explains.

2. Build the connections that count

"Innovators do not have access to the large industrial corporates that would allow them to pilot their innovations. There is a disconnect between the individual innovators and the large players who can help make their innovation happen," says Mike Hayes, global head of renewables at KPMG Ireland.

He believes Ireland needs to develop a decarbonisation accelerator that brings together investors, large industrial players and innovators. “I’m talking with innovators every day and the thing they all say to me is that they can’t get into a room with the people they need to talk to. At the same time I’m talking to big oil and gas companies asking how can we find innovators,” says Hayes.

3. Establish Ireland as a climate-tech innovator

“Just as Ireland, 30 years ago, established itself as a global financial services hub, so too we can establish ourselves as a global hub for climate change,” says Hayes.

“The climate crisis is the single biggest challenge facing all of us. If innovators come, investors follow. No one country has yet put up its hand to grab this space.” Ireland has a history of innovation in this space, a tremendous amount of knowledge as a result, and, as a country which still trades on its clean green image, “we have the street cred to do it”, he says.

4. Drive the data hard

Smart metering will lead to a new raft of energy saving innovations, predicts Cormac Mannion, head of energy services at Energia.

“It will inform a lot of decisions and allow companies to tailor products to suit. It’s about enabling people to be prosumers rather than consumers too because, when added to microgeneration systems, such as solar panels, it can help decarbonise the electricity system.”

Blockchain technology is already enabling neighbours overseas to buy and sell energy to one another. Smart meters can also help turn the electric vehicle on the driveway into a battery that can be used to store electricity and feed it back into the grid.

5. Innovate incentives

“When recycling was first rolled out, we educated people about how to separate waste and incentivised them with free bins and free recycling collections. We need a similar sort of programme for climate change,” says Stephen Prendiville, head of sustainability, EY Ireland.

Technology alone isn’t the answer. “We don’t want a sense that people can sit back and wait for technology to catch up with the problem. We need to create the structures so that people can feel their individual actions have a purpose and an effect in relation to climate change.”

Financial incentives will help, says Mannion. SEAI will provide a subsidy of up to 35 per cent of the cost of an energy efficiency retrofit. At around €60,000, that would leave the homeowner on the hook for €40,000. New green finance schemes could encourage action, he says.

6. Look to the Horizon

Horizon Europe, the EU’s funding programme for research and innovation from 2021 to 2027 has a budget of €100 billion, of which at least 35 per cent will go towards new solutions for climate change.

"The European Innovation Council will dedicate funding, equity investment and business acceleration services to high-potential start-ups and SMEs for them to achieve breakthrough Green Deal innovation that can be scaled up rapidly on global markets," says Cassidy.