Debating GreenTech with Carbon13

Giles and I had a great afternoon earlier this week at the Cambridge Union debating chamber for the latest Carbon13 showcase (the trains thankfully failed in their conspiracy to keep Giles away!). There was no debate about the urgent need to tackle the climate emergency, but instead, we were presented with a real variety of innovative solutions on how best to meet the challenge. 

Carbon capture, biodiversity, synthetic biology, heat pumps, border taxes, and F-gases all featured in the pitches from the latest six ventures to receive investment from the Carbon13 programme. We’ve written before about the importance of IP to tech-driven start-ups, and it was good to see that many of the ventures had started to think about how to protect their innovations. 

In the drinks reception following the showcase, we were struck by the enthusiasm of the audience. The attendees we spoke to were taken from a diverse range of fields and backgrounds, but all were passionate about contributing to the fight against climate change. We think this proves our colleague Esther Ford’s recent point that Cambridge is a growing and exciting hub for the GreenTech market boom. 

Congratulations to the ventures who presented this week, and good luck to the new cohort starting soon. As patent attorneys, we’re always excited by the new technology on display, and we’re also eager to see how the ventures bring us closer to a net zero future. 

Can intellectual property help accelerate the race to net zero? Visit our Energy Transition hub to find out.