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Can startups help solve climate change and make money doing it? As federal policy grows less predictable, entrepreneurs are stepping in to fill the gap with new ideas, technologies and business models.

Jeff York

Â鶹Ãâ·Ñ°æÏÂÔØBoulder Today sat down withÌýJeff York, a professor of entrepreneurship at theÌýLeeds School of Business, to talk about where startups can have the most impact, how politics are reshaping the landscape, and why he sees climate action as one of the biggest business opportunities of the next decade.

Big picture first: Can startups solve climate change?

Not by themselves. Entrepreneurs are a product of the nexus of the individual and opportunities and the environment around them: the cultural, political, and business environment.

For startups to meaningfully address climate change, the right conditions need to exist.ÌýThey need to have the right alliances, the right partnerships, a supportive sociocultural setting, and they really need partnership with the government.

People often say business will save the world; I seriously doubt that. Business makes a wonderful tool and a really lousy religion. But with the right frameworks and the right policies in place, climate change can be addressed through new business models—and by bringing new products, markets and services to market.

Is today’s political environment helping or hurting climate startups?

The rollback of the Inflation Reduction Act—which had a lot of meaningful policies designed to move us toward a carbon‑neutral economy—is actually quite damaging. That act helped create markets and reduce risk for startups. Pulling that support back makes it harder to plan, harder to raise capital and harder to scale.

That said, the federal level is not everything. There’s still tons being done at the state level and even the community level. Founders need to be thoughtful about where they locate, where they target their markets, and how they align with the norms and beliefs of that community.

Does it hurt startups? Absolutely. Does it destroy our chance to address climate change? No, not at all.

Do you still see opportunity?

From all the business indicators, renewable energy is cheaper than it has ever been. Ninety percent of the new energy added to the U.S grid in the past five years was renewable energy. There are a lot of opportunities just on a purely economic basis.

This is a great economic opportunity—and we’re just leaving money on the table. What I mean by that is we already know these technologies are cost‑competitive, and the markets are moving in that direction anyway. By slowing down or stepping back, we’re giving up leadership and investment that’s going to happen somewhere else.

And we don’t really have a choice. The economic impacts on our lives are going to be so severe that eventually we’re going to have to make this change anyway.

Is climate entrepreneurship still a good bet for founders and investors?

If you’re looking for where the big hype is—where you can get in, make a quick exit and get a quick return—that’s obviously AI right now. Climate entrepreneurship isn’t that.Ìý

But there is still plenty of money flowing into addressing climate change because long‑term investors understand this is something we have to address. And the economic opportunity of doing so makes complete sense.

Where is climate investment flowing right now?

There’s huge interest in data centers. There’s a lot more capital going into small nuclear and fusion. There’s a lot going into autonomous electric vehicles.

Basically anything related to large‑scale data centers, quantum computing and supplying the energy for those markets is growing very quickly.

But what we’re seeing at the federal level isn’t just a rollback of support for new industries—it’s the federal government actively propping up dying industries, not on any economic basis whatsoever.

How does AI change the climate startup landscape?

AI offers a lot of opportunities—large‑scale modeling, faster research and the ability to engage in a technology‑founded startup at a much lower cost. The barrier to entry is way lower than it has been.

That sounds like a good thing, and maybe it is, because we don’t know exactly which business models or which solutions are going to be successful in addressing climate change.

But at the same time, it gets a lot of folks to rush into a market and try to create a business when they really don’t have the preparation, knowledge or ability to do so. At a societal level, that experimentation can be good. At an individual level, that can be bad.

So AI definitely accelerates some solutions, but it also creates challenges. It’s a complicated issue—there isn’t a simple answer.

Where do everyday people encounter climate entrepreneurship?

I think everybody can be a climate entrepreneur. Anyone who has the motivation and concern to do something about climate change can do much more than recycle and buy an EV.

If you’re a businessperson, that might mean understanding climate science and working with environmental movements to identify real opportunities to address this problem.ÌýIf you’re a scientist, artist or someone without a business background, learning how markets work—how ideas, products, and services actually scale—is essential.

The most meaningful action individuals can take is engaging politically: lobbying representatives, working at the local level and supporting leaders who will create the conditions needed to address climate change in a meaningful way.

Looking ahead, where could climate entrepreneurship have the biggest impact?

The biggest opportunity is moving toward utility‑scale renewables, particularly solar, and continuing the industrial evolution away from coal—that’s really the big enchilada.

There’s also a huge opportunity in distributed power systems—solar with battery—especially in states dealing with wildfire‑related grid shutdowns.

Most people don’t care where the energy comes from. They just want the light to work. That means solutions have to operate at scale.