Climate Tech Needs a Reboot

A National Security Case for Building, Not Shrinking

Climate Tech investors need a wake-up call—this is it. I shared this view at Columbia University, where I was honored to speak, even though I don’t consider myself a “climate tech” investor. My lens is that of a VC focused on securing the next century of American leadership.

It’s a firm take, loosely held—curious to hear your thoughts.

Drum roll 🥁,

Pete

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Shrinking Is Not a Strategy

Too much of today’s climate agenda is built on the philosophy of less:

• Buy less.

• Drive less.

• Shrink your life.

• Limit your ambition.

In short: downsize the human footprint.

But that’s not how humans are wired.
We don’t shrink.

We build pyramids.
We carve highways across continents.
We launch rockets just to see what’s out there.

Expansion, curiosity, ambition — that’s not a bug in the system.
It’s the reason we’ve made it this far.

So why are we trying to solve our biggest existential challenge with a mindset that denies who we are?

📉 Overall Funding Decline

Clearly, per the State of Climate Tech 2024, investors seem to be pulling back:

• Climate tech funding dropped 29% year-over-year:

  • From $79B (Q4 2022–Q3 2023) to $56B (Q4 2023–Q3 2024).

• The share of VC/PE investment going into climate tech shrank:

  • From 9.9% → 8.3%.

• This decline puts funding below pre-2019 levels, before the category took off.

The key question: how do we turn this around? I have some views here.

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Meet Ambition With Ambition

When I invest in climate solutions — though I rarely call them that — I look for technologies that scale with human ambition, not ones that fight it.

I don’t believe the answer is to make life smaller.
I believe it’s to make the solutions bigger.

Here are a few I’ve backed that reflect that ethos:

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Greener aircraft engines – Astro Mechanica

Astro Mechanica is reimagining propulsion. Compact, high-performance jet engines with radically lower emissions — enabling air travel that doesn’t compromise the planet.
Think: cleaner thrust at commercial and defense-grade scale.

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Cleaner electrons – Antares

Antares is pioneering fission-based energy systems and zero-carbon electrification infrastructure.
Their work accelerates the move to limitless, clean power — answering the question: how do we fuel civilization without emissions?

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Robotics that protect forests – Kodama Systems

Kodama builds autonomous systems that thin forests, reduce wildfire risk, and store carbon in long-lived wood products.

A high-tech approach to forestry that restores, rather than extracts.

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These are tools not built to suppress modern life — but to power it, responsibly.

Climate Tech’s Blind Spot: Long-Term Crisis, Short-Term Thinking

Climate tech investors talk about a centuries-long crisis—then reject nuclear because it "takes too long." That contradiction is part of the problem.

Everyone wants a software-speed fix for a hardware-scale problem (the Climate is, after all…hardware….). Real climate solutions require time, engineering, and ambition.

It’s time to stop optimizing for quick returns and start investing like the stakes are existential—because they are.

A National Security Case for Building, Not Shrinking

If we treat climate as a moral issue, we get guilt and sacrifice. If we treat it as a market problem, we get apps and offsets. But if we treat it as a national security imperative—we build.

We build energy systems that power cities, bases, and industries without emissions.
We build resilient infrastructure that can withstand floods, fires, and rising heat.

Shrinking isn’t strategy. It’s retreat. And no country secures its future by retreating.

If we want to solve climate change—and remain globally competitive while we do it—we need to reframe the challenge for what it truly is:
A national security case for building, not shrinking.

There— I’ve said my piece,

Pete