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Writer's pictureMAGDA CHEANG

Basic Glossary of Climate Key Terms: A Guide for the Climate Tech Industry




climate-tech terms
Dictionary and Glossary of Climate-Tech terms



In 2024, we are very focussed on the climate crisis and its effect on our population, earth and biosphere. As we know the climate-crisis is a crisis that affects everyone and has a variety of impacts across all areas of society and community, whether it’s affecting access to water, drought affecting crops and rising sea temperatures effecting the ocean's biodiversity.


Technology and innovation is growing to help solve, mitigate or adapt to the climate crisis.


There is hope and innovation through the development of climate tech, a sector that is fairly wide and includes everything from clean energy (renewable energy resources) to sustainable transport. In general the idea of the companies that work in this space is to reduce the problem of emissions, by looking at a variety of ways to reduce emissions across the value chain or increase productivity in other ways that reduce energy use or emissions produced. 


At Jobs for Planet, we specialise in hiring Leadership (C-level), Sales, Marketing, Sales Engineering and Operations talent for climate-tech, green-tech and agro-tech start-ups across Europe and the U.S and Emerging Markets.


Our values are that we want to help scale businesses that are For People, For the Planet.


To help our candidates understand some basics of climate tech terms, here’s a small glossary of keywords and definitions for some of the principal definitions and concepts within the climate-tech start-up space to help with your climate-tech job search and understanding of the industry.


Project Drawdown:


We highly recommend this resource to get a better understanding of climate science, climate change and a variety of proposed solutions. Start here for an excellent overview of the main challenges, topics and solutions for the climate crisis


Green tech: This is an area that is basically known as renewable energy. These types of organisations build solar panels, wind turbines and create electricity in a renewable way. There are also software companies that have software that analyzes these renewable energy assets or makes them more efficient. Their solutions could be involved in analyzing the renewable energy assets or procuring financing for renewable energy infrastructure projects.


Climate tech: This is a broad range of technologies that are designed to mitigate or adapt to the negative effects of climate change. This could be sustainable transportation, technological advances in reducing carbon or nature-based solutions that absorb carbon or methane emissions.


Agro-tech: Agro-tech is short-form for Agricultural technology. Technology is used for the improvement of productivity, yield and quality in agriculture, and often reduces environmental impacts or emissions. More effective agricultural solutions for a changing world, with water-smart technology or reduction of energy usage.


Net Zero: You have probably seen these terms all over the news and in relation to regulations across the EU and globally. Net Zero focuses on reducing carbon emissions as much as possible and only offsetting unavoidable emissions as a last resort.


Green Jobs: these are jobs that are focused on the transition to an economy that is more environmentally friendly or a ‘low carbon’ economy. These jobs can be in policy, non-government entities, green legislation regulation, sustainability or in renewable energy, agro-tech and green construction.


Tech for Good: This is the use of technology to address important social and environmental concerns, such as poverty alleviation, inequality, or climate change. Often, those in the Global South who are most affected by climate-change also have other negative outcomes and have a diversity of problems that include economic, social and environmental issues that affect their lives.


Climate Change Mitigation: this means reducing the flow of heat-trapping greenhouse gasses (GHGs) into the atmosphere such as methane and carbon dioxide. This involves cutting greenhouse gasses.


Climate Change Adaptation: Is about making changes in the processes, practices, policies of structures to adapt to the potential damages as a result of climate change. It’s a fairly complex topic can you can read more about here


At Jobs for Planet, we are proud to support the development of climate tech and the transition to a more sustainable future. If you have any questions on these key climate-related terms or want to learn about how we can help you connect with top talent in the climate-tech industry or if you're looking for a sales, marketing, leadership or operations role within the sector, please don't hesitate to get in touch or email us on hello@jobsforplanet.com



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