This year, as predicted, is proving to be a roller-coaster year since the US Presidency turned its attention to global trade and tariffs. But the pragmatism that calmed markets—removing some goods from tariffs, and talk of deals—could yet be helpful to climate tech founders and investors.

While a Trump presidency always signalled disaster to most climate technology enthusiasts, the last two weeks also remind us of the opportunity. The US’s heightened focus on protecting its own economic strength and its concern over supply-chain security, could yet bring a new group of fans to understand the economic opportunity climate technology brings.

At noa, our conviction on climate change was never based on the hope of altruism, nor was it ever political or virtue signalling. And we certainly never viewed most of the fanatics’ influence on the climate agenda as a positive. On the contrary, most of them too often got in the way of progress and adoption.

Instead, we always took a pragmatic and practical approach, investing in “must have” technologies. These are the technologies with a clear ROI and viable business model that are adopted because of the additional efficiencies they enable beyond sustainability related ones, such as cost savings, operational streamlining, and data aggregation (amongst others).

Anything else is a nice to have which will struggle to scale or maintain profitable margins and find true product market fit. By framing climate tech in the context of what makes a “must have” technology vs a “nice to have” it allows us to focus on what will matter when it comes to sustained profitable adoption, now and a decade from now, independent of the political volatility.

Pragmatism on climate tech is key

In a scenario where tariffs increase the cost of imported renewable energy components, for instance, technologies that optimise energy consumption and reduce reliance on external sources become even more valuable. These are the technologies that we as investors will want to back. They are also the technology that customers will want to adopt, regardless of their political leanings, or desire to save the planet. It’s a financial decision before anything else.

This is the attitude change that is required to make climate tech investments sustainable and profitable, in turn attracting more capital into its verticals and allowing for a more ambitious vision of the future; one based on results, profitability, and sustainability, together as the foundation of the next generation of climate innovation.

No area needs attention more urgently than our built world, or as we like to call it at noa: humanity’s OS (operating system). Real estate, as the world’s largest and least digitised industry, is responsible for almost 40% of global carbon emissions, and its emissions far exceed those of transport (including aviation, which is only 2%). And the problem will only get worse, with population growth and urbanisation expected to lead to $187trn of spending on the construction of new buildings from 2020-2050.

Our physical world is now at the core of everything necessary to enable the future we want to live in, including AI, which is limited by today’s physical infrastructure and our access to power at scale. With that in mind, here are a few key trends that are here to stay in the climate space, whether or not we have full-blown tariffs or a low-fat version.

Climate tech will overcome ESG backlash

Despite the cultural backlash of late, climate tech startups that are multi-faceted and enable more than just decarbonisation will continue to scale and see increased adoption, as investors continue to allocate capital towards them. Tariffs or not, businesses will seek solutions that improve efficiency and profitability.

Second, we’ll continue to see a strain on ageing energy grids as renewable energy uptake increases and data centre development spikes. Grid congestion means that too much renewable energy generated is already wasted due to inefficient grid transmission capacity. This will create significant opportunities in grid technologies, which have already seen a strong uptick in investment of late.

Third, labour shortages and rising labour costs—which would be exacerbated by a global trade war—will increase the economic impetus for robots and automation. As AI improves, robots will be more effective with better perception, learning, and responsiveness to their environments. The hardware will increasingly become cheaper and more reliable.

Lastly, a less climate-friendly US administration, but one that’s also focused on less bureaucracy and red tape, will enable increased development of renewable power at scale and, in turn, more adoption as a result of its attractive cost and availability.

In 2025, let’s shift our focus from political anxieties to the undeniable economic opportunities within climate tech. Let’s help contribute to more credibility, less politics, and less noise. Let’s leave the energy and climate transition to the innovators and the climate tech investors, not to the politicians or climate fanatics.