The mid-year UN climate change conference SB62 held in Bonn showed that climate action is stalling – not only in the United States. Even those national governments that remain in the Paris Agreement lack sound plans to significantly and rapidly reduce emissions: Only 22 countries representing 19% of 2023 global emissions had submitted new climate targets to the secretariat of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) by 19 June 2025, analysts of the Climate Action Tracker initiative said in Bonn.
At the same time, real world developments are painting a different picture: Clean power surpassed 40% of global electricity generation in 2024, driven by record growth in renewables, especially solar, as recent analysis revealed. This trend is far from being confined to industrialized economies, as 58% of global solar generation came from countries outside of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Lower-middle income country Pakistan has garnered international attention for becoming the third-biggest importer of solar panels, thanks to a flood of very cheap solar panels from China.
We at Future Cleantech Architects draw one main conclusion from the above: With US cleantech policies – at best – inconclusive, China far ahead in global clean tech manufacturing investments, and the world demanding cleantech, the EU has an unprecedented opportunity to step up in the global cleantech race.
As far as we see it, that increases demand for what we deliver:
- Thorough and independent technical analyses of different low-carbon technologies, their respective cost and emissions abatement potential of different low-carbon technologies to ensure our recommendations are based on the best available knowledge.
- Effectively-delivered policy recommendations grounded in technical analyses.
We are convinced that if equipped with the right information, decisionmakers will opt for policies that spur those technologies that are most effective in terms of costs and emissions reductions.
And that is why we are growing, and seek to grow further. We are strengthening our EU policy team in Brussels. Cleantech topics cut across different directorates, they play out in industry, transport, and climate – and, importantly, research & innovation. We need more capacity to ensure that decisionmakers in all these institutional branches receive the analysis-based recommendations that they need to work towards a clean and competitive European Union.
But we also need to grow our team of clean tech experts. Technical analysis lays the foundation of all our work, and the areas that offer opportunities for developing and scaling cleantech are many. Construction is now in our particular focus, as we are poised to recruit a specialist to advance a holistic decarbonization strategy for the construction sector, spanning cement decarbonization, next-generation materials, structural and material efficiency, and embodied carbon reduction. Stay tuned for more!
And last but not least, we seek to grow our capacity to deliver impactful visuals and infographics. A clear and direct visual communication is our hallmark, as our flagship factsheets show. As we grow, so does the number of presentations, publications and visual assets – but what is more, so must the quality of our work, including the quality in which it is presented. Each and every flagship Coffee & Cleantech briefing, produces new evidence how much decisionmakers appreciate the clear visual language that we use, and how it empowers their understanding and ability to take well-informed decisions.
We are deeply grateful to all those organizations that support our work (and if you are curious who they are, look at our Annual Report 2024). All who have done so in the past know, how impactful and effective our work is. To you, we are asking to increase your funding to enable our growth and impact. And to all of you who have not yet done so – check out the detailed assessment that Giving Green made of our work, and consider contributing to funding it in the future.