STEEL YOURSELF: The World Economic Forum asked Investible’s new climate tech hub, Greenhouse, to run a net zero plan for the planet’s biggest energy users

Newly created Sydney climate tech platform Greenhouse has been enlisted by the World Economic Forum (WEF) to drive a new program to help the planet’s ‘hardest-to-abate’ sectors, such as aviation, shipping, trucking, and steel, increase their drive towards net zero carbon emissions by 2030.

Greenhouse was developed as a subsidiary of early-stage VC fund Investible to run the City of Sydney’s new tech innovation hub in Salesforce Tower to help tackle climate change.

The WEF’s First Movers Coalition (FMC) is backing the ‘Near-Zero Steel 2030 Challenge’, launched at New York Climate Week. It’s pushing companies use their purchasing power to create early markets for innovative clean technologies and reduce emissions and commit to producing and purchasing near-zero emissions steel by the end of the decade.

The challenge will run on the Greenhouse Challenge Platform,  a marketplace for running thematic challenges focused on addressing climate change.’

It will connect steel suppliers to climate tech companies specialising in enabling technologies like hydrogen, renewable energy, and carbon capture. FMC will also integrate the demand and supply sides of the steel industry by connecting companies interested in purchasing near-zero steel with companies that have the capability or interest in producing it.

Greenhouse chief collaboration officer Mark Rowland said near-zero steel has the potential to drastically cut global greenhouse emissions.

“But for that to happen, we need to create the technology and commitment to get on board,” he said.

“Unprecedented times call for unique, unprecedented collaborations and solutions. Rather than have individual companies operating in a vacuum, we would like to connect companies, investors, and enabling technologies to allow collaboration to fast-track the development and deployment of climate tech solutions.”

First Movers Coalition program head Nancy Gillis said the organisation First Movers Coalition has become a $15 billion demand signal for innovative clean technologies and energy sources

“We want near-zero steel suppliers to know that there is a market available for their product by 2030. We also seek to connect steel suppliers with innovative new technologies to support their decarbonisation,” she said.

“The challenge’s focus on both the supply and demand sides will help to accelerate the scale-up of innovative clean technologies and progress the steel industry towards net zero emissions.”

The steel industry consumes 5.9% of global energy and emits 6-9% of global CO2 emissions.

Submissions from companies pledging to purchase near-zero steel and producers ready to embrace the challenge of supplying it are now open as part of ‘Near-Zero Steel 2030 Challenge’

In late July, the Australian government signed up as a partner of the FMC, joining the UK and the US. Greenhouse has received $750,000 from the NSW Government to support the Greenhouse challenge business and scale the platform.