e are in an era teetering toward (or maybe already fully inside) the Fifth Industrial or Post–Industrial Revolution. Why? Because of the multifront, head spinning development and sometimes convergence of the numerous emerging, cutting edge exponential technologies.
The deep paradox of it all is that while we are beginning to achieve tech capabilities to address and even solve some of the greatest climate challenges, we are experiencing the breakdown and even disintegration of planet governance which is going from bad to worse.
The bad? The failure of the annual UN–sponsored Conference of Parties or COP climate events to make sufficient progress on common climate goals while the earth continues to burn with scientific data showing that we’re closer to 2 degrees of warming instead of 1.5C by 2030.
The worse? The breakdown of political consensus in several leading nations—mainly in the U.S.—and the gaslighting of scientifically proven facts through disinformation, political polarization, and the rise of a new borderless plutocracy reigniting the love affair with carbon and withdrawal of support for renewables and related climate solutions.
The following two examples of exponential climate tech that could be turbocharged with the right governance alignment could help the world move diligently forward:
- Solar energy. The Economist ran a cover story in the summer of 2024 which called the exponential nature of solar power’s rise “not hyperbole, but a statement of fact.” Why? The rate of solar power’s increase of capacity globally: double around every three years, equating to a ten–fold increase each decade. Which means, according to the Economist, “The next ten-fold increase will be equivalent to multiplying the world’s entire fleet of nuclear reactors by eight in less than the time it typically takes to build just a single one of them.”
- Geoengineering and Weather Tech. This encompasses many tools and techniques in two categories: solar radiation management (including stratospheric aerosol injection, marine cloud brightening, cirrus cloud thinning); and carbon dioxide removal, including a variety of carbon capture and storage technologies, direct air capture, ocean fertilization, and microbubbles.
What is preventing progress? The human component. We must integrate and spread responsible human governance into the tech loop. Innovation isn’t the problem, synchronized human governance providing guidance, parameters, rules, laws and conflict resolution is what is missing. Let’s get to work.
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Planet–tech is alive and well, human governance not so much
Image via Adobe Stock.
September 16, 2025
We’re on the precipice of achieving climate tech capabilities to address and even solve some of the greatest climate challenges. Yet a breakdown in governance mechanisms focused on climate is going from bad to worse, writes Andrea Bonime–Blanc.
W
e are in an era teetering toward (or maybe already fully inside) the Fifth Industrial or Post–Industrial Revolution. Why? Because of the multifront, head spinning development and sometimes convergence of the numerous emerging, cutting edge exponential technologies.
The deep paradox of it all is that while we are beginning to achieve tech capabilities to address and even solve some of the greatest climate challenges, we are experiencing the breakdown and even disintegration of planet governance which is going from bad to worse.
The bad? The failure of the annual UN–sponsored Conference of Parties or COP climate events to make sufficient progress on common climate goals while the earth continues to burn with scientific data showing that we’re closer to 2 degrees of warming instead of 1.5C by 2030.
The worse? The breakdown of political consensus in several leading nations—mainly in the U.S.—and the gaslighting of scientifically proven facts through disinformation, political polarization, and the rise of a new borderless plutocracy reigniting the love affair with carbon and withdrawal of support for renewables and related climate solutions.
The following two examples of exponential climate tech that could be turbocharged with the right governance alignment could help the world move diligently forward:
- Solar energy. The Economist ran a cover story in the summer of 2024 which called the exponential nature of solar power’s rise “not hyperbole, but a statement of fact.” Why? The rate of solar power’s increase of capacity globally: double around every three years, equating to a ten–fold increase each decade. Which means, according to the Economist, “The next ten-fold increase will be equivalent to multiplying the world’s entire fleet of nuclear reactors by eight in less than the time it typically takes to build just a single one of them.”
- Geoengineering and Weather Tech. This encompasses many tools and techniques in two categories: solar radiation management (including stratospheric aerosol injection, marine cloud brightening, cirrus cloud thinning); and carbon dioxide removal, including a variety of carbon capture and storage technologies, direct air capture, ocean fertilization, and microbubbles.
What is preventing progress? The human component. We must integrate and spread responsible human governance into the tech loop. Innovation isn’t the problem, synchronized human governance providing guidance, parameters, rules, laws and conflict resolution is what is missing. Let’s get to work.
