| What did the era of ultralow interest rates leave behind for the climate? This period stretched from late 2008, with the financial crisis, to the recent runup by central bankers. That's about 14 years—enough for a climate legacy. It better be, because there's only two 14-year intervals to go before the 2050 net-zero deadline. Cheap borrowing quadrupled global renewables consumption to more than 40 exajoules, according to BP's data, or roughly as much total energy as India uses in a year. The cost of solar panels dropped more than 90%. Easy money made it easier to surpass 1 trillion watts of solar.  Featured in Bloomberg Green, Issue Eight, Spring/Summer 2003. Read all the stories from the magazine here. Illustration: Basile Fournier for Bloomberg Green Did all that loose cash help boost ESG investing above $10 trillion? Of course. Do low rates deserve credit for the Paris Agreement? They didn't hurt. Climate politics also became a fixture; now even an oil boss wants to be in charge. But rock-bottom rates didn't prevent alarming new peaks. Average temperatures jumped by a third of a degree, to 1.1C. Emissions from burning fossil fuels spiked by almost 6 billion tons per year. Atmospheric carbon shot up 8%. All these indicators are still rising. At first glance, it's hard to identify a colossus like Google or Amazon.com that emerged in this era and might define the economy to follow. This period yielded Uber and—uh—crypto stuff. You might think Tesla, but it was born in 2003. The better choice is CATL, the Chinese battery giant that began in 2011. Electric cars increased from almost zero to 27 million, according to BloombergNEF, and China made most of the batteries. Maybe we'll peer back at the recent past and see the start of even bigger things. For more than a decade—coinciding with this generation of ultralow rates—BloombergNEF's tech analysts have made a careful study of early-stage startups with decarbonizing potential. A small batch of standouts each year receive the designation of climate tech Pioneers. Today, alongside a tech-focused issue of Bloomberg Green's magazine, we're presenting the latest group of winners, including producers of green hydrogen, cutting-edge battery recyclers and a company that's patented a type of seaweed that can be fed to cows to curb the planet-warming impact of beef. For the next week our Green Daily newsletter will feature these pioneers of the new climate economy. The coverage is leading up to two live events: BNEF's two-day summit on April 24 and 25, followed by our own Green Summit, which you can attend virtually or in person by registering here. The frontiers of the new climate economy are all around, if you know where to look. Aaron Rutkoff is the executive editor of Bloomberg Green Read and share the web version of this story on Bloomberg.com.
It's 2050, and you arrive at the restaurant in a car running on newly-recycled batteries whose copper and nickel were once used in another EV. The waiter strides up to the table and sprinkles a pungent protein powder made from fermented microbes onto a bowl of chemical-free edamame. As you leave, your chair scrapes on a smooth gray floor made from carbon-free concrete delivered in ready-mix sacks on a freight ship fueled by cheap, clean-burning green hydrogen. Welcome to the net zero future that the 12 winners of BloombergNEF's Pioneers awards are working to build. The award was conceived by Bloomberg's energy-transition research arm as a way to spotlight early-stage innovators and identify those game-changing technologies that could power the Teslas of tomorrow. Electric cars have barely broken through as the vehicles of the future yet entrepreneurs are already figuring out how to recycle the batteries they rely on and reduce the need to mine ever larger quantities of rare earths and precious metals.
High costs and a nascent market mean green hydrogen's deployment today amounts to little more than a rounding error. But a surge in government support suggests supply will outstrip demand by the end of the decade, with low prices making it a go-to green fuel. What seems a stretch today, could well be mundane tomorrow. When BNEF launched its Pioneers awards back in 2010, the climate tech ecosystem was comprised mostly of companies developing solar, wind and battery solutions. Its search for potentially disruptive climate technologies led to five winners that first year. There wasn't a lot to choose from and the focus was firmly on the fundamental questions. How can you power the world in a sustainable way? And how do you make it make financial sense? Fast forward to 2023 and those problems have, for the most part, been solved. Renewable energy technologies are not only here, but solar is now cheaper to build and operate than fossil fuel power generation in most parts of the world. They've graduated from a frontier technology backed by risk-taking venture capitalists to a scaling problem. The biggest obstacle facing solar power today is not the cost of panels but the lack of transmission capacity — the grid infrastructure can't keep up. Today's startups have moved on to greening the rest of the economy, from what we eat and how we produce it, to the way we fuel global trade and how we manufacture the building blocks of future homes. Click here to continue reading about the companies selected as this year's BloombergNEF Pioneers on Bloomberg.com. Like getting the Green Daily? Subscribe to Bloomberg.com for unlimited access to breaking news on climate and energy, data-driven reporting and graphics and Bloomberg Green magazine. | 
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