8 climate change business opportunities

The transition to net zero economies is creating opportunities for new services, business models, growth and jobs that can revitalise economies and regions. Businesses that can adapt and innovate in response to climate change should also be well-positioned to thrive in the future. 

As Andrea Geyer-Scholz, Managing Director of Smart Cities Consulting says, "Climate change can potentially drive the transition of regional economies through evolving ecosystems. This enables innovations and business opportunities that can drive prosperity, wellbeing and improved living conditions.” 

With that in mind, we’ll look at how businesses are being affected by climate change, and how some are responding by taking advantage of new opportunities. 

Get an at-a-glance look at climate change business opportunities. 
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Table of contents
How are businesses being affected by climate change?
7 ways to make money from climate change
Climate change business: turning threats into opportunities 

To identify climate change business opportunities, it helps to understand the threats it poses to businesses. These broadly fall into: 

- Physical risks: These include threats from natural disasters, impacts on agriculture and leisure industries, supply chain disruptions, and resource scarcity, among others. All can cause significant economic losses and disruption to operations.

- Transition risks: These arise from the challenges of adapting to changing policies, regulations, technologies, and consumer trends. Industries like energy and mining are particularly vulnerable to these shifts. Some companies also risk being left with stranded assets, like land, property or equipment that is no longer valuable or usable. For example, waterfront properties in areas that are now affected by flooding and costly to insure.

- Liability risks: Businesses face potential legal and financial consequences of failing to  manage climate risk or comply with evolving regulations. This can result in higher insurance premiums, reputational damage, or even climate litigation. 

While all this sounds bleak, if you have the expertise, experience, or tech to help businesses navigate these challenges, it is possible to turn climate change into a business opportunity.  

Let’s look at some ways to do that. 

Spare me the talk and show me the money?  
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Now you know the business risks, let’s explore some of the emerging opportunities and business models in different sectors. 

From droughts to extreme weather, climate change is expected to significantly impact various regions around the world. While this poses many risks, there are opportunities for investment as certain places become more or less viable for habitation or tourism. 

Opportunities also exist for those in the sector to create new revenue streams and business models or boost asset values. Decarbonisation efforts are particularly important as the industry currently accounts for around 39% of total global emissions. 

Here are some opportunities to consider: 

Places with mild to moderate temperatures should become more desirable as heat makes other areas less habitable. Similarly, inland or elevated coastal areas are likely to be safer bets than beachfront properties.

However, there’s no region that won’t be affected in some way, and long-term outcomes are hard to predict. Rather than seeking the ‘perfect’ location, you’d be wise to spread investments across regions to mitigate location-specific climate risks. Also, look for areas with secure water sources and resilient agricultural systems.

Other future-proof investments might include energy- and water-efficient properties with green certifications and low insurance costs that can withstand climate-related risks like flooding, wildfires, and extreme weather. 

There's a growing market for sustainable living and working spaces. Developers can capitalise on this by constructing new green buildings or retrofitting older ones to meet demand. For example, it’s possible that using bricks made from recycled materials can slash building emissions by up to 1.5 million tons of CO2 annually. Also, ‘Passive House’ design, which uses heat sources like residents’ body heat, sunlight, and ground or air heat pumps.

As temperatures become more extreme and energy costs rise, the popularity of solutions like these is likely to grow.

The construction industry is also evolving to include new technologies and materials like ‘green steel,’ tall timber, and modular construction techniques. As well as being attractive to buyers, these can yield faster construction times and cost savings.

Environmentally aware occupants will likely value services like electric vehicle charging stations and environmentally friendly facility management. Also, consider installing carbon footprint reduction solutions like smart sensors and monitoring systems to manage energy use in heating, cooling, lighting, etc.

Real estate companies can also generate and store renewable energy on-site. For example, by fitting buildings with solar panels and batteries. This can contribute to grid stability, potentially reduce clean energy costs, and make properties attractive to environmentally conscious renters and buyers.

A significant amount of is capital is now earmarked for sustainable investments. The EU Green Deal alone has mobilised €1 trillion until 2023, while the Just Transition Mechanism (JTM) will provide support for regions to the tune of  €100 billion until 2027. This puts real estate companies that are involved in green projects at an advantage. For example, renovating energy-inefficient buildings. 

Carbon emissions trading, or ‘cap and trade,’ is essential for many organisations to meet their emissions quotas, which are now coming to be seen as an asset like any physical one. The global carbon market value reached a record high of €881 billion in 2023, with the EU’s Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) accounting for 87% of it. 

However, carbon trading–whether on EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) or voluntary markets–is highly complex. So there are opportunities for those with experience to act as consultants or facilitators. 

Examples of successful business models include: 

- SENDECO2 buys and sells emissions rights and provides technical and administrative advice to industries subject to EU ETS. For example, on emissions trading regulations, authorization requests, monitoring plans, reporting, verifications, and more. By monetising their expertise, they’ve positioned themselves as trusted facilitators who  enable companies to comply with regulations and participate in a highly complex market.

- Global Factor actively participates in leading CO2 markets, including EU ETS and UK ETS, providing clients with knowledge and access to both voluntary carbon markets and national markets. Services include emissions trading, climate neutrality strategies, and offering projects eligible for international standards like VERRA’s VCS and the Gold Standard.

- Carbonplace is a global carbon credit transaction network that connects buyers and sellers on a single platform. Built by banks, it offers a secure and transparent way to trade, manage, and retire carbon credits. The platform is designed to simplify access to the carbon market, leveraging the credibility and regulatory compliance of its banking partners.

Note that emissions trading remains controversial. It's been criticised as enabling large companies or rich countries to continue to pollute at the expense of others rather than aiming for overall reductions.

In order to trade carbon credits, somebody needs to be producing carbon offsets. These certificates are issued when CO2 is removed from the atmosphere—or prevented from being emitted in the first place. The voluntary carbon offset market is currently worth $723 million, although it has contracted 61% since 2022 due to concerns about greenwashing and the real impact of offsetting.  

Even so, the market presents interesting new business opportunities for land owners, including: 

Planting new forests or woodlands can sequester large amounts of carbon dioxide. In fact, peatlands currently store 44% of all soil carbon globally. In England, for example, the Woodland Carbon Guarantee Scheme pays landowners for carbon credits from new woodlands until 2056. 

Peatlands are great carbon sinks as vegetable matter doesn’t fully degrade, keeping carbon sequestered. Schemes like the UK’s Peatland Code allow landowners to generate carbon credits through restoring degraded peatland.

Implementing ‘carbon farming’ techniques like no-till farming, cover cropping, and improved grazing management can also increase soil carbon sequestration. These are eligible for financing under the Common Agricultural Policy, among other schemes. Other land management changes like reducing biomass burning, improving irrigation efficiency, and restoring degraded lands can potentially generate carbon offsets. 

Grasslands make resilient carbon sinks because much of the biomass is sequestered in the root system, making them less vulnerable to fire (and carbon release) than trees. Landowners can generate carbon credits by preserving existing grasslands and avoiding their conversion to croplands. 

It’s worth mentioning, however, that the carbon farming market is still developing, and has its pros and cons. Carbon markets come with costs and obligations that can outweigh the benefits. Carbon offsetting and trading should be seen as steps on the road to net zero, not a licence for some to continue to emit.  

As the urgency to address climate change intensifies, climate tech presents a promising avenue to reduce environmental impacts and boost economic growth. The climate tech market is worth $20.34 billion in 2023, and is predicted to reach $183 billion by 2033. Emerging solutions target emissions reduction, renewable energy, and sustainability across various industries.

Examples include: 

Otrium runs an ecommerce marketplace that allows brands to sell excess stock—and avoid it ending up in landfill. 

Deepki’s software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform collects and aggregates data on companies’ sustainability metrics, helping the real estate industry transition to net zero.
 
GO Sharing has jumped on the sustainable micro-mobility trend by offering electric mopeds for rent across several European countries.

See climate change business opportunities in numbers. 
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The need for accurate climate and weather data to support decision making and operations is growing. This means opportunities for those who can access, process, and market that data. The global climate data market is currently valued at $1.1 billion and is projected to reach $5.2 billion by 2030. 

Often operating B2C or B2G, emerging business models leverage advanced digital tech like machine learning and AI to provide fast, accurate solutions.

Some examples include:  

These companies obtain third-party data and sell it on to end users. For example, businesses like Saildrone monitor the ocean to collect the data needed for fisheries, ecosystem, or offshore wind farm monitoring. 

These obtain and analyse data, using it for forecasting, tailoring services to sectors like transport or agriculture. For example, Ubimet provides precise weather forecasts for more accurate management of transport infrastructure, among many other applications. This helps increase safety and efficiency and avoid shutdowns. Its data is also used by insurers to identify risks and minimise losses. The value of these services is attested to by the fact that the global weather forecasting market is projected to reach $11.6 billion by 2032. 

Companies like these may also act as consultants or solutions developers, providing insights based on specialised information. For example, IBM teamed up with Texas A&M AgriLife to develop a climate tech tool that uses soil sensors and weather data to help farmers understand when to water. This can boost crop yields while reducing economic and environmental costs and improving food security in drought-stricken areas. 

As climate impacts become more severe, businesses need solutions to prevent, mitigate, compensate, and recover from its adverse effects. The following solutions include products and strategies to help organisations, governments, and communities become more resilient, speed up operations, or prevent unplanned shutdowns.  

Aka ‘green’ infrastructure, this involves using natural features in design, engineering, or environmental management to protect areas or populations against the worst of climate change. Examples include urban greenspace, coastal sheltering oyster reefs, levees to prevent flooding, or rainwater harvesters. These solutions can create green jobs, boost property value, safeguard livelihoods, and benefit public health and wellbeing.

These are under development by several companies. For example, Irish company Bioatlantis is involved in a Horizon Europe-funded project to identify genomic variants in drought-tolerant crops like teff and use them to create more drought-resistant maize. The market for drought-resistant crops is worth $117.72 million and growing.

Coral Vita grows corals to restore natural reefs, bringing value to tourism industries, marine park managers, and local and national governments.

Companies like Kawasaki Geological Engineering conduct on-site surveys and manage data to predict and preempt natural climate-related disasters like floods and landslides.

There’s increasing demand for ‘climate-smart’ products and services like more sustainable consumer goods or ‘green’ finance. Companies that can innovate to meet this demand are at an advantage as consumer preferences and public spending shift.

Examples include: 

Novel climate-smart financial products help individuals, businesses, and communities build resilience against climate change impacts and promote sustainable practices. Examples include ‘green mortgages’ that offer lower interest rates for energy-efficient properties.

Also, there are fintech platforms like Vua Solutions, which provides small-scale fishers with access to financial services so they can seize opportunities and become more resilient. Since 80% of the world’s unbanked population lives in the most climate-vulnerable economies, this is a lifeline for them.

Another promising avenue is energy efficiency products and services, in demand from environmentally aware consumers and businesses seeking to reduce costs. There’s a growing market for smart building technologies, LED lighting, recycling or upcycling technology, smart irrigation systems, low-flow plumbing, or rainwater capture systems, among many others.

Providing audits, recommendations, and consulting allows individuals and businesses to keep up with regulations and trends. For example, by improving energy efficiency. The global climate change consulting market was valued at $6441.77 million in 2024 and is expected to reach $9130.38 million by 2031.

The global market for plant-based meat is expected to grow from $8.8 billion in 2023 to $17.1 billion by the end of 2028. It’s driven by growing awareness that animal-based foods are the biggest agricultural contributors to climate change. Good news for companies like Heura, which is currently cornering meat-free markets in even committed carnivorous countries like Spain.

As well as immediate business opportunities like these, brands that capitalise on sustainable alternatives stand to gain from enhanced consumer loyalty and reputation. 

Driven by governments and consumers, the shift towards renewable energy is creating business opportunities. For example, in development and deployment of renewable energy systems like solar, wind, and hydroelectric power. Renewables are set to provide 80% of new power generation by 2028 and businesses can take advantage of the energy transition trend by moving into energy generation, storage and distribution.

The transition to a low-carbon economy will also require clean energy infrastructure and related services and products. For example, transmission lines, equipment, engineering and maintenance.

Finally, renewable energy consulting is also an option and there are firms out there providing services to help companies develop and implement renewable energy strategies, including product selection, procurement, and impact reporting. This can be a lucrative business as demand for renewable energy grows.

While climate change presents significant challenges for businesses across various sectors, it also offers opportunities for those ready to take advantage of them. Physical, transition, and liability risks are paving the way for innovative business models and revenue streams in various sectors.  

Companies can capitalise on the growing demand for clean energy solutions, sustainable real estate, carbon emissions offsetting and trading. There are also emerging markets for climate diagnostics and data, mitigation and resilience solutions, sustainable financial products, and green products and services. 

Those with the expertise and tools to navigate these opportunities can position themselves as leaders, taking advantage of growth opportunities in rapidly evolving markets. 

Get an at-a-glance look at climate change business opportunities. 
Download the infographic 

Disclaimers: 
The information provided in this article is intended for informational purposes only and should not be taken as business advice. Readers should conduct their own research and consult with qualified professionals before making any business decisions. Climate change and related business opportunities are complex and constantly evolving and individual circumstances may vary.

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