📥 Impact in your Inbox, April 2025

Hi! I’m Liza Rubinstein, Co-Founder and Chief Climate Impact at Carbon Equity. This edition is 1268 words or a 5-minute read.

🚨 This is an extract from last month's the newsletter. Sign up now and get the full next edition directly in your inbox. 🚨

In today’s newsletter, I want to zoom in on how Europe's energy crisis could be a turning point for Europe’s energy and industrial future.

Europe finds itself at a crossroads. High energy prices are weighing heavily on Europe’s industrial base, while other regions are moving faster to commercialize and scale climate technologies.  And our dependence on imported fossil fuels has left us vulnerable to global shocks: from price spikes to geopolitical tensions.

 But moments like this also bring opportunity. And Europe might be better positioned than it seems. With the right focus (on clean energy, climate tech, and coordinated policy) Europe can not only respond to the crisis, but build a future that’s more competitive, resilient, and secure.

You can read the full breakdown by Idse Luirink here.

Otherwise, happy reading!

⚡️ Europe’s energy crisis could be its climate tech breakthrough

Europe is paying the price for its energy dependence. 

Europe currently imports over half of its total energy needs, with gas imports reaching nearly 90%—a significant portion of which now arrives in the form of expensive liquefied natural gas (LNG). These figures reflect a deep structural reliance on external energy sources.

In practice, this dependence makes Europe particularly sensitive to global price fluctuations. In 2024, EU gas prices were nearly 5 times higher than in the U.S., while industrial electricity prices stood at 2.5 times U.S. levels. These cost differences have real implications: they place strain on industry, raise costs for consumers, and create competitiveness challenges across key sectors.

Clean, local energy is Europe’s best economic strategy. 

One of the most promising developments in recent years has been the rapid cost decline of renewables. Solar panels and battery storage costs have dropped significantly—by roughly 50% in just the past one to two years—bringing clean energy technologies well within reach for large-scale deployment.

Clean, domestically produced energy is thus key to cost reduction and resilience. And Europe has strong renewable potential. Not just how much power it can generate but also how that power can move across the continent. One of its biggest advantages is the potential for a fully connected electricity grid and shared markets, linking sunny regions like Spain with windy ones like Denmark, and making it possible to trade clean power across borders when and where it is needed.

The case for decarbonizing Europe is clear. But there's a second question. Next to rapidly rolling out mature climate technologies, which of the next generation of climate technologies can Europe win in, driving our future prosperity? 

Beyond deploying renewables, Europe needs to scale its climate breakthroughs.

Europe’s research and innovation ecosystem is robust. Between 2017 and 2021, European countries accounted for 27% of global climate tech patents, ahead of the U.S., China, and Japan. Yes, Europe has strong innovation potential... but struggles to scale. The commercialization of these innovations often occurs elsewhere. European startups frequently relocate to the U.S. for access to growth capital and a more unified market. This pattern reflects ongoing challenges: fragmented regulatory environments, limited risk capital, and complex scaling pathways.

Despite these challenges, some companies are successfully scaling in Europe.  

🏠 Aira |  Innovative heat pump technology for sustainable, efficient home heating

🤖 Aerones | Robotized maintenance of wind turbines

⚡️ Flower | Bringing smart energy storage to the grid

With a better regulatory context, many more companies will be able to succeed, increasing Europe's security, prosperity and independence.

Read the full newsletters here