Climate tech in a volatile world

TECH

Climate tech’s dual-use moment

What happened: Canada is exploring how Canadian-made EV batteries could be repurposed for military applications, including ships and submarines, according to Industry Minister Joly.

The details: Canada pledged to raise defence spending to 5% of GDP over the next decade. That commitment is fuelling “dual use” strategies - repurposing civilian tech like EV batteries - to ramp up security and industry growth.

The big picture: Defence spending is up around the world as security concerns are growing. China is doubling its investments, NATO member spending now averages 2% of GDP - even Japan is starting to ramp up spending.

VC dollars are following: new defence-focused funds are emerging and 8/10 of the largest climate tech deals this year were tied to security themes.

Governments and investors are also looking at defence and security beyond conventional military capabilities. Energy security, supply chains, critical minerals and grid reliability are all now being viewed through a defence lens.

And climate change itself is a security accelerant, fuelling resource scarcity, climate migration, and - for Canada - contested access to the Arctic.

Why it matters: While defence tech is attracting hype, this shift is creating new opportunities for climate solutions.

• Energy security = electrification. Electricity generated from wind, solar, nuclear can be produced in the same market where it's consumed, limiting exposure to geopolitical pressure and price swings

• Securing supply chains. Modern militaries and the energy transition both depend on copper, lithium, cobalt, rare earths, etc, making securing these supply chains a strategic priority.

While climate builders might not see their work through a defence lens, technologies like distributed energy generation, modular food production, or remote-earth sensing can meet civilian climate needs while solving real defence procurement problems.

Defence buyers also have a high bar for reliability and durability, and those who meet them often find sticky contracts and validation for wider markets.

The bottom line: As Canada ramps defence spending, climate tech can be part of the playbook for energy security, supply chains, and resilience. The opportunity is to frame climate tech as both a decarbonization tool and a security asset to unlock customers and capital.

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CLIMATE CAPITAL

🏙️ Ontoly (Squamish, BC) closed a pre-seed round and $100K grant from the Alberta Ecotrust Foundation. Ontoly’s carbon registry and certification framework aims to deliver finance-grade carbon assets for building decarbonization.

⚡️ dcbel (Montreal, QC) secured new funding from Fidelity Investments to expand manufacturing and installations for its smart home energy platform.

⚡️ Corinex (Vancouver, BC) landed a strategic investment from Santander Group to support global expansion of its grid visibility and flexibility platform.

💨 Agora Energy (Vancouver, BC) received $2.4 million from NRCan to pilot its CO2-to-energy technology. Svante and Anodyne Chemistries also received grants for carbon capture and utilization.

🤖 Metaspectral (Vancouver, BC) secured more than $1 million from the federal government and CleanBC to enhance its AI-driven recycling technology for sorting hard-to-recycle plastics.

IN THE FIELD

♻️ Dispersa partnered with chemicals company Quadra to develop and bring to market new biosurfactants made from food waste.

🌽 La Caisse and Australia’s Clean Energy Finance Corporation launched a new sustainable agriculture platform with a $227M investment.

🤖 Toronto-based erthos partnered with Colgate-Palmolive to develop sustainable packaging using its ZYA materials discovery platform.

💰️ Calgary’s Energy Transition Centre, a hub for low-emission startups, will expand with a $10M investment.

🤳 Retrofit platform Properate launched Stride, a mobile app for HVAC contractors to streamline heat pump sizing and installation.

🤝 RXN HUB launched a technology adoption partnership with Utilities Kingston to connect tech startups with water, electrical and wastewater utility providers.

🚗 Exro, an EV component maker, laid off 60 workers due to financial challenges and tariffs.

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ECOSYSTEM VIEW

💡 Ideas & Insights

A few of my top picks from across the climate tech community. Got something to share? Drop me a line.

🪖 Prioritizing climate tech in Canada’s new defence strategy: NorthX’s Sarah Goodman makes the case for integrate climate in Canada’s defence strategy.

🌎️ Why Canada might be the best place to commercialize hard tech: My friends at Climate Door unpack Canada’s unique strengths to lead on the energy transition as the U.S. steps back.

🏭️ Creating carbon removal factories: The co-founders of CO280 share their strategy for partnering with the often overlooked pulp and paper sector to scale carbon removal.

NEWS

📡 Signals & Currents

💰Quebec cashes out of Northvolt - The province will take a $270M loss pull support for the $7B plant. U.S.-based Lyten acquired Northvolt out of bankruptcy, but it wasn’t enough to entice Quebec to stay in the deal. [The Logic]

🇨🇦 Strategic protection - PM Carney announces measures to protect Canadian business from U.S. trade wars, including production incentives for biofuels, a $5B investment fund, Buy Canadian procurement policy, expanded loans and more. [PMO]

🪫 EV mandate on pause - Canada paused the EV sales mandate slated to kick in next year due to tariffs and economic pressure on the auto industry. The delay offers some relief, but also undercuts a strong market signal to build out the EV industry. [Electric Autonomy]

📉 Sales drop - Canadian EV sales are down 40% year-over-year, with various purchase incentives on pause. Hybrids are up 60%. [StatsCan]

⚛️ Uranium shortage - The world needs to identify more uranium deposits or risk slowing down nuclear’s revival. Meanwhile, U.S.-based Oklo plans to open a $1.7B centre to convert nuclear waste to fuel. [FT & Bloomberg]

💰️ All aboard - Khosla Ventures, Breakthrough Energy and others formed the All Aboard Coalition to raise $300M for climate tech startups nearing commercialization. The group is aiming to get key tech like carbon removal and hydrogen across the valley of death. [Bloomberg]

⚡️ Grid buildout - The world needs to invest $15T in grids by 2050 for the energy transition. Despite the hype, EVs, smart meters and renewable energy are bigger drivers than data centres. [BNEF]

🏦 Pension push - A major Dutch pension fund withdrew $17B from BlackRock due to concerns about its climate risk management and a lack of focus on sustainability. [Green Banking]

COMMUNITY

🚀 Ontario Agri-Food Commercialization: This commercialization stream supports Ontario-based organizations in agriculture, agri-food and agri-based products in market validation and product development. Apply by October 30th.

➡️ Discover more funding opportunities.

🗓️ Carbon Capture Canada: Canada’s national CCUS Convention returns as the sector shifts from announcements to execution. Edmonton, Sept 23-25th.

➡️ Discover more climate events.

🧑🏻‍💻 Elastic Energy is hiring a Senior AI Engineer to help build the orchestration infrastructure for the new grid.

➡️ Find more open roles.