What does that mean for founders?

Something shifted for climate founders over the past year. In 2024, building a “climate tech” company was, in itself, a strong positioning. It helped attract talent, capital, and attention. It signalled ambition and values. For a while, that was enough to open doors. In 2025, that changed. With Trump’s election, the rollback of climate policy in the US and a growing backlash against ESG, many companies quietly softened their language on net zero or stepped back from public sustainability commitments altogether. As political will waned, funding became tighter, both from investors and potential customers.

The need for climate action didn’t stop, but leading with climate became harder. As the start-up world continues to adapt, I predict that 2026 will be the year of “Quiet Climate”. Quiet Climate doesn’t mean building different solutions. It means talking about them differently. Founders will keep working on electrification, efficiency, resilience, low‑carbon materials and cleaner infrastructure. However, fewer decks will open with the word “climate”; they’ll instead open with margins, efficiency, payback periods and risk reduction.

For years, climate innovation was often pitched as being mission-first. The assumption was that customers would pay a premium for sustainability, or that being greener was, on its own, a competitive advantage. In today’s economy, that assumption no longer holds. When budgets are under pressure, businesses buy what saves them money and what reduces risk – what helps them deliver on their core objectives. That doesn’t make climate solutions less relevant, but it does change how they need to be sold.

The strongest climate‑driven businesses won’t ask customers to make a values‑based choice. They’ll offer a clear upgrade, lower energy costs, more reliable operations, faster deployment or easier compliance, or all of the above. Emissions reduction is now the outcome of a better product, not the headline. This is especially important for mission-driven founders to internalise because most climate startups aren’t selling to sustainability teams. They’re selling to CFOs, operations leaders and procurement teams. These buyers care about cost, reliability and performance. If a business’ solution delivers on those metrics, decarbonisation becomes a powerful added benefit. It may feel painful to be inwardly motivated by impact, but outwardly selling efficiency, but this shift is now a necessity.

This trend has already played out in venture. Funds that once branded themselves explicitly as “climate” are now leaning into adopting language like “efficiency”, “industrial innovation”, “deep tech” or “energy security”. The portfolios of start-ups they invest in still look strikingly similar, but the framing has changed because the market has changed.

Founders are making the same move. Pitch decks that once led with tonnes of CO₂ saved now lead with unit economics. Case studies that used to highlight emissions reductions now open with cost savings and operational impact. The climate story is still there, but it’s no longer doing the heavy lifting on its own. There’s a resilience benefit here too. Businesses that can clearly articulate their commercial value are less exposed to political cycles or public backlash. If a solution stands up on cost and performance alone, it’s harder to dismiss.

However, Quiet Climate comes with a real risk. We can’t allow this “quiet” era to become an excuse to stop measuring, stop reporting or stop being honest about the climate impact of these products. If the startup world teaches us anything, it’s that attention moves in cycles. Climate will return to the centre of public conversation, and the work done now needs to be robust enough to stand up to scrutiny when it does. If we care about long-term impact, Quiet Climate needs to be about message discipline, not lower standards.

So what should founders do in practice as they head into 2026? First, pressure‑test value propositions. If the climate benefit disappeared from a startups’ pitch, would the offer still be compelling? If not, founders need to find the hook. That might be energy cost, reliability, compliance, throughput, waste reduction, safety or labour constraints. Second, build for adoption, not applause. At the early stage, many startups optimise for winning awards or sounding good on stage – not surprisingly given this can help attract angels and early funders. With scale though, the focus needs to shift away from shiny awards, and towards the mundane but essential task of fitting seamlessly into customer procurement processes. These include fast integration, clear ROI and credible case studies over vanity metrics. Third, learn to be bilingual. Founders need to speak “customer” and “climate” fluently without mixing the messages. Customers want operational outcomes. Investors, regulators and strategic partners want credible data. Teams still want purpose. Surviving and thriving in an era of Quiet Climate means knowing which language to use, and when. Fourth, don’t worry about the labels. Whether the market calls it climate tech, energy tech, resilience tech or industrial innovation, the underlying opportunity is the same: rebuilding how the world makes, moves and powers things. Finally, don’t quit. The toughest years are when the future gets decided. When easy money disappears and scrutiny increases, genuinely strong solutions have room to stand out. The founders and investment funds who stick with climate during this downturn are the ones who will shape the next cycle of growth.

The climate crisis remains a multi‑decade challenge that will reshape supply chains, infrastructure, insurance markets and geopolitics. Businesses will keep needing cleaner power, more efficient operations and more resilient systems. Those forces are bigger than any election cycle, so let’s not let ourselves be sidetracked by a single climate-denying President.