Climate Tech for European Resilience White Paper

Leading climate investors and policy advisors publish joint White Paper with urgent blueprint for strengthening European Resilience

The report shares actionable recommendations for policymakers, businesses and investors

• The Importance of Climate Tech for European Resilience argues that Europe faces a ‘now or never’ moment. The continent is at a critical juncture, and resilience must be strengthened through decarbonisation and strong regulatory frameworks that attract private investment.
  
• The White Paper—from the leading climate tech investor World Fund, the top strategic advisory firm Kaya Partners, and the leading Nordic placement agent Worthwhile Capital Partners—shares key policy and investment actions needed to achieve resilience, covering energy, food security, frontier technologies, and raw materials.
  
• Climate tech with a high resilience impact is an area where Europe can lead the world. The continent already hosts more than twice as many climate tech startups and scaleups as the US, with nearly 30,000 companies compared to 14,300.
  

The White Paper is available to read here.

Munich, 14 February 2025: Today, World Fund, Kaya Partners, and Worthwhile Capital Partners published an extensive White Paper, The Importance of Climate Tech for European Resilience, which contains a blueprint for enhancing European resilience.  

World Fund is Europe’s leading climate tech investor, Kaya Partners is a top consultancy providing strategic advice on green transition policy, and Worthwhile Capital Partners is the leading Nordic placement agent specialising in thematic investment strategies through funds and direct investment opportunities. Leaders from each organisation came together to combine their unique perspectives and insights on how to strengthen resilience. 
The co-authors published the White Paper in Munich during the Munich Security Conference – the world's leading forum for debating the most pressing challenges to international security.

The White Paper calls for long-term strategic policy and investment action, spanning four key areas: energy, food security, frontier technologies, and raw materials. It also explores the role of defence as a unifying thread across these sectors.

Key recommendations for European policymakers and investors include: prioritising grid modernisation; increasing investment in alternative energy carrier and battery storage development; implementing Novel Food Regulation reform; investing further in developing specific frontier technologies (AI, biotech, fusion, robotics, e-aviation, spacetech and quantum computing); implementing de-risking mechanisms to buffer against critical mineral market coercion, and increasing defence spending to at least 3% GDP.

The White Paper also strongly reiterates Mario Draghi’s call for €800 billion in annual spending via public-private partnerships, regulatory streamlining, and expanded roles for institutions like the European Investment Bank. It argues that combined, these actions would provide a clear and solid basis for forming policies that actively strengthen resilience by 2029.  s resilience as the ability to prepare for, resist, respond to and quickly recover from shocks and disruptions - and Europe has a long way to go to achieve this goal.  

Why delivering European Resilience is essential for long-term security and prosperity

The COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine, and an ever more turbulent geopolitical backdrop have resurfaced resilience as a key priority for European nations. NATO defines resilience as the ability to prepare for, resist, respond to and quickly recover from shocks and disruptions - and Europe has a long way to go to achieve this goal.  

The report explores where Europe lost its initial lead in climate tech R&D in the 2010s and how it can regain pole position. For example, despite leading in solar and wind capacity in the early 2000s, tariff and subsidy decisions led to Germany falling back from 2012 onwards. Annual installed renewable capacity reached 9.7 gigawatts in 2012 but did not manage to top that level until 2022 as a result.   

Today, limited venture financing in Europe forces companies to seek foreign capital, risking strategic vulnerabilities. Venture financing in Europe has averaged just 0.2% of GDP between 2013 and 2023, a fraction of the US average of 0.7%. The White Paper outlines why increased public-private partnerships, green bonds, and a Capital Markets Union are all crucial moves needed to close financing gaps and secure resilience.

Similarly, current studies and models indicate that by 2050, Europe will rely on a largely decarbonised energy mix: electricity at 50–60%, hydrogen at 10–20%, synthetic fuels and renewable gases at 5–10%, and bioenergy at around 5%. Here, collaborative approaches will be essential in creating the most impactful applications and ensuring European sovereignty.

Danijel Visevic, Founding Partner at World Fund, commented: “Thanks to its leadership in climate tech innovation, Europe has a second chance to build leading industries and strengthen its resilience. We shouldn't repeat the mistakes made in 2012, but capitalise on our opportunities.”

Bo Lidegaard, Partner, Kaya Partners and co-author of the White Paper, said: "Disruption is upon us. Europe must embrace it and reignite the creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship so deeply rooted with us. It’s about levering our private savings to scale up our most innovative and visionary companies.”

Niclas Sundström, Co-Managing Partner of Worthwhile Capital Partners and co-author of the White Paper, said: "Resilience and societal sustainability also feature security as a fundamental enabler. Given the geostrategic situation, Europe needs to dramatically scale up its capabilities to defend itself, including mobilising capital into frontier defence/dual-use innovation."

‍ENDS

*DISCLAIMER: this article has been produced utilising third-party data sources, linked above in the white paper.‍

‍About World Fund:

‍World Fund is the leading Europe-focused climate venture capital fund established by Daria Saharova, Danijel Višević, Tim Schumacher, and Craig Douglas. World Fund invests in scalable businesses with significant climate performance potential (CPP). The focus is on the sectors with the greatest need for decarbonisation technologies: energy, buildings, manufacturing, transport, food, agriculture, and land use. World Fund is backing those entrepreneurs who are building tech for a regenerative world.‍

About Kaya Partners:

Kaya Partners is an independent advisory firm specialising in decarbonisation strategies and geopolitical insights for investments, markets, and supply chains. With offices in Washington D.C., Nuuk, London, and Copenhagen, they provide impartial counsel to senior management and boards across a range of material issues of our time. They also collaborate with Boundary Stone Partners through BSP-Kaya Advisors to advance global climate and energy solutions.

About Worthwhile Capital Partners

Worthwhile Capital Partners, founded in 2019 and headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, is an independent advisory firm and placement agent specialising in thematic, sustainable investments for private sector assets. They support institutional investors across Europe, focusing on sectors such as climate change mitigation, biodiversity, sustainable water use, defence/dual-use, and the circular economy. The firm has raised over $1.6 bn, avoiding more than 62 million tonnes of CO₂ emissions, and was ranked 10th globally in 2023 by Private Equity International.