A Positive Climate

Nick chats with Mike Lazelle and Dr Rob Turner, co-founders of Kwetta , to discuss their groundbreaking approach to electrifying heavy vehicles.  Kwetta has just raised ~$17 million AUD in Series A funding from the likes of Blackbird and Virescent Ventures to address the “grid issue” for EV charging. And they’ve given us a podcast exclusive! Their innovative chargers connect directly to the h...

Nick and producer-turned-”shark” Mark hear pitches from ten up and coming Australian climate startups!  Our third annual pitch episode with some incredible ~seed stage startups in the latest cohort from EnergyLab - Australia’s leading climate accelerator.  Previous guests on the Pitchfest and podcast have gone on to raise hundreds of millions in capital (you can review these here ), so l...

Nick chats to Simon Holmes à Court about nuclear energy in Australia. “When are you covering nuclear?” is one of the most common questions we’ve received from APC listeners. So we finally went there. And it was great to have Simon on to explore it all before we go back to our startup roots next episode with our THIRD pitch fest.   (00:00) Intro (03:55) What people get wrong about nuclear...

Nick chats to Tim Washington from JET Charge about using electric vehicles as batteries for our homes. Vehicle to grid technology could transform not one but *two* trillion dollar industries in energy and transport. All while paving the way to materially reduce carbon emissions and costs. It is simple enough but does it work? When will consumers have it? What impacts will it have? And what is it l...

That’s a wrap! It's our annual review episode, with Alex and Nick covering all the climate technology news from 2023. The hottest year on record brings a reminder that we need to be doubling down on the right solutions, so we hope you enjoy our reflections about what we think matters. Thanks again to all you listening out there! It’s been a big year for us - where we hit the Top 5 in tech podcasts...

Nick and Alex hear pitches from ten up and coming Australian startups working on climate solutions! *Vote HERE * We’re back with our second pitchfest episode! And again teaming up with EnergyLab’s accelerator program, but this time it’s different - there will be a winner decided by YOU !  We’ve secured some awesome prizes that will go to the People’s Choice startup.  G+T Ventures , the startup arm...

This week Alex is away so Nick is let loose on the podcast! Nick chats to Christiaan Jordaan , CEO and founder of Sicona .  Sound familiar? We interviewed Christiaan in back November 2021 in one of our all-time listener favourite episodes: " Australia's Role in the Battery Revolution ". Since then Sicona has come a long way! Fresh off their recent $22m funding round for their battery technology we...

We chat to Doug Mcnamee from Jolt Charge , an Australian electric vehicle charging business that has raised $100million from Blackrock (the world's largest money manager). EV uptake in Australia is on a charge! When we recorded our first EV episode in 2021, they comprised less than 0.5% of total sales. In the first half of 2023 this number was up to 8%. So while EVs are just one part of decarbonis...

We chat with Vince Allen from SunDrive , a Sydney-based startup on a mission to transform Australia into a solar manufacturing powerhouse. In 2021, SunDrive made headlines by developing the world's most efficient commercial-sized solar cell. Not only that - by swapping silver with copper as the conductive material their products could be lower cost too. With over $30 million in funding from high-p...

Do we have enough lithium for all the batteries we’ll need for a low carbon future? What is the impact of lithium extraction on the planet? And can we do it in a more sustainable way?  Nick and Alex chat with Steven Vassiloudis of Novalith , a Sydney startup that can extract lithium in a way that not only reduces emissions but also the amount of chemicals used in the process. We are proudly suppor...

Nick and Alex chat with Julia Reisser of Uluu , a startup based in Western Australia creating biodegradable plastic made from seaweed.  This is episode two of our PLASTIC DOUBLE HEADER, this time tackling the plastic problem from the very source - the production!  Plastic is a very real problem we need to address and unfortunately, given the way we currently live our lives it's not going anywhere...

Is Samsara Eco Australia’s most exciting climate startup? With enzymes that literally eat plastic, it’s hard to disagree! Nick and Alex chat with Paul Riley of Samsara Eco , a Canberra based company that has raised ~$60 million to tackle one of the biggest problems of all: plastic recycling. It’s a tangible, challenging and very current problem in Australia, so we loved diving into all the issues...

Stop The Burps! Nick and Alex have a chat about using less dairy. We then interview Jan Pacas of All G Foods - a Sydney-based company which has raised A$50 million to spearhead a global revolution to create real dairy, without the cows or the emissions (8:00) The technology is called precision fermentation and it could soon enough upend the $1 trillion dairy industry.  ** If you enjoy the show, we...

We speak to Henry Bilinsky from MicroTau . The Sydney-based startup’s shark skin technology applied to planes has the potential to improve the efficiency of aviation by up to 10%, meanwhile saving airlines up to $61 billion a year on fuel. ** If you enjoy the show, subscribe and give us a rating on Apple or Spotify! You can sign up to our mailing list, say hello@apositiveclimate.com   or follow us...

We’re BACK with our best season yet! Launched on 27 June 2023, we'll release interviews fortnightly, speaking with Australia’s very best startups in the global climate transition.  They’ve got game changing sustainable technology. They’ve raised hundreds of millions of dollars. And they’re ready to turn the world’s biggest problem into Australia’s great opportunity.  Low carbon aviation. Cow free...

Alex and Nick wrap up 2022 and the end of season three with a wide ranging chat including an update on the international race to decarbonise, trends in cleantech, a check-in on our BIG predictions and our plans to bring you even more great episodes in 2023.  We cover a lot on this episode: How the narrative around decarbonisation has changed in the last 12 months - "The electric bus is leaving the...

Nick and Alex hear pitches from TEN of Australia’s up and coming climate startups! This episode brings you something a bit different. We’ve partnered with our friends at EnergyLab (Australia’s leading climate solutions accelerator) to hold a pitch speed round featuring their most recent startup cohort.  The rules: A 60 second opening free pitch and 10 minutes max for each startup. That’s it!  If y...

We chat to Liam Wallis, Founding Director of  Hip v Hype a leading sustainable property developer based in Melbourne about the built environment and how we can make our homes and buildings carbon neutral.  In our chat with Liam we cover:  What goes into creating a sustainable building - what matters the most?  How do builders or developers consider designing for sustainability not just in the cons...

We chat to Paul Gambill from Nori about their carbon removal marketplace using blockchain technology. This is the second episode in our two-part series about whether crypto and blockchain can be a positive force for addressing climate change. In this one we cover: The role of (and challenges with) carbon offsets Carbon avoidance offsets vs carbon removal Nori’s carbon removal marketplace and the N...

Nick and Alex chat about the impact of crypto and blockchain on climate. Is crypto accelerating climate change or can it be a force for good? Hot off the heels of “the Ethereum Merge” we cover the following in this ep: What is cryptocurrency? What is blockchain?  Why can crypto be so energy intensive? Can it be improved? Bitcoin and Ethereum (including the Ethereum Merge)  Dogecoin, GarlicCoin, On...

Nick and Alex chat to Ned Ekins-Daukes from UNSW about their breakthrough to create solar energy in the dark. This is a wide ranging chat about how solar panels could generate all of Australia's electricity at night, where climate solutions come from, the role of UNSW and universities in creating them, the legend of Martin Green, how to commercialise early stage technology, and a little lesson on...

We chat to Tim Dawson, the founder of PV industries, an Australian startup on a mission to recycle solar panels (and soon, batteries too!).  In Australia we have A LOT of solar! Currently over 3 million (or 1 in 3) households have solar. Australia has over 25 GW of solar capacity now installed which on a per person basis is 1kw per person, 30% greater than any other country. But what will happen t...

Alex provides a primer on hydrogen's role in our future clean economy and then we interview Tom Campey from Hysata (11:21) an Australian startup with a breakthrough electrolyser technology.   ** If you enjoy the show, subscribe! We'd love it if you gave us a rating on Apple or Spotify! You can also follow us: on Instagram , Twitter , LinkedIn or send us some comments at hello@apositiveclimate.com...

Tom White from CarsGuide presents the state of play for electric vehicles in Australia.  Tom has a very cool job! He gets to drive and review all the latest electric vehicles that are coming to Australia. He also recently released the EVGuide Report for all the latest stats, facts and figures on Electric Vehicles So what better person to chat to (after our Season 1 chat to Tim Washington) to focus...

Lily Dempster from One Small Step chats to us about how to address your personal carbon footprint. Welcome to Season THREE of A Positive Climate! We’re excited to have a new season of another ten episodes, released fortnightly on Tuesdays in Australia. HIT THE FOLLOW / SUBSCRIBE button in your podcast app One Small Step is a mobile app that aims to be your personal sustainability coach. It provide...