Climate technology is already changing lives. Why isn’t it reaching more people?

In the foothills of the Himalayas, Nepali farmer Chiranjivi Acharya receives weather forecasts directly on his mobile phone. Behind these simple SMS messages is an artificial-intelligence-powered system that analyzes more than 30 years of weather data to predict local conditions and provide practical farming advice.

Nepal is among the world’s most climate-vulnerable countries. And as climate change continues to disrupt rainfall patterns, Acharya and other farmers can no longer rely on traditional knowledge alone. For them, timely, location-specific forecasts and recommendations can make the difference between a successful harvest and a looming catastrophe of losing an entire season’s crops.

Nepal’s example shows how simple technological solutions can help communities grappling with the growing impact of climate change. Many of these technologies already exist, and they are neither futuristic nor prohibitively expensive.  

So why are so many communities still facing climate disasters without access to them? 

The world is heading towards a dangerously warmer future. Experts say nations remain off track to meet the Paris Agreement goal of limiting warming to below 2°C above pre-industrial levels. In fact, under current policies, the planet is on course for approximately 2.8°C of warming by the end of the century, and every degree means longer heat waves, more intense wildfires, heavier and more erratic rainfall, and sometimes the collapse of entire ecosystems.

One of the big paradoxes of our time is that developing countries, responsible for a tiny fraction of greenhouse gas emissions, are disproportionately affected by climate change. They also have very limited resources to withstand its impacts.

We already have many of the technologies needed to help communities adapt to a warming world. And every year they become cheaper and more ubiquitous in everyday life. I travel through many countries, and sometimes I see areas that used to be empty land, now covered in solar panels that power homes and irrigate crops.

What encourages me is that countries in the Global South are often at the forefront of these transformations, and how quickly they adopt them and learn from each other. For example, China leads the wind and solar energy market, while Kenya’s young entrepreneurs use these tools to provide green, affordable power to communities without access to the electrical grid.

My organization, the Climate Technology Centre and Network (CTCN), has worked for years to make these solutions more accessible to communities worldwide. And we have seen time and again how effective they can be.     

In Georgia’s Borjomi-Kharagauli National Park, for example, climate change is increasing the threat of wildfires to forests that sustain local communities and shelter endangered wildlife. Between 2007 and 2021, more than 600 fires burned approximately 7,244 hectares of forest, destroying habitats and threatening livelihoods dependent on farming and tourism.

Until recently, firefighters had no reliable way of detecting fires as they started. And by the time people spotted smoke, flames could already be spreading across the mountainous terrain.

Now, thanks to a CTCN-supported project, solar-powered cameras equipped with artificial intelligence monitor the forests around the clock. When the system detects smoke, it alerts firefighters within seconds, allowing them to respond before small fires turn into major disasters.

The experiences of farmers in Nepal, firefighters in Georgia and many others around the globe show how climate technology can help us achieve meaningful change. But we urgently need to scale it up and ensure nobody is left behind.

Many developing countries still lack the technical expertise, institutional capacity and financial resources to identify and deploy technologies suited for the problems they want to tackle. On the other hand, technology cannot simply be transferred from one country to another and expected to work the same way. Instead, every solution must respond to local challenges, resources and priorities.

Helping countries identify appropriate technologies, strengthen technical capacities and create the conditions necessary for deployment, as well as supporting young entrepreneurs to create and test their own climate innovations, remain at the core of our work at CTCN.

But technological advancement alone is not enough. For climate technology to grow and deliver, favorable policies and investment are absolutely key. Expanding these solutions requires infrastructure, training, institutional capacity and long-term maintenance. Without adequate financing, promising innovations risk remaining isolated projects instead of developing into widely available tools for climate resilience.

As temperatures continue to rise, scaling up access to climate technology is an investment in human lives, food security and future economic opportunity.

We all inhabit the same planet. And if one room in our shared home catches fire, the rest of us cannot simply close our doors and assume we will be safe. Climate change is a shared challenge, even if its consequences are profoundly unequal. That is why we must work together so people around the world have the tools they need to adapt and prepare.