Special: Cleantech Way
16 Mar 2025
Julián Cubero
Economista Líder de BBVA Research
Special: Cleantech Way
Neustark: “Without technologies that eliminate carbon dioxide permanently, we will not be able to stop global warming”
Neustark, founded just five years ago, has developed a technology that captures carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and stores it within concrete, which is capable of retaining it for hundreds of thousands of years. This is a novel contribution to the fight againstclimate change.
Reducing carbon dioxide emissions is crucial to combating climate change, but achieving net zero will also require carbon capture technologies.
Ciarán Humphreys
Investigador en Institute for Climate Economics
Special: Cleantech Way
Ismael Olmedo: "Our technology doesn’t just capture microplastics, but also offers a solutions for the protection of human health and the defense of the environment"
For Ismael Olmedo, CEO of Captoplastic, seeing clean, vibrant waterways is priceless —a value he cherishes more with age. He finds his company’s work particularly gratifying; they have developed technology to capture microplastics as small as one micron (0.001 mm), which are otherwise elusive and harmful to nature and health. We spoke with Olmedo to learn how this technology cancleanse ecosystems of these tiny pollutants and protect the environment.
Clothing is much more than something to keep us warm: it is a powerful expression of our identity, culture and ideas. Brands are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of creating quality clothing that is not only attractive, but also sustainable, and that showcases their commitment to the planet and the future.
Sustainability inevitably means replacing fossil fuels —the main cause of global warming— with cleaner alternatives in terms of greenhouse gases. In this endless search for cleaner energy sources, green hydrogen emerges as a promising option, yet it remains far from decarbonizing sectors difficult to electrify, such as industry or heavy transport.
opinion
Tim Gould
International Energy Agency
Special: Cleantech Way
Jonathan Geifman: "If we want to secure the future of the Earth, we need to expand into space"
Helios was established over six years ago as a project to produce oxygen on the Moon, but in its first steps it discovered by chance a responsible way to obtain iron as a by-product. It all started with a question. Jonathan Geifman —CEO of this Israeli tech company— and friends wanted to know why human beings had not returned to the Moon since the Apollo 17 mission in December 1972.
Fusing the nuclei within atoms could offer humanity a clean and virtually boundless energysource, although various technical and economic challenges must first be overcome.
Bianca Dragomir
Directora de Cleantech for Iberia
Special: Cleantech Way
Malta Inc: “Our technology provides long-duration storage from 8 hours to 8 days”
As a child, Ramya Swaminathan experienced first-hand the consequences of an unstable electrical grid: in India and the Philippines (where she grew up), power outages at the school were constant. Now, named in 2020 one of Business Insider’s list of 21 Rising Stars in clean energy, in addition to advising public agencies dedicated to the electric grid in the United States, Swaminathan advices Malta Inc., a startup that spun out from Google X that could be key for achieving a stable electrical network powered by 100% renewable energy.
The expansion of renewable energy has made it increasingly less surprising to encounter a field of solar panels or find windmills among the mountains. The biggest challenge currently facing fossil fuel-free electrical systems is developing large-scale storage infrastructure so that renewable plants do not depend on the weather’s arbitrary behavior.
Javier Rodríguez Soler
Global Head of Sustainability and Corporate & Investment Banking (CIB)