Together, 27 countries of Central and Eastern Europe contribute to approximately 3.73 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, but the region’s share of global climate tech investment is only 0.79 per cent of the total, according to the CEE edition of PwC’s Net Zero Future50 report. Climate tech investments in the region have risen from 10.6 million US dollars in 2013 to over 502 million US dollars in the first half of 2021 alone, but there is clearly room for more, not only investment but also sector and geographic diversity. Transport and mobility account for 59.8 per cent of that investment, and 74.8 per cent of start-ups are based in Estonia and Lithuania. The report also presents interesting insights into the most underfunded areas. Most notably, between 2013 and the first half of 2021, CEE start-ups in the food, agriculture and land use sector attracted just 2.26 per cent of total funding, and those in the energy sector a mere 1.29 per cent. Although Poland has the largest economy in the region, and it serves as a strategic hub for some industries, start-ups in Poland only raised 4.65 per cent of total CEE climate tech funding. José Miguel Salazar Hernández, ESG Hub Manager at PwC CEE, speaks with Andrew Wrobel, about the report’s key findings, the impact start-ups make on the environment, the most active investment hubs and some of the solutions the top 50 start-ups offer. They also discuss why each and every start-up should understand their own carbon footprint and consider implementing early-on impact assessment methodologies to support their value proposition.