Are We Building The Wrong Adaptation Tech?

As billions flow into climate risk software and analytics, some start-up leaders argue the sector is neglecting real-world solutions

Author

Louie Woodall
May 22, 2025

Source: sasirin pamai / Canva Pro

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Start-up founders criticizing adaptation technology? It’s not something one expects to hear at a climate tech conference. And yet, a number of speakers at the Adapt Unbound summit in New York last week had some choice words for where the market appears to be headed.

“The advanced software-based products I think absolutely do not help the person on the ground most often,” said Jack Wilson, Co-Founder of Eztia Materials, a company engineering wearable cooling materials to address rising heat risks. “There is a push for getting more and more data — especially on end-users — seeing when they’re getting heat stress, where it’s hotter than one area or another, and that’s just not helpful. Having been a customer of one of those products, getting an alert that says it’s extremely hot out when I’m outside, is extremely frustrating.”

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