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Making New Zealand number-one

The co-founder of Sun Microsystems, Bill Joy, claims that there is now a business opportunity that's bigger and more profitable than computers, software or even the internet.

"This is a much larger opportunity" he is quoted as telling the Reuters news agency in a story on the wires today.

Like most people with an entrepreneurial tendency, I'm always keen to know what the "next big thing" is going to be and I think Joy is dead right when he claims that technology related to climate change is it.

Just look at the levels of near-hysteria that is being stirred up by the media over this issue.

"We're all going to burn in a hell on earth unless we do something about it" some of the extremists are almost claiming.

But, where there's hysteria, there's money to be made.

Scientists are already aware of this and have been garnering huge amounts of funding to investigate, postulate and predict our climate future.

Politicians and bureaucrats are aware of this and are already coming up with a raft of new taxes and levies, all (we're told) designed to save the planet.

Hell, we even have some folks wanting to tax plasma TVs in the name of the planet.

But where the real (and far more ethical) profits are to be made is in the area of technology designed to reduce carbon emissions.

Energy has always been a highly profitable business but until now, there's simply been no cheaper source of useful energy than fossil fuel.

But that's changing...

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So how does all this benefit New Zealand?

Well just as Finland became a country synonymous with Nokia and advanced mobile phones; just as Iceland has become synonymous with geothermal energy generation and a burgeoning hydrogen economy; and just as NZ has already become synonymous with state of the art horticultural and agricultural technologies -- why don't we go for gold with climate change technology?

Why don't we offer climate-change technology companies a tax-free status for the first five years and work very hard to create an environment that will attract the world's best and brightest researchers in this field?

If NZ holds the keys to reducing global warming, we stand to make a snot-load of money.

No, I'm not suggesting that we build a huge tokamak or try to be the first to create cold fusion as an alternative source of energy (although that would be nice). I'm thinking more along the lines of technology that reduces the carbon footprint of existing energy sources.

This can be a result of producing more energy-efficient technologies or even coming up with better biofuel crops and ways of sequestering carbon from the atmosphere.

I'm thinking that we have the potential to become world-leaders in this kind of technology and that could make NZ one of the most wealthy specks of dirt on the planet in the face of global warming.

Of course such a bold move would require the cooperation of a government with vision so it's not going to happen any time soon.

Cullen would doubtless wince at the prospect of allowing companies to trade without paying any tax for five years but he should start thinking outside the box if he truly has the best interests of NZ and the planet in mind.

Instead of taxing these companies, why not require that they give a percentage of their IP rights to the crown?

The advantage of this would be that NZ would earn money even if they later decided to up and relocate elsewhere. Even if the patents for this technology were sold, the crown would have the option of retaining their small ownership percentage and thus continue to collect revenues.

What would the cost be to the NZ taxpayer?

Well probably very little.

Foregoing tax that you'd never have gotten if the companies concerned were not here anyway is not a loss. The jobs, influx of skilled people and chance to grab a share of some very valuable technology is a potentially huge win for NZ and its people however.

Joy is right, the most rapidly growing and profitable industries of the early 21st century will those associated with tackling climate change. Will New Zealand be a producer or just a consumer?

The choice is ours.

Have your say on this...

Oh, and don't forget today's sci/tech news headlines

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