"Green-tech could be the largest economic opportunity of the 21st Century"
About this Quote
The intent is recruitment. Doerr isn’t talking to activists; he’s talking to boardrooms, founders, and anyone sitting on deployable money. Calling green-tech “the largest economic opportunity” reframes decarbonization as a platform shift on the scale of the internet - not a constraint, but a new operating system for energy, transport, food, and industry. The subtext is competitive: nations and companies that treat climate as an innovation race will set standards, control supply chains, and capture rents; laggards will import the future at a markup.
Context matters because this line arrives after decades of climate talk that sounded like sacrifice. Doerr is trying to flip the script from “pay the cost” to “win the market,” which is both strategically savvy and morally slippery. It risks turning planetary repair into another gold rush, but it also acknowledges a hard truth: massive infrastructure change happens when profit and policy align. In that sense, the quote is a power move - an attempt to make climate action feel inevitable, not optional.
Quote Details
| Topic | Technology |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Doerr, John. (2026, January 15). Green-tech could be the largest economic opportunity of the 21st Century. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/green-tech-could-be-the-largest-economic-160538/
Chicago Style
Doerr, John. "Green-tech could be the largest economic opportunity of the 21st Century." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/green-tech-could-be-the-largest-economic-160538/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Green-tech could be the largest economic opportunity of the 21st Century." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/green-tech-could-be-the-largest-economic-160538/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.





