This year, the 12 companies mostly fell into three broad categories: Artificial intelligence, electric vehicle infrastructure, and providing companies with better data to decarbonize their operations. When I read the headlines about the dangers of the climate crisis, I feel a personal obligation to be a part of supporting innovative climate solutions to scale," Ridenour told CNBC. Google has hosted three climate change startup accelerators for North American companies in the last three years, and all 33 of the participants are all still operating, a spokesperson for Google told CNBC. "Teams are leaning deeper into developing AI and ML models to address climate change," Ridenour told CNBC. Cleartrace is particularly focused on measurement techniques for Scope 3 emissions -- emissions associated with a company's entire supply chain or value chain, which can be fiendishly difficult to track.

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