Extra reporting and panel participation by Flemmich Webb, Elisabeth Jeffries and Mike Scott; further reporting by Ben Oliver, Ross Tieman and Tom Stevenson. Illustrations by Chris Haughton

A year ago when we produced our first low-carbon pioneers list, it was with an air of experimentation, if not trepidation. Yet in the face of a defining, single problem with manifold solutions – climate change - we perceived an enormous opportunity for corporations and start-ups alike. We said then: “The research for our list convinced us that we are in the early stages of an emerging market of vast scope and future. The scale and intricacies cannot yet be imagined but whether viewed in terms of geography or sector, it will certainly surpass all previous emerging markets. In fact, it may have to.”

A year on this prophecy is in full flood and the landscape has changed a great deal. First, the UN climate change panel has delivered its tripartite report, confirming the high likelihood that climate change is caused by humans, and that it is progressing at an alarming rate.

Secondly, the fifth Carbon Disclosure Project gained the active support of former US president Bill Clinton and German chancellor Angela Merkel, became more global in scope than ever before and made the link between shareholder value and corporate action on climate change more visible and explicit than ever before.

In other words, climate change mitigation and adaptation is a matter of fiduciary risk now – it’s no longer a voluntary, ‘moral’ position that a company can politely discard

Thirdly, rising oil prices led to widespread speculation in the US press about the lunacy of America continuing to consume oil at current rates, making renewable energy the respectable face of patriotism and national security rather than the shrill protest of the anti-war hippies and left wing environmentalists

Against this wider backdrop, there was a ferment of entrepreneurial and corporate activity partly captured by this year’s list. The so-called clean tech and renewable energy sectors are in a phase of rapid growth, so much so that one can hardly keep abreast of often severely technical subject matter ranging from the nanoengineering of quantum dot particles to competing interpretations of thin film solar technology.

Many of these companies make it into our expanded list as ‘low-carbon pioneers’ because they are risk takers who sincerely believe they hold the solutions to tomorrow’s low-carbon economy. The list boasts 14 solar energy and technology companies; 10 biofuel/ biomass players; six wind; five wave; and two tidal.

These numbers are not meant to be representative of the global state of these technologies, yet they reflect the fact that solar is on the verge of a breakthrough in thin-film technology that will make solar applications vastly cheaper and more ubiquitous in the near future. Solar mobile phone chargers will transform some communities in emerging markets. By contrast, wind is already established while tidal and wave energy remain much more experimental.

The investor perspective has to be one of caution. Far better than attempting to cherry pick individual stocks whose future success is unknown, the route is surely to invest in a team of professional investors whose sole professional activity is to pick the winners from the losers. Several such companies are in the list and some of them have already floated, mostly on London’s Alternative Investment Market. We predict that the likes of Low Carbon Accelerator, Ludgate Environmental, Guinness Atkinson and Climate Change Capital will soon become much larger and more mainstream.