Why Europe’s Tech Fight Matters

When Donald Trump threatened new tariffs on the EU for its digital laws, it looked like another trade dispute. But behind the politics lies a deeper question: who should set the rules for global technology, and whose values shape those rules?

For TECH by Handelsblatt, this debate is not about tariffs. It is about values. Managing Director Dale Rickert believes Europe must show that growth and integrity can exist together.

“Our rules are not for sale,” he says. “They protect the democracy we rely on.”

A Beginning in Music

Dale started his career far from politics. He was a professional cellist in Australia and Germany. In an orchestra, he says, you learn that harmony comes from teamwork, not ego.

“You play your part, and together you create something bigger.”

That experience shaped how he works today. Whether he is running events or building partnerships, he treats business as a collective performance. Everyone has a part to play, and success depends on collaboration, not competition.

Building a European Vision

When Handelsblatt created TECH, the goal was to build a European platform where business and technology leaders could meet, share ideas and defend common values.

The idea came from a simple question: what does it mean to be European in business? For Dale, it means having a clear moral compass and protecting what matters most — trust, transparency and fairness.

The TECH Congress in Heilbronn has become a space for that conversation. Leaders, innovators and ministers come not only to talk but to listen and connect.

Europe Says: Our Rules, Our Future

The article that inspired this episode — EU defends sovereign right to regulate tech against Trump’s latest tariff threat — described how the U.S. called Europe’s digital laws “unfair.”

The EU refused to back down. Its Digital Services and Markets Acts ask tech giants to take responsibility for harmful content, data privacy and monopoly power. Europe’s answer to Trump was clear: the rules stand, and they exist for a reason.

The Moral Divide

Dale calls it a “paradigm war.” The U.S. often removes rules to help business grow. Europe creates rules to make sure growth stays fair.

It raises a bigger question: should technology be free from limits, or guided by ethics? Dale believes that regulation does not stop innovation. It makes sure innovation helps society instead of harming it.

The Future of Digital Sovereignty

A less visible issue in this debate is data. Most European companies still use American cloud services. Under U.S. law, those companies could be forced to hand over user data if asked by their government.

Dale warns that Europe cannot build a strong digital future on foreign infrastructure. He supports the move toward “sovereign technology” — tools and systems built in Europe, under European law, with data protected by European values.

The Takeaway

For Europe to become a true tech power, it must balance growth with integrity. It needs to protect trust, even when progress feels slow.

Dale’s advice is simple: talk face to face. “It’s hard to hate someone when you sit with them,” he says.

“If we work together as people, not profiles, big problems start to shrink.”

Speaking on The Responsible Edge, Charlie’s view is nuanced but clear:

“It is a bit of a shame that the government is considering airport expansion in the face of growth,” he said, cautiously.

He’s quick to acknowledge the economic rationale but even quicker to flag the climate cost: an additional 2.4 million tonnes of CO₂ annually by 2050 — and that’s with optimistic assumptions about cleaner fuels.

The SAF Mirage: Betting on Technology That Isn’t There

Central to the government’s climate mitigation argument is the promise of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF). It’s a drop-in replacement that relies on waste oils and bio-feedstocks. But there’s a problem: “In the UK, we don’t have any operational projects in the ground,” Charlie warns.

“We’re relying on imported feedstock, creating a huge risk.”

The UK’s SAF mandate may be a step forward, but it’s more of a policy scaffold than a solution. For Charlie, it’s not enough.

“If the government wants to consider expanding Heathrow and Gatwick, we need to do more than just SAF.”

Crossing the Valley of Death

The real bottleneck, Charlie argues, lies in the “valley of death” — the treacherous chasm between innovation and scale. Early-stage clean aviation firms struggle to attract funding just when it matters most. It’s a familiar tale: venture capital dries up, institutional investors won’t take the risk, and the UK loses homegrown technologies to more supportive climates.

“We think the National Wealth Fund should co-invest at this stage,” he says, citing the UK Infrastructure Bank’s potential to bridge this critical gap. It’s not about blank cheques — it’s about risk-sharing to unlock scale.

Vision vs Delivery: A Nation Adrift

Charlie’s criticism isn’t just of a single policy decision but of the systemic inconsistency in Britain’s clean tech trajectory.

“You can’t keep changing the strategy every four years and expect stakeholders to trust you,” he notes.

His example? The indecision over energy grid pricing models, which stalled investor confidence and delayed renewable projects.

For a nation that once imagined itself a climate leader, Britain has yet to articulate a coherent green industrial strategy — let alone deliver on it.

The Case for a National Mission

“What are we trying to be?”

Charlie asks, echoing a deeper concern. Could the UK rebrand itself as a global clean tech hub? Could green growth be our export advantage?

“There’s not one sector the UK doesn’t have an opportunity to succeed in,” he says — provided the government stops gambling on future tech and starts investing in the present.

It’s not a romantic vision of degrowth or techno-utopia. It’s something more grounded: building a policy infrastructure that enables cooperation, coherence, and continuity across government cycles.

Lobbying Without Tribes

In his most passionate moment, Charlie turns his attention to the corporate world.

“We need to remove the tribal nature of lobbying at the expense of climate progress,” he argues.

In his view, competitive sectoral lobbying undermines unified climate policy — and with it, public trust in politics itself.

To fix it? “We need a new model of climate lobbying. One that values long-term thinking and shared outcomes.”

The Takeaway

Charlie’s magic wand wish isn’t flashy. It’s not a moonshot. It’s a call for better coordination, pragmatic realism, and long-haul investment. For those looking to lead responsibly in today’s messy world, that might just be the most radical thing of all.

When he says, “We’ve lost touch with the sense of the whole,” it’s not a lament—it’s a warning. The disease of misinformation isn’t just poisoning our political discourse or undermining innovation; it’s chipping away at the glue that binds societies together.

News as Theory, Not Fact

Most things in the news, says Rafael, aren’t facts. “They’re theories.” And that matters. We don’t need everyone to agree, he explains:

“Consensus is not good for progress.”

But we do need everyone to follow the same logic. That’s what Beehive provides: a transparent, objective framework to assess news articles based on consistency, context, and credibility—not ideology.

His pandemic example is revealing. When UK media declared Brazil’s Covid response a catastrophe, the headlines were technically true. But the omission of critical context—Brazil’s much larger population, regional disparities, and urban/rural divides—meant the narrative was misleading. It’s not fake news. It’s just incomplete. And that, Cossi warns, is the most dangerous kind.

The Slow Collapse of Trust

“Information is soft power,” Rafael reminds us. It shapes not just opinions but entire economies, voting behaviours, and social contracts. Today, he observes:

“A lot of young people in the UK don’t believe in democracy anymore.”

It’s not hard to see why. When truth becomes a battleground, the casualties are cohesion and common purpose.

Misinformation doesn’t need to be believed to be effective. It just needs to be seen. Cossi explains how emotional anchoring—what psychologists call “knowledge neglect”—can distort perception even when we know something is untrue. The damage is already done.

A Better Incentive: Pay for Quality

What Beehive is trying to do is simple, yet radical: create a marketplace where quality journalism is not just a moral imperative but a commercial advantage.

“When people use our app to read news,” says Cossi, “they’re 35% more likely to click on well-rated articles.”

That data doesn’t just help readers—it gives publishers a reason to care.

And some do. Beehive collaborates with media regulators and has already started nudging some major outlets towards better standards. But others? “They say, ‘You’ve correctly identified the flaws—but we only care about engagement.’”

This isn’t cynicism—it’s systems failure.

Beyond the Printing Press

To make sense of today’s chaotic information ecosystem, Cossi turns to history. The invention of the printing press, he notes, was followed by centuries of chaos, propaganda, and ultimately, regulation. The same must now happen with digital content.

“We review hotels, we review restaurants—why not the news?” he asks.

But his vision is not authoritarian. Beehive doesn’t decide what’s true or false. It simply makes transparent what’s missing. In doing so, it reintroduces a sense of shared informational ground—without flattening the complexity of diverse perspectives.

A Magic Wand for Holism

When asked what he’d change about the commercial world, Cossi doesn’t mention regulation or AI. He wants to restore a “sense of the whole”—a worldview that connects individual decisions to collective impact. The metaphor he uses comes from the Apple TV series Severance, where workers forget their real lives the moment they enter the office.

“We’ve siloed ourselves,” he says. “We’ve lost our sense of purpose.”

This is the moral heart of the conversation. Not just how we rate news. But how we relate to one another.

In a thought-provoking conversation with host Charlie Martin, Neil pulls back the curtain on the AI revolution—not with doom and gloom, but with pragmatic optimism.

“People always ask, will AI take our jobs? The real concern is whether we evolve fast enough to create the new ones.”

AI: Not Just for Coders

Neil’s background spans IBM’s Watson project to UN policy advising, but what sets him apart is his ability to cut through the tech jargon. AI isn’t just for Silicon Valley or data scientists—it’s rapidly becoming embedded in how businesses, governments, and individuals operate.

“AI is already shaping everything from healthcare to legal contracts. But without responsible leadership, it can easily exacerbate inequality or misinformation,” Neil warns.

For businesses, that means AI literacy is no longer optional. It’s a boardroom imperative.

🚀 The Leadership Test of Our Time

AI isn’t just about efficiency—it raises profound governance and ethical questions. Neil highlights three areas where business leaders must step up:

✅ AI Ethics by Design: From bias in algorithms to accountability for machine-led decisions.
✅ Reskilling at Scale: Preparing people for jobs that don’t yet exist.
✅ Policy & Collaboration: Ensuring AI development aligns with human values globally.

“AI will challenge the very definition of what it means to be human in the workforce. That’s why leadership, not just engineering, matters most.”

🌍 The Global Perspective

Drawing on his work with the UN, Neil points to AI’s potential to tackle global challenges—from climate modelling to food security. But without collaboration across sectors and borders, these opportunities could be lost to short-termism or technological monopolies.

And while AI hype dominates headlines, Neil is refreshingly candid:

“The most dangerous myth is that AI is inevitable. Its impact depends entirely on human choices—what we prioritise, how we govern, and whether we include everyone.”

🎧 Listen to the Full Conversation

This episode of The Responsible Edge goes beyond the AI headlines. It’s a call to action for leaders, policymakers, and anyone curious about how we build a future where AI empowers rather than replaces us.

🎙️ “We need to give women the power back over their own data,” Amber explained, detailing a blueprint for business that challenges the profit-first model dominating today’s tech landscape.

The Problem with Current Women’s Health Apps

While millions of women globally rely on period tracking apps, Amber highlighted a worrying reality:

• Most are VC-backed and male-owned, with data practices that often prioritise profit over privacy.

• Some leading apps have faced lawsuits for mishandling sensitive user information, eroding trust.

• Subscription models and employer-based access schemes often exclude the 80% of women who cannot afford expensive plans.

“These models are outdated,” Amber said. “They’re designed for the privileged few, not the many.”

28X: A Radically Different Approach 🚀

Rather than replicating the flawed systems already in place, Amber is building 28X around three radical principles:

• No data collection by default: Users’ information stays on their device unless they choose otherwise.

• Completely free access: No paywalls, no barriers.

• Ethical funding model: Self-funded with selective, mission-aligned investors, avoiding the pressures that can lead to unethical compromises.

🦋 The name 28X reflects the 28-day cycle and the X chromosome, with a butterfly symbol representing transformation—a fitting metaphor for Amber’s ambitions.

A New Blueprint for Business 📈

Amber’s vision for 28X isn’t just about creating a better health app. It’s about showing the world that responsible, ethical businesses can still scale, still succeed—and still make a real difference.

Key features of her approach:

• Circular impact: Future profits will be partially reinvested in supporting female founders and climate-focused businesses.

• Longevity over exit: Rather than building for a quick sale, 28X is designed for long-term ownership, offering dividends rather than structuring for acquisition.

• Open invitation for collaboration: Amber is actively calling for support from professionals who want to help build an ethical giant in women’s health tech.

“We have enough companies focused purely on extraction. Let’s build something different—something that gives back.”

Lessons from an Entrepreneurial Journey

Amber’s own story—rooted in resilience, creativity, and hard-earned lessons—shapes everything she is building today.

Key takeaways she shared:

• Build around paradox: Entrepreneurship is the constant balancing of highs and lows.

• Own your resilience: Setbacks are inevitable; persistence is essential.

• Work when others watch TV: Amber attributes much of her early success to sacrificing downtime to build her ventures in the evenings.

• Ethics must be baked in early: Retrofitting ethics doesn’t work; they must be foundational.

A Call to Action 📣

Amber’s goal is bold: reach 100 million women a month within five years, making 28X the world’s largest, most trusted period tracking platform.

“If we want to change the status quo, we need to think big—and do it ethically,” she said.

💬 Interested in helping? Amber is inviting skilled volunteers, collaborators, and mission-driven supporters to join the movement. “We can build this together,” she urged.

PowerVault is pioneering affordable residential battery storage, helping consumers harness solar energy and store it for use when the grid is under pressure. But behind that simple idea lies something much bigger: a model for reducing grid strain, supporting renewable adoption, and giving consumers more agency without demanding lifestyle sacrifice.

🛠️ The Case for a Smarter Grid Starts at Home

“You can start with a simple algorithm. Then, once people are in, you can gamify the system and drive behavioural change.”

PowerVault’s batteries aren’t just about shaving a few quid off your electricity bill. They’re part of a broader ecosystem designed to balance national demand, support heat pump adoption, and help reduce the staggering infrastructure investment needed to hit net zero.

Some key stats Robin referenced:

• The UK may need to invest £540 billion in grid infrastructure over the next 25 years to meet peak winter demand.

• Yet every £1 spent on solar and batteries can potentially save £4 in future infrastructure costs.

• A typical PowerVault user could halve their electricity costs, particularly when paired with solar and a time-of-use tariff.

But it’s not just about the money. This is about redesigning energy systems to fit how people actually live. It’s about nudging, not nagging.

💡 Behavioural Economics Meets Renewable Tech

In discussing recent government efforts to promote air source heat pump adoption through “nudge theory,” Robin reflects on the challenges of changing public perception—and why a more interconnected approach might be necessary.

“Telling people to change doesn’t work. If we want better outcomes, the sustainable choice has to become the easier one.”

He explains that while heat pumps represent a key part of the decarbonisation puzzle, they are often misunderstood. Many households still see them as expensive, noisy, or unfamiliar. Meanwhile, installers—long accustomed to gas boilers—can be reluctant to change their ways. The answer? Broader systems thinking and easier decision-making pathways for consumers.

By integrating solar, batteries, insulation, and smarter tariffs, Robin argues we can:

• Reduce upfront financial risk for households

• Create better comfort without complexity

• Drive adoption without reliance on ideology or sacrifice

🧠 Engineering a Culture of Curiosity

Despite being a startup, PowerVault actively encourages experimentation across the business. Whether it’s product development, messaging, or user interface design, Robin stresses the importance of learning loops.

“Companies need to experiment to learn. And being small, we get immediate feedback.”

This includes listening to highly engaged customers—often engineers and technologists—who are testing boundaries and pushing the tech to new use cases. PowerVault has begun integrating insights from these ‘power users’ into product evolution, and even exploring ways to create “made-in-Britain” bundles in collaboration with other clean tech innovators.

🔍 Fighting Misinformation in the Home Energy Market

One of the subtler but recurring themes in Robin’s conversation was how misinformation—or lack of clear, accessible education—can stifle adoption.

“People read about lithium scooters catching fire and assume it’s the same risk in our managed battery systems. It’s not.”

PowerVault is working hard to simplify its messaging and make the technology feel approachable, safe, and beneficial. The long-term goal? A user experience that feels as natural and invisible as a boiler—except cleaner, cheaper, and smarter.

🪄 Magic Wand: Longer-Term Thinking, Please

If Robin could change one thing about the commercial world?

“I’d imbue investors with a 10- or 20-year horizon. Right now, shareholder short-termism is stalling the energy transition.”

He points out that while major oil companies pull back from renewables, some of the world’s largest petrostates are doubling down on clean energy. India’s Adani Group, for instance, is building some of the world’s largest solar farms—despite being one of the biggest coal producers.

The contradiction is clear. The question now is: which model will dominate?

🧭 Final Thought

Robin’s story isn’t just about PowerVault. It’s about redesigning systems—financial, technical, behavioural—so that doing the right thing becomes the logical thing. It’s a blend of old-school engineering discipline and 21st-century agility, applied to the challenge of making sustainable living simple.

This episode offers real insight into the granular side of the energy transition. Not the macro targets or the hype—but the reality of what’s happening on British rooftops, behind the meter, and inside the minds of households choosing to step into a smarter energy future.