Climate change has been particularly prominent in the public sphere recently. There are a plethora of ways in which anthropogenic activities contribute to emissions (and climate change). The public policy and private industry responses are similarly wide-ranging and disparate. This makes it challenging for an engaged citizen to identify & find activities that will help maximize their impact in combating emissions.
My intention for this post is to take a 30,000-foot view of the primary sources of emissions and explore different businesses/approaches towards tackling each of them. This is a top-down overview of a subject with a massive surface area, so the list below is far from exhaustive. I’m merely trying to highlight some interesting approaches. I hope it serves as a good starting point for determining if an initiative is addressing a major cause of emissions or an attempt at unsubstantiated virtue signaling.
P.S. I’m basing the order below off estimates of carbon-dioxide equivalent greenhouse gas emissions as seen below.
Energy Production
Energy production is by far the single largest contributor to GHG emissions. The primary end-use sectors are transportation, industries, residential, and commercial (we’ll discuss these in greater detail). So, what can we do?
As incomes and population continue to rise in the developing world, global demand for energy is expected to rise by 50% between 2018 and 2050. Plus, even in 2050, more than 2/3rd of our energy is expected to come from fossil fuels. The silver lining is the move towards cleaner natural gas and away from coal and the plateauing / decline of per capita energy usage in developed nations (thanks, LEDs?)
Given the secular factors (population and income growth) driving demand, the impetus is primarily on the supply side (whether through regulation or superior technology) to move the needle. What are some possibilities?
Problems and Approaches
Emissions Capture: Global Thermostat, Opus12, Climeworks
Several approaches that are generally expensive. But could be extremely impactful at capturing emissions at the source and potentially at reversal.
Oil Field Monitoring and Leak Detection: SeekOps, Satelytics, Sensia
Our efficacy at monitoring leaks will ultimately determine the emissions impact of the move to natural gas. Companies are leveraging novel data sources (drones, satellites, sensors, etc.) and ML / AI methods to address this.
Nuclear Energy: NuScale, Oklo, Terrestrial Energy
Modular nuclear fission reactors and nuclear fusion (as it becomes feasible) need to be a part of our energy toolkit. So, it’s encouraging to see startups attempting to address challenges with traditional nuclear reactors (meltdowns, waste, maintenance, etc.). Also, a few startups are experimenting with entirely new approaches.
PV Innovation: SwiftSolar, OxfordPV, Ciel & Terre
The cost-effectiveness of PVs has improved drastically over the last couple of decades. However, advances in the manufacture of PVs and addressing problems with storage and meeting peak demand are needed to drive the adoption of solar.
Note that approaches such as carbon offsets through tree planting provide marginal benefit (particularly in the short term). Though, this conversation with the founder of Pachama has made me re-question some of my assumptions.
An overview of interesting businesses in agriculture, transportation, industries and other misc. categories to follow in Part II.