No one has all the answers to addressing the planet’s climate challenge. What we do know though is that even if we achieve the most stringent emissions reductions, greenhouse gas removal (GGR) is no longer a choice but a necessity.
By 2050 the world needs GGR solutions proven and scaled in order to remove a phenomenal 10 gigatons of CO2 a year. That’s why CTRF founder Stig Arff is so determined bring together top scientists and forward-thinking philanthropists.
The goal is to catalyse the development of a Biotechnology focused Greenhouse Gas removal sector with the singular goal of addressing this climate challenge.
He explains that thirty years ago, the field of biomedicine was still in its early stages and it was only thanks to the ongoing investment of patient funding into early-stage research that many world changing discoveries, such as DNA editing, vaccinations and stem-cell organ growth have now been realised, scaled and are saving millions of lives.
Biotechnology has the power for nano scale modifications to lead to macro-scale innovations.
Having studied the evidence and commissioned a horizon scan of underfunded areas with the greatest potential for transformative change, Stig is confident that biotechnology could offer similar game-changing innovations in greenhouse gas removal but says more funding must be directed to this area:
Stig Arff, Founder CTRF
“The methods that we’re using today have been developed in the past 20-30 years, mapping the genome, the Crispr technology, gene modification are all technologies that are proven but within very niche areas so the question is can we use these technologies to turbo charge the processes that we have today that are very much centred around photosynthesis. It has to be early stage because there is no mature stage currently. The only thing that is mature is the vehicles that we have available to do this but we don’t know how to apply them yet.”
“We have to go where the money isn’t and I’m pretty sure the biotechnology niche will widen and attract more funding as the years go by.”
Established in 2022 to find and fund cutting-edge innovation into the application of biotechnology to deliver enhanced, scalable solutions for carbon sequestration, this year CTRF attracted more than 80 research expressions of interest from the global scientific community. Through a peer review process, it’s Scientific Advisory Council is selecting those with the most potential to scale. In a nascent sector, a portfolio approach is vital and Stig is focused on how deep-tech can enhance natural processes and explains that this area is severely underserved:
“We have to pursue as many avenues as we can, which of course leads to investments in the trillions of dollars being bandied about these days. That’s the only option that we have, regardless of whether we’re focused on nature-based processes or any other processes, we have to pursue as many as possible. The area that we’re focused on is nature-based processes, for example photosynthesis and seeing how we can turbo charge it, modify it to capture more CO2. This is a space that has been under invested in and that’s the reason we’re going there. We have to go where the money isn’t and I’m pretty sure that niche will widen and attract more funding as the years go by.”
Alongside the scalable potential of unlocking solutions to supercharge nature at a cellular level, Stig also sees the pathway to scale coming through existing infrastructures such as agriculture. He explains:
“We have that structure available within crop modification for example, because the agricultural sector is a huge sector, there’s distribution mechanisms, there’s mechanisms for harvesting and for distributing the results of the harvest. So if we can use that as a beginning and see if we can utilise existing processes within our economy, that’s a way of achieving an accelerated introduction.”
It’s clear that pioneering funders with a long-term vision are essential
In such a nascent area and in the face of such an existential challenge, it’s clear that pioneering funders with a long-term vision are essential and Stig’s goal is to bring together a community of philanthropists to advance the science capable of tackling the challenges of the coming decades:
“As philanthropists we can think long term because we have many philanthropic organisations that have been around for 150 years, so they are used to thinking long term. In addition, they can work with goals, unconfined with all the other limits that surround decision makers and have a sense of continuity with what they’re doing. It’s a well known thing in philanthropy this sense of continuity so I think that’s an important role that philanthropy can play.”
Asked about his personal motivation, Stig is clear that it is less about his own legacy and more about focusing on ensuring the planet is liveable for future generations:
“I’ve been aware of the predictions for climate change for many years. When I was a student I became aware of the problem and there were a lot of predictions at that time using nowhere near the technology that we have today but they have been spot on, within a range of probabilities, and those predictions are getting better all the time. So after living with this for a number of years, firstly as a student, then I became a father and now I have grandchildren, these things influence your thinking and it’s all the more important that we have a livable planet in the coming decades.”