“We don’t want to reinvent the wheel”
This was the response of the Carbon Technology Research Foundation’s (CTRF) founder Stig Arff when asked about his foundation’s focus on supercharging natural systems to remove greenhouse gases at scale using biotech led solutions.
He was speaking as part of a panel discussion at The Conduit last week, which debated the urgency of scaling greenhouse gas removal, explored its challenges and the role of philanthropy.
Stig was passionate in describing the somewhat overlooked potential of accelerating natural systems through research led biotech advances and explained,
“The great thing about nature is that it is self-reliant, so compared to setting up a direct air capture plants at scale for example, there is a very low cost to scale. The sun provides the power for photosynthesis, so what if we can increase the uptake of CO2 and the length of time that it is stored, from years to centuries? That’s what we’re doing at CTRF in supporting research into novel methods within biotechnology that have the potential to be globally scalable.”
Opening the session, Professor Steve Smith who is Executive Director of Net Zero and CO2RE based at the University of Oxford’s Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment explained,
“If we’re serious about getting to the 10 billion gigaton scale of removals needed by the middle of this century, we need to start now.”
He outlined to the audience the variety of solutions under development, from Direct Air Capture (DACs) plants, to enhanced rock weathering, from bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) to ocean sequestration. Explaining that they have different levels of readiness, potential and durability, he went on to stress that whilst growing rapidly, carbon removal is “a fast moving and complicated space” that is still nascent and currently nowhere near meeting the gigaton scale of the challenge.
Commenting on the urgency and scale of the challenge, he stressed the need for a full portfolio of solutions to be developed globally and pointed towards the significant importance of private capital in seeding innovation and trialling different methods.
Adding to this point, Frances Wang from Quadrature Climate Foundation commented,
“I think that government has a disproportionate responsibility here in supporting what is essentially a public good as a waste management issue.”
She explained how philanthropic funds have the potential to unlock government money and in turn stimulate “a wave of interest from investors if the right policy mechanisms are put in place.”
Panel moderator Eli Mitchel-Larson who is the Chief Science and Advocacy Officer for Carbon Gap, fielded a lively audience discussion with questions ranging from, “What technology will give the most radical scalability to CDR?” to “What needs to happen to ensure impact ?” and “What role does the narrative play in helping to build and scale this industry?”
Inviting speakers to provide a call to action he concluded the panel by asking how they think philanthropy can better use the unique catalytic power that it offers in the process of accelerating carbon removal.
Stig Arff acknowledged the obstacles of translating the potential of these nascent technologies to wider philanthropic audiences. He stressed that raising awareness is vital to ensure funds are targeted to seed breakthrough ideas in CDR and highlighted the opportunity to bring together an investor community to truly realise the potential of philanthropy to unlock impact.
Adding to this, Professor Steve Smith outlined the critical role of patient capital in “enabling new ideas and technology which is currently at lab scale to grow with long term field trails and ensuring more international connectivity and understanding the wider social value of CDR.”
Finally, France Wang explained why she believes, “a social movement is important to press for more ambitious and realistic government action to support research in this area.”
CTRF convened the session to stimulate discussion, ideas and build relationships within and outside the sector and that was certainly achieved throughout the evening. The most important step from here is to turn ideas into action, individuals into communities, research into scalable solutions and funding into tangible real-world impact.