12.13 The Engine invests in early-stage companies solving the world’s biggest problems through the convergence of breakthrough science, engineering, and leadership. Boston Metal is one of the companies in its portfolio, which is making some fascinating inroads into cleaning up the dirty steel industry.
12.06 That’s it from Dumas and Kolster. Our final session before lunch is with Katie Rae, the founding CEO & Managing Partner of The Engine, a venture capital firm built by MIT with more than $670M assets under management.
12.00 “It’s not just enough to get to zero,” says Dumas. The United Nations is on the same page—it released a major report back in April that underscored the price the world is paying for the long delays in addressing global warming despite decades of warnings, adding that carbon dioxide removal was now “essential.”
Kolster acknowledges that there is an existing market for CO2 (for producing chemicals, making drinks etc), but maintains we need to create an industry that’s essentially the oil and gas industry in reverse—working backwards from removal, at scale.
“This is still a very nascent industry,” adds Dumas. “But seeing the growing demand—and not just from the expected actors; from mining and shipping companies—that was an indication for us this wasn’t confined to a few high-minded CEOs in the Bay Area.”
11.55 Our climate dream team James and Casey explained why carbon removal is such a big deal for this year’s TR10 list of breakthrough technologies.
The hope is that building more and larger plants like these to capture carbon from the air will help companies figure out how to optimize operations, drive down the costs, and realize economies of scale.
11.50 If we want to have a tenable world order where temperatures aren’t destroying large swathes of the population, we need to actively remove that CO2 from the atmosphere, says Kolster. Even reforesting all of the deforested trees wouldn’t be enough, she adds. But she’s heartened by the flux of talent into the sector, including experienced Big Tech workers leaving the established FANG companies heading into startups.
“There are hundreds, if not close to a thousand teams working on carbon removal today, that’s mind blowing. Just a few years ago, it was a handful.”
11.45 While removing existing carbon is necessary, we also need to actively reduce the amount of carbon dioxide being pumped into the atmosphere, says Kolster. The company is excited by the brand new businesses working to reduce the amount of emissions in their air that are springing up.
Lots of people assume carbon removal revolves solely around direct air capture, which involves sucking emissions directly from the air, adds Dumas, but there are plenty of different approaches. Now, there are billions of dollars in play to fund carbon removal, but there are plenty of firms that are “still in stealth” at the industry’s forefront that you won’t have heard of, he adds.
11.40 Thats all from Roberts, great stuff. Next up, David is speaking to Clay Dumas, and Clea Kolster, who are both partners at Lowercarbon Capital, which funds research and invests in technologies to reduce CO2 in the atmosphere.
Dumas invests in startups and research organizations developing technology to reduce emissions, suck carbon out of the air, and cool the planet, while Kolster is also head of science and leads the firm’s technical research, development, diligence, and scientific strategy efforts.
11.25 Roberts is excited about the opportunities to do more with water, adding that Source Global, which makes clean drinking water from sunlight and air, is a great example of how people are motivated to innovate from tough conditions (in this case, Arizona).
“When you think about it, if you were ever to solve a problem, the ones solving the problem are the most greatly impacted,” he says. “Because they’re motivated.