Wicked Problems - Climate Tech Conversations

In this episode, 

Richard Delevan gives you an audio read of today’s Wicked Problems newsletter with some bonus content. For links to all the content mentioned, do check out the newsletter - https://wickedpr0blems.substack.com/p/will-new-disclosure-rules-or-cop28-force-more We talk through IPCC Chair Jim Skea’s maiden interview on BBCRadio 4, and look at the slow quiet march of the rule makers in California and Brussels that might have more lasting impact - and climate tech opportunity - than COP28.

Some other great links we do mention: 

• John Reynolds’ exclusive interview in The Currency with Energy Impact Partners on their plans for Irish climate tech.
• Congrats to 
• Niall Mac Dowell on his new Xiron Globalconsultancy with some super-smart collaborators out of Shell, the UK Civil Service and the US DOE. 
• Good time to get some beachfront property 25 miles from the current shoreline, thanks to Antarctic ice sheet collapse.
• Check out THAT Bassem Youssef/Piers Morgan interview.
• And the real-world 1909 kidnap and extortion plot to kill solar PV research, uncovered by an Oxford post-doc. 

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Until the rise of carbon removal, carbon offsets have been the foundation of voluntary carbon markets, but have withered under scrutiny from John Oliver to the Guardian. Can that market be fixed? Or will it always be hot air?

Tech policy brains at the UK's Startup Coalition and finance brawn of the City of London launched the Carbon Markets Innovation Forum, bringing together 12 climatetech startups to help future governments see how technology could bring more integrity and transparency. Including UNDO - their CEO Jim Mann spoke to us in Episode 2.

Catherine Macguinness, Councillor and fmr Carbon Markets Policy Chair at City of London Corporation, in CityAM Friday: https://www.cityam.com/more-than-just-hot-air-the-uk-should-be-the-home-of-a-carbon-market-that-actually-works/

Richard Delevan spoke with two of the key players organising the effort:

Valerio Magliulo, CEO of carbon procurement and intelligence platform Abatable

Charlie Mercer, deputy policy director of Startup Coaltion

Catalysts:

• The Uninhabitable Earth by David Wallace-Wells (Charlie)
• The Case for Nature: Pioneering Solutions for the Other Planetary Crisis by Siddarth Shrikanth (Valerio)
• Climate Capitalism by Akshat Rathi

“Sustainability geek” Claire Brady joins us in her second episode as co-host! Follow her on LinkedIn and subscribe at https://wickedpr0blems.substack.com . 

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With 40 days until COP28, expect to be hearing a lot more about carbon removal. We spoke with one of the UK’s leading founders in the space - Jim Mann of UNDO, the UK-based pioneer in enhanced rock weathering. Jim tells Richard Delevan why we can’t just plant a trillion trees to draw down CO2, whether carbon removals creates a moral hazard that gives oil and gas a longer license to operate, and the challenges of scaling. 

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Jim’s Catalysts:

Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth

The New Climate War by Michael E. Mann

Climate scientist Katherine Hayhoe

Some additional resources from UNDO:

• Scaling our Community and Carbon Removal Solution
• Stakeholder engagement statement
• UNDO is also a founding member of the recently signed Reykjavik Protocol. According to its statement, the Protocol is “a set of principles that governs how [nature-deployed carbon credit] suppliers can responsibly bring their solutions to market.”

“Sustainability geek” Claire Brady joins us in her debut episode as co-host! Follow her on LinkedIn and subscribe. 

We’ll be back tomorrow with a companion episode to this chat with Jim Mann - featuring Abatable CEO Valerio Magliulo and Charlie Mercer from the Startup Coalition.

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Christian Hernandez tells Richard Delevan what it takes to be a successful climate tech founder and what’s surprised him in climate tech investing since setting up 2150; why interest rates matter; where he sees opportunities going forward; and who from the “Facebook mafia” and old-skool VC he’s seen make the pivot to climate tech.

Christian’s Catalysts: 

• The Uninhabitable Earth by David Wallace-Wells - and do check out his NY Times guest hosting on Ezra Klein’s show.
• How to Avoid a Climate Disaster; The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need, by Bill Gates - which gave Christian “techno-optimism” about solutions after having the “living daylights” scared out of him by Wallace-Wells.
• Speed and Scale; An Action Plan for Solving Our Climate Crisis Now, by John Doerr.

Blue Frontier, a 2150 portco rethinking air conditioning, which recently was named one of 15 Climate Tech Companies to Watch by MIT Tech Review.

Christian also gave shoutouts to people from his old tech days that have made the pivot to climate tech like Joshua March, co-founder of Sci-Fi Foods, and Michelle You, co-founder of Supercritical. And some VCs who also made the pivot: Daniel Waterhouse at Balderton; Albert Wenger at Union Square Ventures

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