🌱 This week in NatureTech #11

[4-minute read]

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NatureTech Memos
July 23, 2024

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Now that’s done with… In today’s edition:

🌊 What Methane means for NatureTech

🌳 Funding to help natural resource managers

💼 A whole new suite of NatureTech jobs

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🐘Long Read (1-Min Read)

Methane - What does it mean for NatureTech?

Driving the news: A new EU regulation has imposed stringent methane emission limits on fossil fuel industries. Great news! But, recent studies have shown that policy would be more effective if it also focussed on Meat and Dairy companies.

Why does Methane matter:

  • Methane is more powerful than carbon dioxide but has a shorter lifespan. Methane is 80x more effective at trapping heat than carbon dioxide over a 20 year period. But it breaks down in ~12 years Vs carbon dioxide which stays in our atmosphere for centuries.

  • Methane poses an outsized threat to global warming pathways near-term. Methane accounts for ⅕ of global GHG emissions, but has led to around 30% of warming since the pre-industrial era

  • …But Methane is also a big opportunity. If we reduce methane emissions we could reduce the rate of global warming in the near-term. A report from the United Nations says that a 40%–45% reduction in methane emissions by 2030 is one of the least costly pathways to keep warming below 1.5 ℃.

Where does Methane come from:

  • Oil and Gas: Around 80% of the sector’s methane emissions come from venting, flaring and unintentional leakages. Venting is the direct release of methane gas to the atmosphere. Flaring is the burning of the natural gas associated with oil extraction.

  • Meat and Dairy: Primarily produced from cows stomachs. Research suggests methane emissions from the top 15 meat and dairy companies exceed those of the oil giants.  

Regulatory challenges:

  • Regulation to-date is heavily focussed on Oil and Gas. The New EU regulation released demands improved monitoring, reporting, and reduction measures for methane. However, it focuses entirely on the oil and gas sector not on meat and dairy. The same is true for US regulation.

  • This is mirrored by corporate action: A recent study highlighted that only 23% of 40 financial institutions (FIs) it analysed had policies addressing methane emissions from their portfolios. None of these policies looked at agriculture emissions.

Why has this been the case?

  • Oil and Gas is an easier win. There are fewer actors to influence to make a dent in emissions. Think convincing one project owner to make changes rather than 1000 farmers. Those project owners may also have more resources to tackle their methane challenges vs agricultural stakeholders.

  • Emissions are more dispersed in Agriculture. Knowing where to direct sensors can be a challenge, in most parts of the world public datasets of livestock facilities are hard to come by

Why it matters for NatureTech:

A range of Nature-related startups are innovating to reduce agricultural methane. They could stand to benefit if policymakers start to look more closely at methane from Meat and Dairy.

  • CH4 Global Inc (USA). Manufactures a seaweed supplement fed to cattle to reduce methane emission. 

  • Mootral (UK): Has a similar supplement-based approach but has also launched a 'CowCredit'. Proceeds from sales of these credits are paid to farmers to support adoption.

  • Karryos (UK) - Focussed on using satellite data to better monitor agricultural methane.

  • We also spoke about multiple startups last week tackling Methane in Rice Emissions

💬Snippets for your lift conversations

  • Finance: A stress test of five of Africa's banking systems has found some lenders in the region could face collapse if nature loss slashes the profits of agriculture and forestry firms they have lent to.

  • Finance: Central banks and regulators' attempts to understand nature risks are being hindered by "major data and modelling challenges", the Financial Stability Board has warned.

  • Finance / Big business : More than 100 companies and investors, with combined revenues of $1.1 trillion, demanded stronger action.have called on governments to enact tougher policies to reach a U.N. goal on halting nature loss by the end of the decade.

  • Big business: A major cocoa producing region in Ghana, the world's second largest cocoa grower, is 81% infected with swollen shoot disease, according to the International Cocoa Organisation (ICCO). Prices for the chocolate ingredient have roughly doubled this year because of adverse weather and disease in top cocoa producers.

  • Big business: Ribena harnesses AI to detect blackcurrant farms' biodiversity hotspots

  • Policy: Australian NSW government says state’s biodiversity ‘in crisis’ as it pledges first steps to reverse decline and that it will also overhaul state laws after uncovering serious problems with biodiversity offsets scheme

  • Policy: Colombian authorities have insisted it will be safe to attend a UN biodiversity summit in Cali later this year, after a dissident rebel group threatened to disrupt the event.

  • Policy: Suriname has released its updated National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (NBSAP) under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), setting out a broad range of actions to ramp up funding for nature conservation and restoration.

  • Photography: Winning images of the 2024 Big Picture natural world photography competition

🎣Deals

  • diveo, a German frontrunner in agrivoltaics, raised a $217K seed round for its practice that merges solar energy production with sustainable agriculture

  • Bio-Logical, a Nairobi, Kenya-based climate tech company, raised $1.3M in funding for its process turning agricultural waste into biochar to support carbon dioxide removal

  • Mitti Labs, based in NY, raised $3 million in Seed for its technology to help tackle methane emissions from rice farming

  • Earthshot Labs announced it has completed a $5.5 million Series A financing round to expand its platform for nature-based carbon project development and financing

  • Two start-ups in our network are currently raising - get in touch for more info

💭Little Bytes

📊Stat: Wild land mammals make up only 2% percent of the world’s mammals biomass - the rest is humans and livestock

📺️Watch: Why Investors are excited about PollinatorTech

💬 Listen: These frog 'saunas’ could help endangered species fight off a deadly fungus

💼Jobs

🐝 Corporate 🐝

🐝Finance🐝

🦊 Nature-based solution projects & nature tech startups 🦊

📩 Feel free to send us deals, announcements, or anything else at [email protected] . Have a great week ahead! 

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