Patrick Leung

Great to see this alignment and their commitment to accelerating high quality nature based carbon sequestration initiatives and recognizing the dynamic character of nature in terms of its effectiveness. Staying in tune with the latest science is aligned with Hyphen’s mission of using science to stay informed on the effectiveness of these nature based solutions’ investments. Direct measurements of GHGs allows investors to know in real time and manage their portfolios and risks successfully. Real time access to GHG flux data has the possibility to shift the character and nature of carbon markets.

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I highly recommend this interview. I really appreciate your perspective and thoughts on this difficult subject, Ayana Elizabeth Johnson. Thank you for your work. You did an amazing job helping the interviewer reflect on his own reluctance to change- which I believe most of us struggle with. I also appreciated your focus on the importance of community, being responsible to each other, and how the results of our actions or inactions today will impact children and future generations. Here's one excerpt that resonated with me: "We know how to transition to renewable energy. We know how to insulate buildings. We know how to put reflective roofs on buildings. We know how to improve public transit. We know how to shift our transportation toward electric. We know how to avoid food waste. We know how to reduce our consumption. There’s a million things we could do. It’s just a matter of shifting the status quo, building the political will, shifting the culture in order to make all of these things happen as quickly as possible. There’s room for innovation, but there’s absolutely nothing that we need to wait for." Very inspirational! #frontiertechnology #climate #future #truth

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🌳 ⚒ 🏦 When I joined VertueLab a year ago, one of my burning questions was: where are the gaps in our ecosystem? And how can we more impactful delivering on our mission to serve entrepreneurs solving for climate challenges? Unfortunately the data was scarce, and so we got to work. In this, the first of several reports we are producing on our region, we dive into founders and funders challenges with an eye to a #justtransition. Have a look and tell us what you think! Heather Andersen Carol Dahl Joe Connors Allison Arnold Miguel Sossa Kelly Lyons B. Paula S. Brian Bonlender #climatetech #climatecrisis #climatesolutions #CleanTech #GreenTech #ClimateInnovation #TechForGood #UnderrepresentedFounders #InclusiveInnovation #DiversityInTech #BIPOCFounders #FoundersOfColor #BIPOCInnovation #WomenFounders #WomenInTech #FemaleFounders #WomenWhoLead #TechFoundersOfColor #BlackTech #LatinxTech #AsianTech #ClimateTechFounders #GreenEntrepreneurs #EcoInnovators #ClimateTechInnovation #SustainableTech #EcoTech #PNWInnovation #PacificNorthwestTech #PNWTech #SeattleTech

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This one goes into the “Slap on the forehead, what a surprise” round file. Well it is a surprise if you were under the delusion that the free market solves all problems, and can even make an in-law palatable. So, as the article indicates, “Market-based approaches to forest conservation like carbon offsets and deforestation-free certification schemes have largely failed to protect trees or alleviate poverty…” I suggest that you read the article to understand the findings, but in short, laissez-faire capitalism has been found, again, to do more harm than good. Let me issue a caution to you out there that are going to proclaim me a socialist or a communist (if you are conflating the two, please go back to school to try to understand that one-socialism- is an economic system and communism is a perverse political system). One does not imply the other, thank you.  I will state unequivocally that I am a capitalist with a small “C”, not a no-level playing field, free market capitalist. We have suffered from the delusion that the free market, laissez-faire capitalism will solve all problems since Ayn Rand visited the White House and convinced Reagan and the rest that “trickle down” would cause a rain storm of prosperity on everyone. And for the past 43 years, we have suffered under “voodoo economics” as George Bush, Sr. so profoundly called it. Since then, the mixed news suggest significant economic growth, but the growth has not benefited the bottom 90% of the population; in fact, the wealth gap has reached epic proportions.  This market based approach to forest conservation is one of the many places that has made the target systems bloated and inefficient. If you question that, take a look at the Defense budget since they “downsized” it in 1988, and then regrew by hiring outside contractors. In FY 2021 “the DoD spent $214 billion on services. Studies have shown that outsourcing costs the Pentagon double or triple what a federal employee would be paid”. So much for outsourcing our defense expenditures to the free market. I know I feel a LOT safer for spending more money to make the contractors rich and the DOD worse off. 

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As Energy & Climatetech is one of the tracks at TechChill, I’ll be out there this week, looking for founders ambitious to ramp up their activities. SFV is in search of just that. A few noteworthy speakers to look out for if you’re attending and are curious about cleantech in general: 📣 Julia Bialetska from S.Lab striking the stage with the topic of “Eco-innovations unwrapped”. A great person, a recognized founder hitting the heights. 📣 Andris K. Berzins from Change Ventures, Jarna Hyvönen from Volare Solutions and Janis Putrams from Aerones are discussing “The dilemma of commercializing deeptech”. It is never an easy task and never should be too easy either, right? 📣 Agate S. Freimane from Norrsken VC brings us insights on “Building a thriving climate economy”. A topic Norrsken is superb at and gets to the nuts and bolts of making a real impact. At side-events: 📣 Beamline Accelerator is hosting the “DeepTech Demo Day”! 📣 EIC dials in on details on “Funding your deeptech startup to scaling in the EU”!

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Wanted: "Effective Climate Action" 💪 Can we have something like GiveWell for climate action? I love the concept of "Effective altruism" which I learned about from the TED talk of Peter Singer. Most people I talk to are concerned about climate change and are willing to do something, but find it hard to understand which actions have a good impact. And its not only money one can give, but also time, change in their own behaviour (e.g. eat less meat), using your political vote and investing your brains and muscles by working for companies with a positive climate impact. Do you have any tips for platforms that can be recommended for effective climate action? #effectivealtruism #effectiveclimateaction

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Health x Climate: I have spent a lot of time thinking about the intersection of climate and health, so I appreciated the City Futures: HealthTech and ClimateTech Intersections panel discussion during NY Tech Week, with Ben Furnas, Sara Holoubek, and Joel Cesare as panelists. They highlighted the work happening in NYC; even though subway use helps our GHG emissions, there is still opportunity to prepare the city and electrify our buildings for the changes to come. Some key takeaways 🔄 Health + Climate: The effects of climate change impact our health and our health decisions impact climate change. We often think about climate and health in silos but they are very connected.  🔥 Heat waves: Hotter temperatures are the biggest risk to health from climate change, so we must prepare now. I learned about NYC's AC giveaway to support vulnerable communities.  🤓 New ideas: There is much opportunity to engage in mental cross training and leverage learnings from analogous spaces and industries at this intersection. What do you think about the intersection of health and climate? A big thanks to Climate Health Innovation & Learning Lab, Women in Healthtech and Fenwick for hosting this event and showcasing how government, innovators, and investors can work together to address these challenges. Thanks Oriana Fuentes and Chethan Sarabu, MD, FAMIA, FAAP for your thoughtful curation too! #climate #healthtech #innovation #NYtechweek

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Hey folks: If you've listened to any of the 17 episodes of the Everyday Climate Champions podcast (https://lnkd.in/gcsd5iw7) and wondered "What is an easy way to support this?" - have I got an idea for you! You may have heard our brief (15-minute) interviews with Logan Evasco, Mira Hapsari, Anu Ramamurty, Marcia Pugsley, Shaandiin Cedar, Abbe Hoenscheid Clemons, Ravinder Sehgal, Sean Armstrong, Ambrose Carroll, Peri Plantenberg, Aditi Anand, Pete Kronowitt, Jennifer Silverstein, or many others. We're collecting brief notes of support from our listeners. Might you be able to write a few sentences about your experiences/takeaways from the podcast? A few things you might touch on: - Choice of local guests like me ("everyday people") - Choice of topics that interest me - Rotating team of different local hosts (adults and teens) - Episodes of only 15 minutes - Transcripts/blog posts are helpful - Show notes offer good resources - Production value (I enjoy the music, sound effects, and/or sound quality) - Frequency (currently about once a month) - Recommend it to others in my life Below are some examples of what we've gotten thus far: • "This podcast is one of the best examples of solutions-based locally focused climate content. It's rare to find such a great amalgam of best practices all in one program." • " I think this podcast will help me reorient my thinking…I tend to think climate action is done at the high policy level and I’m often frustrated. I think: 'what can I really do?'” • "I had an ‘aha’ moment! …That relatable, local story is what stood out." • "It gave me ideas and hope." Thanks *so much* for considering this! Just type in your comment below.

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This is a good and important read on #FOAK projects and the ClimateTech Valley of Death, with good insight from some very sharp investors. One often overlooks aspect of this challenge is WHO will build these early commercial projects that are smaller and don't often appeal to top tier EPCs. Developing and building these projects will be a critical, often binary factor in the outcomes. https://lnkd.in/gbedmkmt

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Bill McKibben's latest post on the impact of climate change on economies resonates with me. We have seen major climate disasters in recent years, and it's clear that they are not just impacting local economies but also global ones. It's concerning that big businesses continue to resist change, despite the long-term economic benefits of sustainable practices. Why do some businesses choose to churn through resources when it's ultimately bad for their bottom line and branding? Sustainable solutions are the way forward, and the data shows that they ultimately provide better returns. By using resources sustainably, we can ensure the longevity of our brands and economies. It's time for businesses to shift their thinking and embrace climate change solutions. Short-sightedness and small-minded thinking will only lead to further danger for all of us. Let's work together towards a sustainable future. #climatechange #solar #batterystorage #DER #climatechangesolutions #decarbonization

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The market for carbon offset credits is currently facing a resurgence of criticism as more than 80 nonprofit organizations come together to oppose their use in climate strategies. The carbon trading mechanism has been around since the late 90s, and barely moves the needle on decarbonization. VCM has its use cases; like protecting forests which would otherwise be logged. But enabling companies to decarbonize on a global scale, it is vastly inadequate, ineffective and constantly scrutinized for greenwashing. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝘂𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝗶𝗻𝘀𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴: 𝗿𝗲𝗱𝘂𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗲𝗺𝗶𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻 𝗮 𝘀𝘂𝗽𝗽𝗹𝘆 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗶𝗻 𝗼𝗿 𝗶𝗻𝗱𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘆. But [we] lack simple and effective mechanisms to scale insetting. Organizations need systems to capture value from their [potential] green investments, enable co-investment and risk/benefit sharing among all stakeholders. A company that 𝐢̲𝐧̲𝐯̲𝐞̲𝐬̲𝐭̲𝐬̲ in decarbonizing its scope 1-2 operations, also reduces the scope 3 of all its stakeholders 𝐟̲𝐨̲𝐫̲ ̲𝐟̲𝐫̲𝐞̲𝐞̲. This is modus operandi is unsustainable and needs to change. A system such as Carbon3 aims to enable this cost/benefit sharing and de-risking investments across entire value chains to directly inset scope 1-to-3 emissions. #GHG #NetZero #Sustainability #Decarbonisation #Scope3 #Insets #VCM #Offsets Source: https://lnkd.in/ewWn7T-M

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Check out our White Paper on setting an internal carbon fee - the most forward leaning way of taking responsibility for your emissions today, while you continue to reduce pollution in line with targets. Ping me if you want to learn more!

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Stand.earth and 80 leading NGOs urge Science Based Targets initiative to keep the science in SBTi and not sell out to companies looking to short cut reducing their climate pollution. SBTi has been a reputable org helping set real targets so one can only hope this disaster by the CEO (who is now leaving by the end of July) and the SBTi Board will be averted and the SBTi reputation rehabilitated. What is this all about? In the most simple terms here is what SBTi proposed: Let's say you are a fashion brand. You have structured your business so other companies actually make your products in Asia (thus this pollution is Scope 3). But the pollution created is your responsibility and you must work to reduce it with your manufacturers. This is really important bc, for example, many fashion brands have 95-99% of the pollution they create in Scope 3! OR..... under the new SBTi proposal, you could just buy cheap offsets and while they do little to nothing to actually reduce climate pollution, you can now claim you are net zero. Hmmm - that's bad enough. But let's think about how this could be gamed out. What if Amazon, rather than build its own server farms, structures its business so those server farms are run by contractors so Amazon doesn't "own" them. Magically this is now Scope 3 pollution! And it could just be offset cheaply and easily rather than having to run that server farm on renewables in order to be climate neutral. This is a climate crisis - real action, not gaming the system, is what is required. https://lnkd.in/gZKkwhtw

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If a company or non-profit, working on climate tech solutions, has a culture that allows for racism, exclusion, sexism, etc If in the process of making whatever new tech they make creates waste, mines nature preserves, has slavery in its supply chain etc How does one begin to measure the actual net impact of that company or non-profit? It is often assumed that a non-profit focused on doing good has only positive externalities - the same is assumed about ‘impactful’ corporations with ‘impactful’ outputs. Ignoring the negative externalities of outputs, inputs and operations seems to be a common approach in both philanthropy and impact investing. The future of impact measurement will take all of these negative externalities into account - whether they be non profits paying lower than market wages to mostly marginalized staff, or corporations not paying liveable wages, or excessive water use. The future of impact measurement will look at a lot of data but a whole bunch of that data will be ESG data. Folks try really hard to separate ‘ESG’ and ‘impact’ in the investment space - but sooner rather than later folks will realize they can’t be separated.

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🌍💡 Embracing Interoperability: The Evolution of Carbon Markets 💡🌍 The landscape of carbon markets is rapidly evolving, with a significant shift towards fungibility and interoperability. What does this mean? We (at the SoHo Global Climate Fund) spoke with leading climate fund manager, Charles Bedford of Carbon Growth Partners, to shed light on this important trend in the carbon markets. It's about creating seamless connections between compliance and voluntary markets, allowing for the exchange and recognition of carbon credits across borders and sectors. This trend marks a pivotal moment in our collective efforts towards combating climate change. By enabling carbon credits to be fungible and interoperable, we're fostering a more efficient and scalable approach to carbon pricing and emissions reduction strategies. Companies and organizations now have greater flexibility to participate in markets that align with their goals. #CarbonMarkets #ClimateAction #Fungibility #Interoperability #Sustainability #Innovation #GlobalImpact

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The day isn’t far off when input from anyone affiliated with MIT is going to need an asterisk. Look at the projects listed under the Renewable Energy heading of the MIT Energy Initiative (https://lnkd.in/eedszkrC). Each and every one either undermines renewables by focusing on vulnerabilities or protects fossil fuel by pitching technology that’s compatible with fossil fuels. Same with every other dark money operation at MIT (the Engine, Media Lab, Skoltech, etc). MIT sold its souls to big oil for hundreds of millions of dollars. From hacks to hoaxes (carbon capture, etc). And the saddest part is that MIT alums take phenomenal salaries to sell dead technology in corrupt insider deals and they tell themselves that they’re the adult in the room. MIT startups*

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I spoke with Jade Sasser about her new book, “Climate Anxiety and the Kid Question,” which explores the complex intersection of climate change and reproductive decisions. We discussed the importance of diversifying the conversation around climate emotions, understanding climate anxiety as a collective experience, the challenges faced by climate-concerned parents, and cultural pressures around having children. Sasser emphasizes the power of inclusive dialogue and emotional resilience as we navigate this uncertain future together. Her insights provide much-needed perspective on one of the most profound questions of our time. Read our full interview through the link in comments. #ClimateAnxiety #ReproductiveJustice #HopeInAction

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Imagine sailing through fundraising rounds, proving your breakthrough technology's potential, only to hit a roadblock when you get to scaling up and building a commercial plant. Some call it the "commercial valley of death." The assumption is that once climate tech solutions are proven, then industry/corporates will scale them. The reality is they're pressured to invest where there's immediate shareholder value. #mindthegap Prime Coalition’s Trellis Climate Program wants to bridge that gap. Here's how: 🌍Tapping Philanthropy: They take a unique approach by tapping into philanthropic funds to fuel high-impact projects during the middle stages, where traditional capital falls short. 🌍 Investing in Innovation: For climate tech founders, this funding model offers a ray of hope. While there are plenty of early-stage funding options, Trellis Climate fills a crucial gap by propelling proven technologies toward commercialization. 🌏Philanthropy as a Catalyst: By using philanthropic dollars as catalysts, they attract infrastructure investors willing to take calculated risks. Together, they pave the way for scalable climate solutions. Trellis Climate is getting started with investments in startups Ample Carbon and Ebb Carbon. Lara Pierpoint #ClimateTech #Startup #Innovation #Philanthropy

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