This week, we're exploring several climate startups that are improving plant resiliency, tackling plastic waste, capturing carbon from the air, and storing solar power. We're also looking at an effort in Norway to encourage zero-emissions transportation and Malaysia's effort to scale carbon capture.
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Fine-tuning plants: Decibel Bio, a startup backed by Bill Gates's Breakthrough Energy Ventures, has developed a technology that can fine-tune plants for specific purposes without genetically editing them. The process uses an epigenetic treatment that tweaks certain traits without changing the plant's DNA. The company's approach involves exposing seeds or spraying crops with certain pieces of the plant's own DNA, which can result in desirable traits such as increased shelf life, drought tolerance, or enhanced yields, as seen in a test on tomatoes in California that lasted twice as long as usual after being harvested. Decibel Bio's platform has the potential to help the food system deal with challenges such as drought and extreme heat, and can be used to develop new products for major row crops like corn and wheat.
Plastic processing startup raises $18.3M: The UK startup Epoch Biodesign secured $18.3 million in Series A funding to scale production of its plastic-eating enzymes. The company plans to transfer its biorecycling process from labs to its first production facility this year, which can process 150 tons of waste annually, and expects to reach commercial-scale production by 2028. The biotech company is leveraging generative AI to accelerate the discovery of biological catalysts that can efficiently break down plastic waste, as natural enzymes are often too slow to make a significant impact. Epoch Biodesign's approach involves using enzymes to depolymerize, purify, and repolymerize plastic waste, resulting in ready-to-use materials, such as nylon and polyester. Epoch's biological recycling process has several advantages, including not requiring high temperatures, saving energy costs, and achieving incredibly high yields of upward of 90%, meaning most of the waste is converted into a reusable state.
Big businesses buy renewable energy: The amount of renewable electricity sold to companies under long-term power purchase agreements (PPAs) increased by 35 percent last year, according to data from BloombergNEF. The most significant increase has been in the US, where technology companies have been buying renewable energy to power data centers. Amazon was the number one company to purchase renewable energy, but other significant buyers include companies in the chemicals, mining, and raw materials sector, especially in developing countries. Arla, the world's fifth-largest dairy company, signed five PPAs last year and pledge to use 100 percent renewable energy in Europe starting from the end of this year. The pace of renewables development is expected to slow due to higher interest rates, tariffs, supply chain challenges, and geopolitics, with the amount of new wind capacity added to grids in Europe falling for two consecutive years and the rate of new solar farms being added to the grid slowing by 92 percent last year.
DAC startup raises $30 million: Direct air capture startup Spiritus raised $30 million from investors, including Khosla Ventures, Aramco Ventures, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries America, and TDK Ventures. The company's technology uses a novel material to capture and desorb CO2, which could help bring costs down. It has already secured customers for its carbon removal services, including Frontier, which purchased on behalf of Stripe, Shopify, and H&M Group. The pilot plant in New Mexico, expected to come online in the second half of 2025, will be able to remove 1,000 tons of carbon dioxide per year, and the funding will also help Spiritus develop a larger-scale carbon removal plant in Wyoming.
Solar battery start-up raises $8.3 million: Moonwatt, a startup founded by industry veterans, secured $8.3 million in seed funding to develop a solar-dedicated battery storage product that utilizes sodium-ion battery technology, which offers better scalability, lower costs, and carbon footprint reduction compared to lithium-ion. Moonwatt's system is co-located with and optimized for solar power plants. It includes dedicated battery enclosure hardware, inverter power electronics, and software to integrate and manage the storage system, allowing solar plants to increase their revenue and decrease costs.
Recycling wastewater: The city of El Paso, Texas, has broken ground on the first US facility to turn wastewater directly into drinking water, known as the El Paso Pure Water Center. The facility is expected to be operational by 2028 and will deliver 10 million gallons per day of purified water. It will use a four-step treatment process, including reverse osmosis, hydrogen peroxide and ultraviolet light, activated carbon, and chlorine disinfection, to remove contaminants and produce drinking water that meets all state and federal standards.
L'Oreal works to reduce environmental impact: L'Oreal, the world's largest cosmetics company, has made strides in reducing its environmental impact, with a 74 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from its operated sites between 2019 and 2023 even while production volumes increased by 12 percent. The company aims to have 100 percent of its products "eco-designed" by 2030, with a focus on formulations and packaging that have the lowest social or environmental impact. L'Oreal has shifted its focus from creating separate eco-focused product lines to incorporating sustainable features, such as vegan ingredients and packaging made from 100 percent post-consumer recycled plastic, into its best-selling products to achieve large-scale reduction of negative impacts.
"We found [eco-focused products] didn’t do as fantastically as we hoped when we looked at what we were actually trying to accomplish, which is large-scale reduction of things we don’t want, and an increase of things we do want." — Marissa McGowan, chief sustainability officer of L’Oreal North America
EPA unfreezes solar grant program: The Environmental Protection Agency has unfrozen a $7 billion grant program for solar energy, known as the "Solar for All" program, which is funded through the Biden Administration’s signature climate law. The program was initially paused due to an executive order by President Trump, but the EPA has now enabled payment accounts for grant recipients, allowing them to access the funding from the bi-partisan infrastructure bill and Biden's Inflation Reduction Act.
US pulls out of $45 billion climate finance coalition: The United States withdrew from the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP), a flagship global climate financing program aimed at helping developing countries transition away from coal and towards renewable energy, putting the $45B effort in jeopardy. The JETP was launched in 2021 to assist countries such as South Africa, Indonesia, and Vietnam in abandoning fossil fuels and moving to renewable energy through a combination of loans, grants, and private finance.
China embraces carbon markets to control emissions: China's top leaders have vowed to expand the country's emissions trading system to cover more industries as part of a broader effort to control greenhouse gas pollution and limit emissions. The China Carbon Emission Trade Exchange will be expanded to cover more sectors to speed up the country's efforts to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions.
Norway considers zero-emission transport zones: Norway plans to allow cities to introduce zero-emission zones to reduce emissions and encourage adoption of electric commercial light transport. The country is a world leader in electric vehicles, with battery-powered models accounting for 95% of new passenger cars sold last month. More than a third of passenger cars on the road in the biggest cities, such as Oslo and Bergen, are electric. Establishing zero-emission zones requires the correct legal framework, and the ministry has asked the country's road authority to recommend changes to existing laws and regulations to facilitate this.
Finland starts construction on battery storage project: The construction of a massive battery storage project in Finland, which will become the country's largest, has been given the green light to commence. The 70-megawatt system, which will be capable of storing power for two hours, is expected to be operational in the second half of next year and will be constructed in Nivala. The need for battery storage is growing rapidly as Europe installs more intermittent renewable energy sources, leading to increased volatility in power prices, which sometimes drop below zero, allowing battery operators to get paid to take excess electricity from producers and store it for later use.
Malaysia advances carbon storage: The Malaysian government has introduced a bill to regulate carbon capture and storage activities, which will govern the capture, transport, utilization, and storage of carbon dioxide, as part of its efforts to become a regional CCUS hub and achieve net zero emissions by 2050. Malaysia will soon begin permanent carbon dioxide storage in offshore areas, and the Economy Ministry will conduct a feasibility study for onshore storage this year, with storage site operators being responsible for environmental protection and managing other risks.
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