How Philanthropy Accelerates Innovation in Next-to-Abate Sectors: From Ideas to Market

​An insider’s look at the innovation opportunities to address some of the toughest remaining sources of greenhouse gas emissions, including building materials, agriculture, and chemicals, and some of the many ways that philanthropy can accelerate the path from ideas to impact at scale.

​Join leading scientists, innovators, funders, and climate experts for an invite-only gathering during New York Climate Week hosted by Spark Climate Solutions, RMI, Clean Air Task Force, Trellis Climate, The Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment and New Constellation.

​Significant progress has been made in developing and deploying climate solutions across many parts of the economy. As easier-to-address emissions decline, sectors such as agriculture, steel, cement and concrete, and chemicals will make up an increasingly important share of the emissions standing between the world and a safer climate. The technologies needed to address these emissions at scale in the 2030s and 2040s require research, development, demonstration, and market preparation now.

​The event will cover:

• ​The scale of the innovation opportunity: Next-to-abate sectors drive a major share of global greenhouse gas emissions and represent one of the highest-leverage opportunities for innovation to close the gap.

• ​Key next-to-abate sectors:

  • ​Building materials (e.g., steel & cement): Why these emissions are so hard to eliminate, and where new technologies could unlock deeper decarbonization.

  • ​Agriculture: Why major emissions sources lack scalable solutions and where progress is possible now.

  • ​Chemicals: Tackling emissions from both energy-intensive production and the carbon embedded in products and feedstocks.

• ​The role of philanthropy throughout the innovation lifecycle: How catalytic funding can support ground-breaking research, incubation, early demonstrations, standards development, enabling policy and market conditions, and other critical gaps that public and private capital are not positioned to fill.

​The opening program will provide an accessible overview of the climate potential, lessons from past philanthropic investments at different stages of the innovation pipeline, and examples from experts working at the frontier of each sector. We’ll focus on what makes these sectors challenging, on the progress already underway, the most important remaining bottlenecks, and concrete opportunities where additional philanthropic funding could have outsized impact.

​Following the program, over coffee and light bites, attendees will have the opportunity to connect directly with sector experts, innovators, and companies for deeper conversations on building materials, agriculture, and chemicals and petrochemicals.

​Featured Experts Include:

• ​Erika Reinhardt - Executive Director & Co-Founder, Spark Climate Solutions
  Erika co-founded Spark to accelerate progress in critical, under-resourced climate fields, and will deliver welcome remarks touching on why innovation is needed.

• ​Ben Grove -  Director, Industrial Innovation, U.S., Clean Air Task Force (CATF)
  Ben leads CATF's heavy industry policy work across cement, steel, and chemicals. He'll anchor the policy discussion, focused especially on chemicals.

• ​Fernanda Ferreira, DVM, Ph.D. -  Director, Agriculture Methane, Clean Air Task Force (CATF)
  Fernanda leads CATF's agriculture methane program and will join the coffee chats to go deeper on agricultural emissions.

• ​Heather House -  Principal, RMI
  Heather leads RMI's Cement and Concrete Initiative and will share a case study on decarbonization pathways for one of the hardest-to-abate materials.

• ​Bryan Fisher -  Managing Director, Climate-Aligned Industries, RMI
  Bryan leads RMI's heavy industry and transportation team and also heads Second Curve, RMI's later-stage climate tech investment initiative.

• ​Lara Pierpoint -  Managing Director, Trellis Climate (Prime Coalition)
  Lara will represent Trellis Climate, speaking to the fund's approach to backing climate technology in next-to-abate industries.

• ​Pilar Carvajo-Lucena — Principal, Investments & Fund Partnerships, Third Derivative (RMI)
  Pilar oversees investments and fund partnerships at Third Derivative, RMI's climate tech accelerator, managing its accelerator funds and capital strategy.

• ​Ryan Panchadsaram — CEO, New Constellation
  leads an investment and advisory entity aligned with John Doerr's family office. In this role, he directs capital and strategic support toward forward-looking founders and open-source innovations designed to tackle systemic global challenges and accelerate the transition to clean energy.

• ​Stefanie Held — Chief Strategy Officer, The Global Industry Hub
  Stefanie leads strategy at the Global Industry Hub, which connects expertise, influence and capital to accelerate clean industrial production in steel, cement and chemicals.
  
  ⏳ RSVPs close Wednesday, Sept 16. Space is limited and filling up fast. If you're planning to join, please confirm your spot by end of day Wednesday To request a spot, please register using the link. We look forward to having you there!