Like most Los Angeles County residents, I was horrified to see the devastation of the Palisades and Altadena wildfires. After the shock of watching friends, family, and colleagues lose businesses, churches, homes, and schools, I was left with a simple question: What can be done to ensure that never happens again?
Jim McDermott
Co-Founder, Rusheen Capital Management, LLC
While many near- and medium-term measures are available to address fire resilience (better building materials, stronger fire codes, etc.), a more significant question is embedded in the fires: What longer-term investments can we make to slow climate change’s impact?
The good news is that the technology created to mitigate these disasters already exists, and the opportunities to invest in the companies, projects, and technologies that make up this rapidly emerging supply change are large, lucrative, and rapidly growing. Two key technical approaches to addressing climate change are (1) removing atmospheric CO2 using direct air capture (known as “DAC”) and (2) point source CO2 carbon capture (“Point Source”).
DAC technology removes CO2 already in the air, and Point Source technology captures carbon emissions before they reach the atmosphere. In Los Angeles County today, several innovative companies are already making a difference in these key areas.
Companies addressing the problem
One example is CO2 removal startup Avnos Inc., which recently raised $36 million in Series A funding. The round was led by a subsidiary of utility giant NextEra and included investments from ConocoPhillips and Shell. Much of Avnos’s foundational technology was sourced from the Pacific Northwest National Lab (“PNNL”) and initial commercialization funding came from Southern California Gas (“SoCalGas”).
This represents an outstanding example of private market investors leveraging technologies developed by national labs to allow the US to lead the world in critical climate technology. Avnos’s “hybrid” DAC system extracts both carbon and water from the air, utilizing a novel approach developed in collaboration with PNNL. With its latest funding, Avnos is scaling efforts to remove CO2 from the atmosphere, helping combat the climate change exacerbating disasters like the fires that just led to record property losses in Los Angeles.
Another company addressing climate change using Point Source capture is Carbon Ridge. Founded in 2021, Carbon Ridge develops onboard carbon capture and storage (“OCCS”) solutions for the maritime shipping industry. Its technology captures CO2 emissions directly from ships, and then compresses, liquefies, and stores them for later sequestration or use in products. With a smaller footprint than traditional CO2 capture systems, it consumes less energy and eliminates over 99.9% of harmful particulates and emissions. This innovation is helping decarbonize ocean-going vessels and improve air quality around Los Angeles’s biggest polluter: the Port of Los Angeles.
Identifying positive opportunities
While tragedies like the Palisades and Altadena fires are devastating, there is a reason for hope, and it is important to look for reasons to be optimistic without being pollyannaish. Yes, the fires were horrific. I know more than 100 people who lost their businesses and homes. However, amidst all the tragedy, there is opportunity. The opportunity lies in recognizing that the flip side of a dark situation offers a chance to tackle meaningful problems. Hopefully, this tragedy can help push us to come together and focus on finding companies that address climate change. We must support technologies and businesses that can help shift the climate trajectory in the right direction.
Our future depends on action. If we remain passive, the problem will only grow. The path forward is clear, and now is a better time than ever to consider investing in the companies, technologies, and entrepreneurs who seek to address the root causes of climate change.
