A science-driven nonprofit, we are dedicated to supporting the development of emerging, high-impact climate fields to enable a pathway to a safer future climate. We grow these fields by building and supporting efforts that advance research, capacity building, policy advocacy, and market development.
Our current program areas focus on large unmitigated emissions sources and possible additional solutions: livestock enteric methane mitigation, agricultural nitrogen management, warming-induced emissions, and methane removal.
Accelerating progress towards reducing emissions from livestock enteric methane, the largest anthropogenic source of methane.
Methane emissions from the ruminant systems of livestock — "enteric methane" — account for around 25% of global anthropogenic methane emissions. Without new solutions, these emissions will continue to grow, causing a large portion of overall climate change, and putting our collective goals at risk. Currently available solutions only cover less than about 10% of the global challenge, while major questions about market demand remain unresolved, stymying investment. We need innovation and a market for solutions that also address pasture-based animals, and there's exciting innovation here, from vaccine development to low-methane breeding and other approaches.
The Spark Livestock Enteric Methane Mitigation Program accelerates progress towards reducing emissions from livestock enteric methane by coordinating policy efforts, supporting innovation, developing the value chain, and growing and coordinating the overall field.
Accelerating the scientific exploration of potential methane removal approaches to counter the risk of rising methane emissions from climate feedbacks.
There's growing evidence that natural methane emissions are increasing as a result of climate change, creating a potentially dangerous warming feedback loop. Simultaneously, methane emissions exceed the natural system's ability to break it down, leading to 0.5°C of warming from built up methane. The new research field of atmospheric methane removal is working to determine if methane can be safely and efficiently removed from the atmosphere at-scale to help mitigate climate change, on top of crucial reductions in methane emissions.
Spark’s Methane Removal Program accelerates the scientific exploration of potential methane removal approaches to counter the risk of rising atmospheric methane while supporting the advancement of related policy, governance, and community engagement.
Supporting the scientific study of climate feedbacks, and integrating those risks into our collective climate ambition and response.
As climate change worsens, the natural system response is also altered, in many cases amplifying warming, for example from permafrost thaw, warming tropical wetlands, and increased wildfires. These warming-induced emissions threaten to cause additional warming, currently in often unpredictable and uncontrollable ways. Much more work is needed to better understand these risks, and include them in our climate models and in the “carbon budgets” used as the basis of emissions reduction goals.
Spark’s new Warming-Induced Emissions work is scaling up to support the advancement of the scientific understanding of warming-induced emissions, integration of these emissions into global climate decisionmaking, and understanding what additional mitigation tools may be available.
Supporting the development of novel approaches to nitrogen management in agriculture to reduce residual emissions.
Agricultural nitrous oxide emissions are currently 1.6 Gt CO2e annually and growing. Nitrogen use efficiency of the food production system (including both crops and animal products) is roughly 15%, resulting in significant amounts of nitrogen leaching into our water, atmosphere, and environment, causing a number of environmental and climate damages. Additional mitigation approaches are needed to dramatically and durably lower nitrogen losses to the environment, including nitrous oxide emissions.
Spark is starting work in the agricultural nitrogen space to support the development and evaluation of transformative new systems approaches to nitrogen management.
Spark is a science-driven 501(c)3 nonprofit dedicated to identifying and mitigating sources of unmanaged climate risk. Spark works directly with scientists, policy makers, and peer organizations, and also offers grants to support the growth of fields with the potential to limit warming, manage Earth systems risk, and help to enable our return to a safe climate.
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