Agriculture produces 25% of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions—as much as electricity generation. Spark is currently working on two of the largest blockers to bring these emissions below zero: a lack of accessible greenhouse gas measurement technology and also solutions for livestock enteric methane production—which is ~25% of global anthropogenic methane emissions, driving ~0.1°C and counting of current warming. Current enteric methane commercial solutions incompletely address the very small portion of methane emissions from cows on feedlots and similar, globally estimated at ~2-5% (but getting better data here is another challenge to address). Addressing the remaining 95%+ requires systematic research, international development, and sociology investments.
Cows burp as much greenhouse gas methane in the United States as its fossil fuel infrastructure leaks. Developing anti-methane solutions could simultaneously improve cattle productivity by about 6%, and globally avoid 0.25°C of global temperature increase in 2100. The US has an opportunity to lead through 2023 Farm Bill research funding and capacity-building.
We're looking for talented, strategic, climate-motivated, and scientifically-driven colleagues to join our team at Spark, across a number of areas, including the following roles related to the Enteric Methane Mitigation program: