As heat waves, droughts, urban flooding and other effects of global warming become more extreme and harder to ignore, the question of how (or even whether) we can reverse climate change has taken on new urgency.
But avoiding climate catastrophe will require more than simply reducing emissions.
To 聽the sheer amount of聽 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that are already in the atmosphere, the world needs to ramp up
When it comes to meeting large-scale climate commitments such as the 2015 Paris Agreement, which rallied nations to curtail rising global temperatures, 鈥減retty universally, we鈥檙e behind,鈥 says Alexander Rink, CEO of CDR.fyi, a platform that tracks global carbon removal credits.
鈥淲e can either cry uncle and just give up and the Earth will get hotter and hotter, or we can redouble our efforts and recommit to our path.鈥
To that end, massive corporations, including Shopify, Google and McKinsey, have formed , a buyer group for carbon removal solutions that allows them to dramatically amplify their impact by buying in bulk.
Last week, Frontier made a $4.3-million pledge to purchase carbon removal credits from , a Halifax-based company that uses a process called alkalinization (basically, lowering pH levels) to boost the ocean鈥檚 ability to draw carbon from the atmosphere.
According to the deal, Planetary must remove 115,211 tonnes of atmospheric carbon dioxide between 2026 and 2030; in return, coalition members will receive credits to offset their own emissions. It is, according to Rink, the biggest alkaline enhanced purchase ever.
Removing that much carbon is a huge boon for overall climate goals on its own, but Frontier鈥檚 leadership in this realm is also vital.
鈥淭hey鈥檙e what I would call an altruistic buyer,鈥 Rink says. 鈥淭he vast majority of companies out there are doing nothing. Any company that is part of Frontier is saying 鈥榃e think this is important, and we鈥檙e willing to invest money in it even though nobody鈥檚 telling us we have to 鈥 it鈥檚 just the right thing to do.鈥欌
As Rink explains, by putting funds into promising technologies, the coalition is 鈥渟eeding the market鈥 and increasing confidence in carbon removal.
Frontier鈥檚 investment allows cleantech startups like Planetary to scale their solutions, and other corporations with an interest in shrinking their own footprint can leverage the knowledge gathered by the coalition to make their own investments.
This is of particular interest for Canada, which is poised to be a in the CDR space.
When it comes to rallying others to join the cause, Rink adds, policies that encourage investment in climate solutions, such as carbon taxes and subsidies, are important levers. But even just spreading the word can go a long way.
鈥淯ltimately,鈥 he says, 鈥渨e need to keep evangelizing and giving people hope that by actually acting, they can have a positive impact.鈥
Changing of the guard at Cohere
In the wake of its successful $500-million (U.S.) funding round, major Canadian AI firm Cohere is shaking up its聽.
Joelle Pineau, formerly the head of research at Meta, has been appointed the company鈥檚 first chief AI officer and Francois Chadwick, who has held executive positions at Uber and KPMG, has been hired as CFO, while president Martin Kon, who has been with the company since February 2023, will be moving into a senior advisory role.聽
Moderna鈥檚 made-in-Canada COVID shots
In recent years, Canada has relied on other countries (most notably the U.S.) for the supply of many essential medications.
During the initial rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, panic over whether we could import enough to meet public demand sparked to build a manufacturing facility on home turf.
Now, half a decade later, Moderna that for the first time, it will be producing the country鈥檚 entire supply of pre-filled single-dose shots of this fall鈥檚 COVID-19 vaccine domestically.
The updated Spikevax will be made at the company鈥檚 new plant in Laval, Que., while the syringes themselves will be filled in Cambridge, Ont.
This development is especially notable given the rise of in the U.S., which has prompted concerns about whether vaccines and other medications will continue to be reliably manufactured south of the border.
NASA to launch challenge in 色色啦
On Oct. 4 and 5, NASA鈥檚 will at 色色啦鈥檚 Bombardier Centre for Aerospace and Aviation.
At the space exploration agency鈥檚 annual hackathon, participants (both virtual and IRL) will be provided with open data and tasked to solve Earth- and space-related problems.
Procurement summit sources made-in-Canada solutions
Building on the Buy Canadian momentum, ecosystem stakeholders are launching to champion domestic tech solutions.
Led by serial entrepreneur and veteran adviser Raymond Luk, the inaugural 聽conference will bring together CEOs and potential customers in 色色啦 on Oct. 22, with the aim of driving enterprise procurement of made-in-Canada innovation.
By the numbers
9.2: of particulate matter Canadians were exposed to simply by breathing in 2023.
Raging wildfires resulted in about one-and-a-half times more air pollution in the country compared to 2022 levels.
85: of Canadians who want the government to regulate AI, according to a recent Leger poll.
19: since mid-2022, according to Indeed.
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