Subak launches today as the first global non-profit accelerator to combat the climate emergency.
Subak selects, funds and scales organisations which want to work collectively to keep the planet habitable, using shared data, infrastructure and tools.
It connects the best tech, environmental and science talent to drive mass behaviour and policy change.
Co-founder Baroness Bryony Worthington, a lead author of the UK’s Climate Change Act, said: “We need more people devoted to the task of fighting the climate emergency, and we need more support for people with radical world-changing ideas to grow and scale. A climate accelerator for data-focused organisations has the potential to influence policy and legislation and change the way people act. It is vital to harness and share data and skills and we’re delighted so many talented people have agreed to work together to help make this initiative a reality.”
The Subak accelerator is home to the following founding organisations:
- New AutoMotive is a transport research group which supports the rapid uptake of electric vehicles in the UK by opening up data about the transition. It helped support the government decision to ban the sale of new petrol and diesel cars in the UK from 2030. It has developed new tools including theElectric Car Count which splits electric vehicle sales data by manufacturer and region to track progress and hosts ElectricCar.Guide, a consumer guide to EVs which uses tools like a novel cost saving estimator that creates personalised costs, tailored to a person’s own vehicle usage.
- TransitionZero is harnessing satellite data to provide insight into global energy markets. Its recent Turning the Supertanker report assessing China’s ambition to reach Net Zero by 2060 was hailed by former US Vice President Al Gore as “ground-breaking”.
- Ember has built the first open-source dataset of global power generation with maps showing globalcoal flows from mines to power and steel plants. It is using these tools to influence policy to end theuse of coal power globally. It also exposed the cost of subsidising a power giant’s wood-burning powerplant in North Yorkshire – more than £30 billion – equivalent to £500 for every British home.
- Open Climate Fix, co-founded by former Google DeepMind machine learning engineer Dr Jack Kelly, has been awarded funding from Google.Org to support its work in forecasting solar electricity generation to help optimise the grid.
- Climate Policy Radar is mapping and analysing the climate policy landscape globally using machine learning and AI to support evidence-based policymaking. It will build on the work that founder Dr Michal Nachmany did at the Grantham Research Institute at LSE where she led the work to map national climate legislation in every country in the world.
Subak has a growing global network with operations underway in the US and Australia. Around 500 members and fellows are projected to join the international network in the next five years. Its leaders include:
- Baroness Bryony Worthington, co-director of the Quadrature Climate Fund, the anchor funder of the Subak initiative.
- Michelle You is an entrepreneur and cofounder of Songkick, a live music and ticketing app that was funded by Y Combinator, Index, and Sequoia and was acquired by Warner Music. She previously was a venture partner at Local Globe VC and invests in climate tech.
- Gi Fernando, MBE, serial entrepreneur and investor who was one of the pioneers of algorithmic social media advertising. His first company Techlightenment was bought by Experian and he was at the forefront of the Silicon Roundabout tech boom in the early noughties.
- Steve Crossan was head of product at Google DeepMind and spent a decade at Google working on Maps, Gmail and Search.
