Funder
Learning
Series
The Funder Learning Series features expert-led briefings and Q&As on emerging research and cross-sectoral efforts to understand and manage overshoot risks. All sessions are virtual and can be joined live on zoom. All previous session content is also available below - including recordings, slides, and relevant reading.
Upcoming
Sessions
Session 24:
An Emerging Climate Feedback: Ecosystem Emissions
July 14, 2026 | 12pm-1pm EST / 9am-10am PST
Brian Buma, director of the Climate Innovation program at the Environmental Defense Fund, will discuss the emerging challenge of increasing ecosystem emissions. Historically, natural systems played a background role in anthropogenic climate change, responding to warming but not driving it. Today, however, more frequent forest wildfires, thawing permafrost, and rising wetland methane emissions have become significant sources of greenhouse gas emissions. These powerful and accelerating positive feedbacks are shortening the timeline to temperature thresholds such as the Paris Agreement by years. Brian will discuss the latest science on these risks and potential pathways to manage them, some of which may be quite cost-effective.
Previous
Sessions
Session 23:
Solar Radiation Modification Research: Moral Hazard or Moral Imperative? The Case of the Global South
June 30, 2026
In this session, Anita Nzeh, an expert on SRM governance, explores how Global South actors are shaping the emerging debate around SRM research and governance. Drawing on examples from Africa and broader international climate negotiations, Anita discusses the growing role of African countries in SRM governance discussions, the political and ethical dynamics shaping the debate, and opportunities to build a stronger Global South research and scientific assessment ecosystem. The conversation examines how questions of equity, justice, and representation may shape decisions about SRM research in the years ahead.
Session 22:
Can Bison Save the Planet?
June 16, 2026
Luke Griswold-Tergis, Executive Director of the Alaska Future Ecology Institute (AFEI) and director of the documentary Pleistocene Park, has spent over a decade working on one of the most provocative climate ideas: that reintroducing herds of large grazing animals to the Arctic could reduce global temperature by as much as ~0.5 °C by reducing permafrost thaw, increasing soil carbon, and preserving albedo. In this session, Griswold-Tergis explains the science behind large-herbivore rewilding, describe an ambitious new field trial to resolve key uncertainties, and discuss the ecological, logistical, geopolitical, and Indigenous partnership questions involved in moving this idea forward.
Session 20:
Nitrogen Fixation: A New Pathway for Ocean Carbon Removal - Learning Session
May 5, 2026
Professor Seth John of The University of Southern California and Growing Oceans introduces a new marine carbon dioxide removal pathway that has the potential to scale at low cost: Nitrogen Fixation for Phytoplankton Carbon (NFix). This new pathway catalyzes production of additional ocean nutrients by iron addition, potentially mitigating concerns about ’nutrient robbing’ associated with traditional Ocean Iron Fertilization (OIF) methods. Dr. John discusses key features of this pathway, “natural experiment” studies of iron input from South Pacific hydrothermal vents, technical challenges to safely scaling the process, and the team's collaboration with the Kingdom of Tonga.
Session 21:
An Unlikely Advocate for SRM Research: A Veteran Climate Activist’s Journey
June 2, 2026
Mike Tidwell, founder and director of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network (CCAN), has spent decades on the front lines of the climate and clean energy movements. But recently he and CCAN have become leading advocates for research on sunlight reflection methods (SRM) as well. In this session, Mike shares about this journey and the support he’s received from his organization's stakeholders.
Session 18:
Our Probable Futures: Risk, Resiliency and Decision Making in a Changing Climate
March 24, 2026
Climate risks exist on a spectrum — from the near-term and manageable to the longer-term and potentially unmanageable and irreversible. In this discussion, drawing on work with executives, investors, and institutional leaders across sectors, Probable Futures shares risk communication strategies that have proven effective with influential audiences, what climate models can and cannot tell us, and frameworks for decision making that make climate science vivid, resonant, and useful.
Session 19:
Contrails: Aviation's Near-term Climate Lever
April 7, 2026
In this session, Marc Shapiro, Executive Director at Contrails.org, walks us through the science of contrail warming, approaches to navigational avoidance, and the current barriers to making contrail avoidance a standard practice in global aviation. We explore contrail avoidance as a potential pathway to quickly counter warming considering persistent contrails cause roughly the same warming as 33 billion tonnes of atmospheric CO₂. Most of this warming can be avoided through small adjustments to flight altitudes or routes, at negligible cost to airlines. Despite this opportunity, contrails remain largely unaddressed.
Session 16:
A Large Overlooked Climate Risk: Earth’s Declining Reflectivity
February 24, 2026
In this session, we are joined by Dr. Phil Duffy, former lead Biden White House climate scientist, who explained what is known and not yet known in regard to earth’s declining reflectivity.
Since 2000, the Earth has rapidly become less reflective, causing it to absorb significantly more solar energy. This additional energy is equivalent to about 2,400 billion tons of additional CO₂ emissions, roughly three times humanity’s cumulative emissions during this period. The decline in Earth’s reflectivity appears to be (at least partially) driven by declining cloud cover and potentially by the cleanup of particulate pollution, though a full explanation remains unclear. This session explores these concerning trends and the research needed to better understand them.
Session 17:
Rising Faster Than Expected: Rethinking Sea-Level Forecasts
March 10, 2026
Sea-level rise is outpacing widely used projections, revealing a persistent low-end bias in current models. Whereas the last IPCC assessment projected our current warming trajectory would raise sea levels roughly 2 feet by 2100, the latest data and analyses now predict 4-7 feet.
In this session, Dr. Brent Minchew walks through the scientific evidence behind this gap, explore key sources of uncertainty not fully captured in current forecasts, such as ice-sheet dynamics, and discuss the human and financial impacts.
Session 15:
Youth-led Organizations: At the Forefront of Advocating for Climate Intervention Research
January 27, 2026
We are joined by two youth-led climate organizations at the forefront of the climate advocacy movement, Operaatio Arktis in the Arctic and Emerging Climate Frontiers in Sub-Saharan Africa, for a conversation about why they have chosen to focus on climate intervention research.
The discussion explored what led these groups from more conventional climate approaches to engaging with overshoot risks and intervention research. Later discussing what youth leadership uniquely contributes to this space and how cross-regional collaboration is shaping new approaches to managing long-term climate risk.
Launch Event
The Overshoot Funding Challenge Launch Event
February 4, 2026 | 10:30am -11am PST
A launch call with Outlier Projects’ founder Mike Schroepfer and several of our partners for The Overshoot Funding Challenge.
The Overshoot Funding Challenge will accelerate research to manage climate overshoot risks by mobilizing new philanthropic funding for frontier research programs at twelve leading organizations featured at the November Funder Summit in San Francisco. Their work is indispensable for a safe climate future, but remains underfunded relative to its importance and their absorptive capacity.
Session 11:
Arctic Tipping Cluster: Risk and Response
November 18, 2025
Dr. Charlotte DeWald, Director of the Arctic Climate Emergencies Response (ACER) Initiative, outlines imminent < 2 °C tipping points in the Arctic, including permafrost thaw, the Greenland Ice Sheet, and sea ice loss — and introduces a suite of Arctic-targeted interventions, including mixed-phase cloud thinning and sea-ice stabilization, that could form the backbone of a readiness and response toolkit.
Session 12:
Derailment Risk: A Strategic Blind Spot
December 2, 2025
It is often assumed that our agency will only grow as climate impacts escalate: a positive feedback, in which worsening climate consequences reinforce climate action. But the opposite can also happen. Laurie Laybourn, Executive Director of the Strategic Climate Risks Initiative explores derailment risk: the risk that climate consequences undermine climate action, derailing the world from avoiding worst case outcomes.
Session 13:
Coral Reef Conservation:
The Australian Marine Cloud Brightening Research Program
December 16, 2025
If coral reefs are a ‘canary in the coal mine’ of climate change, then the future is looking ominous. The Reef Restoration and Adaptation Program, a consortium of Australian governmental research organizations and universities, was established to investigate options for helping the Great Barrier Reef survive climate change. Of the options under consideration, Marine Cloud Brightening (MCB) has consistently topped evaluations of future benefit. But can this potential be realized? In this session, we heard from oceanographer and engineer Dr. Daniel Harrison, who leads a pioneering MCB technology development and outdoor field testing effort, with deep community involvement and regulatory oversight.
Session 14:
Arctic Sea Ice and Global Climate Stability: Understanding Cascading Risks and Exploring Potential Response
January 13, 2026
Ocean Visions’ Brad Ack, CEO, and Dr. Virginia Selz, Director of the Repair Program, explore the connections between Arctic sea ice and global climate stability, including how sea ice loss relates to critical tipping points in the Arctic and the broader ocean system. Discussing both established and emerging approaches that may help slow — and potentially reverse — ongoing sea ice loss.
In-Person Convening Content
Frontier Climate Research Funder Summit
November 4, 2025
On November 4th, we gathered in San Francisco for the first Frontier Climate Research Funder Summit. Pre-recorded versions of the presentations and the associated slides can be accessed via the “Funder Summit Content” link to right.
Session 9:
Evaluating climate tipping points: research gaps and opportunities
October 7, 2025
Joshua Elliott, Chief Scientist at Renaissance Philanthropy and Director of their ARC Initiative, shares an overview of the climate risk categories that need tracking and different ways to approach prioritization of researching these risks.
Session 10:
The first government research effort to predict and prevent climate tipping points
October 21, 2025
Ilan Gur, CEO of The UK’s Advanced Research + Invention Agency (ARIA) will be joined by Gemma Bale and George Horner to introduce the Forecasting Tipping Points and Exploring Climate Cooling Programs and discuss how philanthropic funders can help to catalyze greater government leadership.
Session 7:
Open-system carbon dioxide removal
September 9, 2025
Dr. Antonius Gagern and Dai Ellis, Executive Director and CEO of The Carbon to Sea Initiative and Cascade Climate, provide an overview of the open-system carbon dioxide removal ecosystem.
Session 8:
Kim Stanley Robinson, author of The Ministry for the Future
September 25, 2025
Acclaimed science fiction author of Ministry for the Future Kim Stanley Robinson explores his motivation for the book, as well as many of the research pathways and ideas that he highlighted in it.
Session 5:
Sunlight Reflection: What we know, what we don’t know, and the research ahead
July 29, 2025
Dr. Daniele Visioni and Dakota Gruener provide an introduction to the state of scientific research on sunlight reflection, with a focus on stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI).
Session 6:
Climate systems engineering research today
August 12, 2025
Dr. David Keith provides an overview of the field of climate systems engineering, thoughts on how sunlight reflection might fit into a larger climate strategy, how it relates to carbon removal, and practical engineering aspects of different interventions.
Session 3:
History of Geoengineering and the evolving climate interventions landscape
July 1, 2025
Senior Editor of The Economist and science writer Oliver Morton, author of The Planet Remade: How Geoengineering Could Change the World, provides a history and overview of climate intervention ideas.
Session 4:
Superpollutants: The other half of warming
July 15, 2025
Erika Reinhardt and Dr. Ilissa Ocko, co-founder and senior climate scientist at Spark Climate Solutions, walk through the impact of super pollutants on warming, their role in near-term climate risk, and pathways to reduce or remove these emissions.
Session 1:
An honest look at where we are: Accelerating warming and climate system feedbacks
June 3, 2025
Dr. Phil Duffy, former lead Biden White House climate scientist, offers a comprehensive look at the accelerating pace of warming and potential adverse feedback loops.
Session 2:
Managing the risk of catastrophic sea level rise
June 17, 2025
Dr. Brent Minchew, an MIT glaciologist who explores the threat of catastrophic sea-level rise driven by glacial collpase, and potential options to stabilize the West Antarctic Ice Sheet.