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Africa’s young workforce is already turning waste biomass and sunshine into jobs, food security and scalable carbon removal, says James Mwangi, the founder and CEO of Africa Climate Ventures on the latest Climate Curious. In conversation with host Ben Hurst, James shares how biochar solutions are proving climate action can pay today and supercharge growth tomorrow. Recorded live at TED Countdown 2025 in Nairobi, Kenya.
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Created by TEDxLondon
Executive produced by Josie Colter
Produced by Ben Beheshty
Curated by Deesha Chandra
Hosted by Maryam Pasha and Ben Hurst
Communications by Tara Cooper and Issey Gladston
00:00 Introduction
00:05 Meet James Mwangi: visionary behind Africa climate ventures
00:51 Biochar: turning waste into wealth
01:32 The fertiliser revolution in Africa
03:08 Investing in climate unicorns
06:57 The Great Carbon Valley Initiative
08:40 Clean cooking: a sustainable solution
10:24 Conclusion
[00:00:00] Introduction
[00:00:00] Ben Hurst: Welcome to Climate Quickies Bite-sized nuggets of Climate Goodness.
[00:00:05] Meet James Wge: Visionary Behind Africa Climate Ventures
[00:00:05] Ben Hurst: From our TEDx London experts in under 10 minutes in this week’s climate, curious, we are looking to Kenyan entrepreneur and CEO of Africa Climate Ventures. James Wge off the back of his brilliant talk at Ted Countdown in Nairobi this summer.
[00:00:22] Ben Hurst: He took time out of his busy day to sit down with us and share some of the amazing carbon capture developments he’s been funding with [00:00:30] his organization in Africa. James’ vision is to take the idea of Silicon Valley and apply it to the African continent using carbon companies to create. The great carbon value.
[00:00:41] Ben Hurst: Also, check out the full length conversation on YouTube now, where James delves [00:00:45] into the complexities and bad actors surrounding carbon capture and does not mince words.
[00:00:51] Biochar: turning waste into wealth
[00:00:51] Ben Hurst: Now over to James to hear about how biochar is turning waste into wealth. Stay curious.
[00:01:00] James Mwangi: I’ve been working on this idea that Africa is the continent that has to undertake climate positive growth at huge scale. Mm-hmm. In order for the planet to hit its climate goals. Right. But actually the reason I, I, I went there wasn’t that I, you know, I mean I care about the [00:01:15] climate goals, but the real question I was trying to solve for is how do you create lots of jobs in Africa, jobs for young people in Africa, and you, you can say it all you want that, hey, climate and, you know, really embracing our role as stewards of the climate could generate jobs.
[00:01:28] James Mwangi: But I felt like I needed to [00:01:30] actually talk about where we are seeing this really happen. Mm-hmm.
[00:01:32] The fertiliser revolution in Africa
[00:01:32] James Mwangi: So I started with this business that we’ve invested in. That’s, yes, it’s a biochar business, but more importantly it’s a fertilizer business.
[00:01:39] Ben Hurst: Mm-hmm.
[00:01:40] James Mwangi: And I talked about how, you know, it’s taking an industry that’s filled with [00:01:45] emissions, right.
[00:01:45] James Mwangi: You think about most fertilizer, you get the ammonia usually from natural gas, lots of emissions there. Mm-hmm. Think about 3% of global emissions or something. I might be wrong. Don’t quote me on that. Is uh, you said
[00:01:56] Ben Hurst: it’s 3% of Yeah, no. Yeah. You can fact
[00:01:59] James Mwangi: check me later. [00:02:00] Um, I have the data somewhere, but there’s a lot of emissions linked to fertilizer.
[00:02:04] James Mwangi: Right. And for a country to take some portion of its fertilizer demand and zero it out. By pivoting to organic fertilizer using biochar mm-hmm. [00:02:15] And other organic domestic ingredients. It’s good for the country because you’re spending less money importing stuff. Mm-hmm. It’s good for the climate. You’ve got, you know, for every ton of, of this fertilizer you’re using, you’re avoiding two to three tons of emissions.
[00:02:28] James Mwangi: Mm-hmm. From making it. Yeah. [00:02:30] And because it’s filled with biochar, you’re actually removing a ton on top of that. Right. Uh oh. And by the way, while you’re doing all of that, you turn something from being something you spend money to buy from foreign fossil fuels to 300 young [00:02:45] people in a rural area converting local biomass Hmm.
[00:02:49] James Mwangi: Into a high quality soil amendment. Mm-hmm. That’s serving tens of thousands of farmers. Right. I thought like that was the dream when it comes to a, um, a job story [00:03:00] from climate. That’s why we invested. Mm-hmm. And I thought it’s worth talking about that one. And then I talked about solar and a few other spaces where there’s, there’s also big job opportunities.
[00:03:08] Ben Hurst: Okay.
[00:03:08] Investing in climate unicorns
[00:03:08] Ben Hurst: So, uh, Africa Climate Ventures is an investment. Business you invest in different initiatives that you see around Yes. We are a, we are, um,
[00:03:17] James Mwangi: we call ourselves a climate venture builder. Mm-hmm. So we do invest, we do put in money. We don’t just say,
[00:03:22] Ben Hurst: Hey, we’re
[00:03:23] James Mwangi: here to
[00:03:23] Ben Hurst: help you. This is a great
[00:03:25] James Mwangi: idea. Yeah.
[00:03:25] James Mwangi: Cool. Let’s hang around. No, no, no. We, we, we are usually the first external capital [00:03:30] in. Okay. We only bet on companies that we think if they get a few things Right. Could go big. Mm-hmm. So there’s a lot of good things that you can do that will kind of. Roll along and make a great difference for a specific [00:03:45] community or a specific group.
[00:03:46] James Mwangi: That’s not us. Okay. It’s great work. Important work. Someone needs to do it. But we’re about, when we were being cheesy, we used to say we are hunting climate unicorns. Mm-hmm. In Africa. Mm-hmm. Um, we think that there are some, and that [00:04:00] the, the continent’s unique advantages mean that the world is underestimating how many of the world’s major climate technologies will get to their full scale.
[00:04:09] James Mwangi: And reach in Africa before anywhere else. Okay. Joyce and Samwell, who started that business almost a [00:04:15] decade ago mm-hmm. Uh, basically fell in love with biochar a substance and started thinking about ways to generate value from it.
[00:04:21] Ben Hurst: Mm-hmm.
[00:04:22] James Mwangi: Went back to traditional recipes for, uh, soil amendments. So like people ask, where is the tech for all the [00:04:30] nutrients you add to the biochar?
[00:04:31] James Mwangi: Right. And we talk about, you know, partnering with MIT and this and that, but the real core of it was recipes from grandma. Mm-hmm. This is the stuff we used to mix to improve our soil for centuries. Blend that with biochar [00:04:45] and they were working for seven years in complete obscurity, breaking even and growing a business just serving farmers in their area.
[00:04:52] James Mwangi: Wow. Their marketing plan was buy or rent an acre of, of, of land in a place. Mm-hmm. Use their product and let everyone come in and be like, whoa, [00:05:00] what the hell is that? How are you doing that now? We saw that and said, you are a very impressive fertilizer company that’s barely breaking even. ’cause you’re competing with imported subsidized fertilizers.
[00:05:09] James Mwangi: The government is paying extra money. To lower the cost of the imported product so that you [00:05:15] can compete with and squeeze you out the, it’s not what the government is trying to do. Right. They just don’t know you’re there.
[00:05:19] Ben Hurst: Yeah. And yet, and this is people, people are growing like roses, people are growing fruits.
[00:05:24] Ben Hurst: Is this the kind of stuff we’re talking about? This is food. This is like, this is like,
[00:05:27] James Mwangi: this is like this are the [00:05:30] most price sensitive farmers in the world.
[00:05:31] Ben Hurst: Okay.
[00:05:32] James Mwangi: Right. This is not like fancy. Whatever we’re getting there now. Mm-hmm. Since we invested. Mm-hmm. But this was like neighborhood farms, just people growing stuff that they need to eat.
[00:05:41] James Mwangi: I need to like, grow stuff to eat
[00:05:42] Ben Hurst: tomorrows
[00:05:43] James Mwangi: and stuff. Okay, cool. Um, and we [00:05:45] said you are, that you are, that you’re a fantastic fertilizer business. That’s, that’s performing in as tough an environment as one could imagine. Mm-hmm. But you’re also a climate business. You’re a, you’re a carbon removal business and you don’t even know it yet.
[00:05:58] James Mwangi: So when we invested, one of the [00:06:00] things we helped them do was bring in better izing machinery. Um, they had been partnering with Char designing a machine that had made it to the finals of the, of the carbon removal xprize. Okay, cool. But they needed some extra investment to build the factory, bring in the first machines, issue [00:06:15] them to the youth groups and so on.
[00:06:16] James Mwangi: Mm-hmm. So that’s where our money went, and now we are selling carbon, you know, so they’re, they’re both producing that fertilizer at a higher scale. They’ll do about 5,000 tons this year. Mm-hmm. And each one of those tons represents an [00:06:30] equal ton of carbon dioxide removal at the highest possible quality.
[00:06:35] James Mwangi: Wow. Right. So you’ve got an export stream. I’m exporting a climate benefit and I’m serving my local community. Mm-hmm. So that’s, that’s the kind of thing we look for in the businesses We. We support. ’cause [00:06:45] yes, the demand for fertilizer is vast. The demand for carbon removals will also be vast. Right? So meet those two, um, other businesses on the other end of like the technological kind of spectrum.
[00:06:57] The Great Carbon Valley Initiative
[00:06:57] James Mwangi: One of our first things we did was a company called Great [00:07:00] Carbon Valley. Mm-hmm. Which actually was this title of my first TED Talk. Mm-hmm. Um, which was about the fact that if you’re serious about doing direct air carbon capture at scale anywhere in the world. You know, there’s a lot of arguments for why it’s not a good idea to do it in a lot of [00:07:15] places.
[00:07:15] James Mwangi: Right. Al Gore makes a lot of those
[00:07:16] Ben Hurst: arguments. Right. I was gonna say, I’ve been hearing some of it floating around here, but
[00:07:20] James Mwangi: we’ve taken line by line. Mm-hmm. And actually all those arguments don’t apply to one place I can name, which is the East African Rift Valley. Wow. Untapped [00:07:30] massive quantities of renewable energy.
[00:07:31] James Mwangi: Mm-hmm. Lots of space to put the carbon dioxide. Mm-hmm. No fossil fuel industry to like be doing enhanced recovery or whatever. And by the way, if you’re developing the energy system, if you’re buying the energy mm-hmm. You’re [00:07:45] providing the demand that allows us to build up on some of the world’s most.
[00:07:49] James Mwangi: Attractive untapped renewables. Mm-hmm. Which we can then use for other things. Mm-hmm. So that’s what Great Carbon Valley does. It’s partnering with Tencent on their Carbon X program. We’ll be hosting all of the finalists from [00:08:00] that program with their various DAC solutions. Mm. And the idea is, can we get to sub hundred dollars a ton over the next few years by combining.
[00:08:09] James Mwangi: Global ingenuity on the machinery with a particular energy and geological dynamics [00:08:15] of the Rift Valley and the labor force in Kenya that has the right skills, but doesn’t have these opportunities necessary. Right. So build a cloth. Silicon Valley, carbon Valley, that’s what they name. So the Great Rift Valley is one name for, you know, the Great Rift Valley runs through Kenya.
[00:08:28] James Mwangi: Mm-hmm. Silicon Valley. In, [00:08:30] in, uh, in, uh, in, in, in America. We said Great Carbon Valley, a cluster of carbon businesses. That forms in a place where they can scale forever.
[00:08:39] Ben Hurst: Mm.
[00:08:39] James Mwangi: Uh, that’s the vision.
[00:08:40] Clean cooking: a sustainable solution
[00:08:40] James Mwangi: Uh, and then the third thing I’ll say is we invested in clean cooking. So, um, clean cooking. Yeah. So a company called Clean Cook.
[00:08:46] James Mwangi: Sorry.
[00:08:48] Ben Hurst: Clean Cooking. Say Clean Cook. Yes.
[00:08:49] James Mwangi: Clean in cooking. Um, and there the idea was how do we stop, uh, how do we give families an alternative to cooking with charcoal and fire, which are one of the [00:09:00] biggest drivers of deforestation. Right? Right. Uh, and we’ve leaned into Bioethanol. As a cooking fuel. Okay.
[00:09:06] James Mwangi: Uh, and we invested in a company and have helped a company called Cocoa Networks expand from Kenya to Rwanda. Mm-hmm. And what they do is they set up these ATMs [00:09:15] that go into the local kiosk, um, digital, ATM and a, you know, uh, a household, uh, in an informal settlement here. Very densely populated area. Can walk 50 meters, find one of these ATMs.
[00:09:27] James Mwangi: Mm-hmm. Plug in their little canister, buy as much liquid [00:09:30] fuel as they need, carry it back. Um, if it catches fire ethanol, you can extinguish with water. Mm. That’s important. It burns. It’s, it’s a cleaner flame than the, the cooking gas many of our listeners will be using. ’cause when you burn, ethanol, just get [00:09:45] water vapor and carbon dioxide.
[00:09:46] James Mwangi: Mm-hmm. And it displaces a whole lot of this deforestation. Right. That company went from, uh, 10,000 households in Kenya to 1.3 million in. Two to three years, and in Rwanda we went in three months from [00:10:00] zero to 23,000 households with no advertising. People just love it because it’s a cool product.
[00:10:04] Ben Hurst: Yeah, because they want it.
[00:10:05] Ben Hurst: They want it. It’s a solution to a problem they have. It’s a solution.
[00:10:08] James Mwangi: Now it’s subsidized on the backend. Mm-hmm. By the sale of carbon credits. We hope to be selling carbon credits and into the aviation market into [00:10:15] course, and so on.
[00:10:16] Ben Hurst: Mm-hmm.
[00:10:17] James Mwangi: But the carbon side of this is going directly to the consumer as a subsidy for a product they really want.
[00:10:23] Ben Hurst: Right.
[00:10:24] Conclusion
[00:10:24] Ben Hurst: Thanks for listening to this quickie.
[00:10:26] Maryam Pasha: This episode was created by our superstar podcast team at Telex [00:10:30] London. Until next time,
[00:10:31] Ben Hurst: stay curious.
