The Breakthrough Institute is an environmentalist think tank in Oakland, California that supports technology development and implementation that makes clean energy cheap. It criticizes the catastrophic view of climate change and claims that making clean energy cheap would more successfully address climate change than current approaches that regulate and limit emissions. It is funded by several left-of-center grantmaking organizations including the Pritzker Innovation Fund and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. ¹

Background

The Breakthrough Institute is an environmental research center based in Oakland, California that identifies and promotes technological approaches to address issues associated with climate, energy, and the environment. The New York Times describes it as an “organization that advocates putting progressive values to work to solve problems.” ²

It performs research, publishes articles and papers, presents at conferences and workshops, and networks with other organizations. ³

The Institute was started in 2007 by Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger, who wanted to offer an approach to climate change that differed from conventional environmentalist approaches. It focused on the conflict between economics and climate mitigation by developing approaches that would make clean energy cheap. The Institute refers to its philosophy as “ecomodernism.” ³ Nordhaus tends to critique most climate activists, claiming that the climate movement erroneously has a catastrophic view of climate change and is focusing on the wrong solutions. ⁴

The Institute’s underlying theory it continues to develop is that investment in clean technology that provides economic and social benefits by making clean energy cheap would be more successful in addressing climate change than regulating emissions and limits. ⁵

Program Areas

The Breakthrough Institute’s climate and energy program is focused on developing energy technologies that “make clean energy cheap” to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It has performed research and written hundreds of articles and reports in this program area. ⁶

The food and agriculture program focuses on identifying solutions that result in using less land to produce more food. ⁷

The Institute started a Nuclear Innovation program focused on maintaining the operation of existing nuclear-energy facilities, developing new nuclear technologies, and sharing information to form policy discussions. ⁸

Advocacy

The Breakthrough Institute has organized several major policy campaigns, including one to double federal research and development on agricultural innovations to combat climate change and another to make it legal to license advanced nuclear reactors in the United States. In 2022, the Institute opened an office in Washington, D.C. and announced a policy agenda, with the goal of being more involved in federal policy discussions. ⁹

In November 2023, the Institute and over 60 other organizations sent a letter to U.S. Congress proposing an increase in funding to $100 million for agricultural innovation that would support climate goals. Other signers included the American Conservation Coalition, the Bipartisan Policy Center, Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions, Earthjustice, the Environmental Defense Fund, Spark Climate Solutions, and the Good Food Institute. ¹⁰

Funding

2022 donors to the Breakthrough Institute included the East Bay Community Foundation, the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, the Peninsula, Marin and Sonoma Counties, the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, the National Philanthropic Trust, the American Endowment Foundation, the Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust, the Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program, and the Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund. ¹¹

The Breakthrough Energy Foundation, founded by Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates, donated over $1.7 million to the Breakthrough Institute in 2022. ¹² Breakthrough Energy is committed to investing in research and technologies that will enable net-zero emissions by 2050. ¹³ Other left-of-center environmental organizations to which the Breakthrough Energy Foundation donated in 2022 included the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Nuclear Innovation Alliance, the Aspen Institute, Third Way, Union of Concerned Scientists, and World Resources Institute. ¹²

The Breakthrough Institute has identified additional funders as the Bernard and Anne Spitzer Charitable Trust, the Pritzker Innovation Fund, and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. ¹

Leadership

Ted Nordhaus is the founder and executive director of the Breakthrough Institute. Nordhaus earned a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of California, Berkeley and co-founded the Institute in 2007. ¹⁴ He has co-authored three books with Michael Shellenberger and has written many papers on left-of-center environmental issues such as climate, nuclear energy, conservation, and political philosophy. ¹⁵

Board members include left-of-center philanthropist Rachel Pritzker, founder of the Pritzker Innovation Fund; Ross Koningstein, director emeritus of Google; and Bill Budinger, founder of the Rodel Foundations. ¹⁶

Controversies

In August 2023, eight scientists from the Breakthrough Institute published a study in the journal Nature about the impact global warming had on wildfires in California. Patrick Brown, the co-director of the Climate and Energy team at the Institute, later critiqued his work in an article in the Free Press indicating that the team focused their research on climate as the cause of the wildfires and ignored other possible causes because climate change is a politically favored topic for scientific journals. He indicated that many climate scientists are focusing too much on climate change and “distorting the scientific process” in their articles. This statement caused controversy among climate scientists, many of whom felt that “Brown has caused durable material harm to climate progress.” ^{17 18}

The San Francisco Chronicle has referred to the Breakthrough Institute as “one of the most controversial organizations in the environmental movement.” Many environmental scientists and academics disagree with its environmental positions. Critics claim the Institute advocates right-wing ideas that would negatively impact climate change. The Institute claims that they are “basically liberals, just ones who arrive at different conclusions.” ¹⁹

1. “Funders.” The Breakthrough Institute – About. Accessed June 12, 2024. https://thebreakthrough.org/about/who-we-are/funders
2. “About.” The Breakthrough Institute. Accessed June 12, 2024. https://thebreakthrough.org/about
3. “Brief History of Breakthrough.” The Breakthrough Institute – About. Accessed June 14, 2024. https://thebreakthrough.org/about
4. Ted Nordhaus. “Ted Nordhaus on how green activists mislead and hold back progress.” The Economist. November 19, 2021. Accessed June 14, 2024. https://www.economist.com/by-invitation/2021/11/19/ted-nordhaus-on-how-green-activists-mislead-and-hold-back-progress
5. Bryan Walsh. “How Ted Nordhaus brought realpolitik to climate politics.” Vox. October 20, 2022. Accessed June 12, 2024. https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/23375301/ted-nordhaus-breakthrough-institute-climate-change-inflation-reduction-act
6. “Energy and Climate.” The Breakthrough Institute. Accessed June 13, 2024. https://thebreakthrough.org/energy
7. “Food and Agriculture.” The Breakthrough Institute. Accessed June 13, 2024. https://thebreakthrough.org/food-agriculture-environment
8. “Nuclear Energy Innovation Analyst / Senior Nuclear Energy Innovation Analyst.” The Breakthrough Institute – Careers. November 6, 2019. Accessed June 13, 2024. https://thebreakthrough.org/about/jobs/nuclear-senior-analyst
9. “Jobs.” The Breakthrough Institute – Careers. Accessed June 13, 2024. https://thebreakthrough.org/about/jobs
10. Emily Bass. “RELEASE: Letter From the Breakthrough Institute and 60+ Others Call on Congress to Accelerate Advanced Agriculture Research in Next Farm Bill.” The Breakthrough Institute – Press. November 28, 2023. Accessed June 14, 2024. https://thebreakthrough.org/press/release-letter-from-the-breakthrough-institute-and-60-scientific-societies-nonprofits-universities-and-research-stakeholders-call-on-congress-to-accelerate-advanced-agriculture-research-in-the-next-farm-bill
11. ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer search. Accessed June 12, 2024. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/full_text_search?sort=best&form%5B%5D=IRS990ScheduleI&year%5B%5D=2022&q=81-4526660&submit=Apply
12.  Breakthrough Energy Foundation. Return of Organization Exempt From Income Tax. (Form 990 – Schedule I). 2022.
13. “Our Approach.” Breakthrough Energy. Accessed June 12, 2024. https://breakthroughenergy.org/our-approach/
14. LinkedIn – Ted Nordhaus. Accessed June 12, 2024. https://www.linkedin.com/in/ted-nordhaus-447a263/
15. “Ted Nordhaus.” The Breakthrough Institute – About – Staff. Accessed June 12, 2024. https://thebreakthrough.org/people/ted-nordhaus
16. “Meet the Team.” The Breakthrough Institute – About – Our Board. Accessed June 14, 2024. https://thebreakthrough.org/about/who-we-are/board
17. Stephanie Hanes. “A climate scientist questioned his findings. It didn’t go well.” The Christian Science Monitor. June 6, 2024. Accessed June 14, 2024. https://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/2024/0606/climate-change-skepticism-uncertainty-trust
18. Shannon Osaka. “What happened when a scientist denounced his own climate change research.” The Washington Post. September 11, 2023. Accessed June 14, 2024. https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/09/11/patrick-brown-climate-wildfires-breakthrough/
19. Kate Selig. “Why this Bay Area think tank is the most controversial climate nonprofit you’ve never heard of.” San Francisco Chronicle. June 12, 2023. Accessed June 14, 2024. https://www.sfchronicle.com/climate/article/breakthrough-institute-berkeley-18109580.php