The Breakthrough Institute promotes technological solutions to ecological problems.

The Breakthrough Institute researches how societies can give people more—more energy, more food, longer and freer lives—while taking less from the natural world. We use this research to influence policy, advocate for technological innovation, and build a new kind of environmental politics for the 21st century.

We do all of this with a framework we call ecomodernism. Ecomodernists understand that technology is the solution to, not just the cause of, humanity’s environmental challenges. We believe that ecological vibrancy results from human prosperity, not the other way around.

Ecomodern progress is not only possible, it’s the norm. Energy is getting denser and cleaner, and conventional pollution, including carbon emissions, is falling across most wealthy countries. Many nations have already passed peak use of key natural resources. Forests are returning as farmers grow more food on less land.

But none of this ecomodern progress is guaranteed to continue, or to reach everyone. Our work is about making sure it does.

Breakthrough Institute is an "organization that advocates putting progressive values to work to solve problems."

New York Times

Alex Trembath speaking at a lectern at the Abundance Conference — Executive Director Alex Trembath at the Abundance Conference in Washington, D.C.

Founded: 2007
Offices: Washington, D.C. and Berkeley, California
Status: 501(c)(3) nonprofit

What we do

From our offices in Washington, D.C. and Berkeley, California, we research, advocate for policies, and publish persuasive writing aimed at advancing human progress for the betterment of the planet.

Our work follows from three main principles: that we must make clean energy cheap, grow more food on less land, and cultivate better nature through technology. These guide our Energy, Food, and Nature research areas, where we work on advanced nuclear energy, permitting and regulatory reform, strategic critical mineral policy, artificial intelligence, modern animal agriculture, agricultural biotechnology, active wildfire mitigation, and climate politics.

The work today

Our story

It began with an essay arguing that twentieth-century environmentalism could not solve twenty-first-century problems.

2007 Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger found the Breakthrough Institute, building on “The Death of Environmentalism,” their 2004 essay.
2011 After Fukushima, we make the case that decarbonization requires cheap, safe, and reliable nuclear energy.
2015 “Nature Unbound” sets out decoupling; nineteen coauthors join us on An Ecomodernist Manifesto.
2016 Our Food program opens, making the case for high-efficiency food systems that use less land.
2022 We open an office in Washington, D.C. and take on permitting and critical mineral supply chains.
2024 After more than a decade of the Breakthrough Dialogue, we begin producing the annual Abundance Conference in Washington, D.C.

The Breakthrough Institute grew out of the ideas first outlined in “The Death of Environmentalism,” a 2004 essay by Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger that argued that 20th-century environmentalism could not meet the global challenges of the 21st. They founded the institute in 2007.

After the 2011 Fukushima accident set off a global retreat from nuclear power, we convened a growing cohort of scientists, journalists, and philanthropists making the case that energy abundance and decarbonization requires cheap, safe, and reliable nuclear energy. We have since become the leading civil-society advocate for advanced reactor designs and the business models to deploy them.

In 2015, we published “Nature Unbound,” our comprehensive framework for decoupling human well-being from natural resource use. That same year, we published, along with 19 coauthors from around the world, An Ecomodernist Manifesto, which started a debate about the future of environmentalism that continues today.

In 2016, we launched our Food program, which offers new ways of thinking about agricultural innovation and policy. In particular, we have made the case for high-efficiency industrial food systems that are better able to harness technology to increase land productivity.

In 2022, we opened an office in Washington, D.C. to bring our ideas directly to policymakers and executive agencies. Since then, Breakthrough Institute staff have become mainstays on Capitol Hill, at Nuclear Regulatory Commission meetings, and as interlocutors with other policy shops.

That same year, after the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act opened up billions of dollars of funding for clean energy, we turned our attention to the barriers that continue to block energy deployment: a sclerotic permitting system that unnecessarily delays projects, and a weakened domestic supply chain for key mineral inputs.

For over a decade, we hosted the annual Breakthrough Dialogue in Sausalito, California. Since 2024, we have produced the annual Abundance Conference in Washington, D.C.