Carbon Removal Newsroom
By Nori
Carbon Removal NewsroomApr 03, 2020
Building the MRV Tech of the Future
Carbon removal credits need to be much more trustworthy than carbon offsets are today in order to scale-up CDR.
On last week’s show, we covered the news that the voluntary carbon markets have shrunk this year. After many carbon offset projects have come under scrutiny, corporate buyers have grown more hesitant.
To prove that carbon removal is worth investing in and better than the status quo, project developers and sellers of credits will need to be able to prove that a credit sold actually means CO2 was removed from the air.
It’s one thing to do that in a lab when the technique is being developed in a lab. It’s another to do it at scale, in the field, in real-world conditions.
The tools available today won’t be enough to create market-wide trust. What software, MRV, and accounting technologies are being built today, that will manage the carbon markets of the future?
Dr. Anna Lehner at Carbonfuture is one of the people trying to answer this question. Today, we’re talking to Anna about how a wide range of CDR methodologies can be measured, quantified, certified, and sold to make it easy for buyers, all while creating more trust in the market.
On This Episode
Resources
Carbonfuture’s Trust Framework
Robert Höglund’s post on which companies are buying carbon removal
Connect with Nori
Nori’s other podcast Reversing Climate Change
Nori’s CDR meme twitter account
Tipping Point for Carbon Markets?
The voluntary carbon market (VCM) has a total value of over $2 billion, and some predictions show it growing to $10 billion in just a few years.
But the integrity of the carbon offsets available has come under increasing scrutiny in recent years, causing demand to slow and prices to go down.
According to a new report from Morgan Stanley the market is approaching a ‘tipping point’, as more and more companies hesitate to stake their environmental claims on offsets that may be debunked in the newspaper the next day.
If the market does hit a tipping point, what’s next? And what does it mean for the companies and governments hoping that “carbon removal” can fill the gap with a more reliable type of offset?
Our panel will take a look at implications of the oil company Oxy purchasing Carbon Engineering. Is big oil good for DAC?
Whether or not oil and gas should be involved in carbon removal is healthy debate within the CDR community, and this announcement made headlines in the broader environmental media too.
Listen to hear what our policy panel, Holly Buck and Wil Burns, think about this news and its aftermath.
On This Episode
Resources
Article on “Tipping Point” report
West et al. Paper on Carbon Offsets
Connect with Nori
Nori’s other podcast Reversing Climate Change
Nori’s CDR meme twitter account
10 CDR Headlines from July
This month, there’s been a flurry of business news in the CDR world. We’re taking August off from the show, but before we go we’re going to dive into 10 stories that broke in the last few weeks, that have big implications for the carbon removal industry.
On this episode hear about companies putting CO2 into concrete, plastics, and fuel, new investment funds, announcements of new engineered carbon removal facilities, and analysis of the macroeconomic conditions the industry is facing.
To explain what’s behind these headlines, we’re by our regular business panel, Susan Su and Na’im Merchant.
They tell us all about news from…
· Twelve
· Avnos
· Octavia
· “500 Climate Unicorns in 20 Years?”
On This Episode
Resources
Sifted article on EU climate funding
Connect with Nori
Nori’s other podcast Reversing Climate Change
Nori’s CDR meme twitter account
Southern Hemisphere's First DAC w/ Octavia
Last week Octavia Carbon announced they are planning to build a DAC plant in the Great Rift Valley in Kenya, the first such plant in the Southern Hemisphere.
The Valley formed as a result of three tectonic plates meeting in one place. This phenomenon has created unique geology, which the entrepreneurs at Octavia feel could be an ideal place to capture and store CO2 underground.
An hour away in Nairobi, they are building commercial-scale DAC machines and planning to deploy their technology with plans to begin storing CO2 underground in 2024.
They want to leverage advantageous local renewable energy, geology, and personnel to attract global customers.
Today we’ll be talking with Octavia’s CEO, Martin Freimüller, about why Kenya is right for DAC, what they are working on now, and why the price of a DAC credit in Kenya will differ from one from the U.S.
On This Episode
Resources
Octavia’s Project Hummingbird Announcement
Connect with Nori
Nori’s other podcast Reversing Climate Change
Nori’s CDR meme twitter account
Global Policy Roundup
We’ve been covering a lot of US state and federal CDR policy in the last few episodes. Today we’re taking a much-needed international trip and discussing some critical stories happening across the globe.
Zimbabwe’s government has announced new regulations on voluntary carbon offset trading to prevent greenwashing and ensure that local communities benefit. Carbon credit schemes in Zimbabwe have been unregulated. The new policy mandates that all carbon projects register with the program, ensuring that a percentage of the revenue goes directly to local communities.
Deforestation rates in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest have fallen by 33.6% during the first six months of 2023 under the new administration of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. This contrasts sharply with the record-breaking deforestation rates in 2022 under former president Jair Bolsonaro, who promoted mining and farming in protected areas.
The UK government has announced comprehensive changes to its Emissions Trading Scheme: a program designed to decarbonize the country eventually. The ETS will now include more sectors, set new emissions limits for the power sector, energy-intensive industries, and aviation, and incorporate carbon removal technologies into the ETS. CDR solutions, like direct air capture, BECCs, and nature-based removals, will now be traded in the ETS program.
Today I’m with our regular policy panel of Holly Buck Assistant Professor of Environment and Sustainability at the University at Buffalo and the author of Ending Fossil Fuels, and Wil Burns the Co-Executive Director of the Institute for Carbon Removal Law and Policy at American University.
On This Show
Resources
Cerrado Deforestation Increase
“Brazilian Amazon Indigenous Territories” paper
Petrobras Increasing Oil Output
Our Episode on California’s SB 308
Connect with Nori
Nori’s other podcast Reversing Climate Change
Nori’s CDR meme twitter account
Carbon180 and Xprize on Environmental Justice
The Xprize’s Carbon Removal prize has been one of the most exciting stories in CDR. As it seeks to pump $100 million towards carbon removal projects, the organization is also taking steps to ensure that funding supports companies that benefit, rather than harm, the communities they work in.
This is no small detail, but in fact a main question about the future of carbon removal: can it become embraced by local communities who will host projects? We’ve been focusing on that very question on this show because we feel it is just as important as funding news and scientific advancements.
In order to help build an environmentally just industry, Xprize has partnered with Carbon180 to write a comprehensive report on environmental justice in the context of carbon removal projects.
This report discusses the importance of environmental justice for carbon removal companies, the concept of climate justice, and the need for fair distribution of project benefits.
In this episode we’re joined by two of the authors of this report, who are leading the effort build environmental justice into the CDR industry: Nikki Batchelor, the Executive Director of the Carbon Removal Prize, and Ugbaad Kosar, the Director of Environmental Justice for Carbon180.
On The Show
Resources
Connect with Nori
Nori’s other podcast Reversing Climate Change
Nori’s CDR meme twitter account
Ambitious CDR Activism in California
If you’ve been following the development of CDR policy, you’ve probably heard of the volunteer advocacy group OpenAir Collective. Just a few weeks ago our guest Sebastian Manhart said on this show “There’s no state that has policy movement that OpenAir collective didn’t have their fingers all over. I’m really impressed by the results of this kind of grassroots activism."
Now, OpenAir is working to pass SB308 in the U.S.’s largest economy: California. This proposed bill mandates that high-emitting facilities purchase "negative emissions credits" to offset their climate impact. It would be the first state-level legislation to create a compliance mechanism carbon removal.
This legislation makes polluters pay to remove CO2, a statewide public-sector source of funds that would have a catalytic effect on the CDR industry.
On this episode we’re joined by one of the founders of OpenAir, a leader of the advocacy effort in California, and the Director of Initiatives at Rethinking Removals: Chris Neidl.
Chris will help us understand the workings of SB308, its potential contribution towards California's climate targets, and share his personal experiences advocating for this important legislation.
On This Episode
Resources
Sign the Support Letter for Companies and Orgs
Connect with Nori
Nori’s other podcast Reversing Climate Change
Nori’s CDR meme twitter account
![[Bonus Ep- Rebroadcast] Time to Think Small w/ Todd Myers](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/staging/podcast_uploaded_episode400/5740568/5740568-1687809365976-e304fef1f85c4.jpg)
[Bonus Ep- Rebroadcast] Time to Think Small w/ Todd Myers
This conversation is a re-run of a segment from an episode we released earlier this month.
On this episode we welcome a thought leader in free-market environmental policy - Todd Myers, the Director of the Center for the Environment at the Washington Policy Center. His 2022 book, “Time to Think Small: How nimble environmental technologies can solve the planet’s biggest problems,” sheds light on how compact, innovative technologies are giving individuals the power to safeguard endangered wildlife, cut back on CO2 emissions, and combat the issue of ocean plastic.
With his extensive background in environmental policy and public relations, Todd offers a unique perspective on the interplay between the marketplace and environmental action. "Todd's insights are set to provide a clear understanding of the political and social dynamics facing advocates of carbon removal in the environmental landscape."
Just last month, a landmark decision in Washington State made headlines as it became the first in the U.S. to pass its capital budget with funding specifically allocated for carbon dioxide removal, or CDR. This move is groundbreaking as it goes beyond just CO2, marking the first time a U.S. state has endorsed investments into technologies designed to actively remove a full spectrum of greenhouse gases, including methane and nitrous oxide, from our atmosphere.
The state will distribute these funds—totaling $12 million—as grants. Businesses, academic institutions, and non-profit organizations can apply, leveraging this opportunity to further their research, development, and demonstration projects focused on carbon and greenhouse gas removal. This decision is a timely one.
Todd and Radhika talk about his work on environmental policy, its applications to carbon removal, and the recent news from Washington State.
On This Episode
Resources
Connect with Nori
Nori’s other podcast Reversing Climate Change
Nori’s CDR meme twitter account
3 CDR Startups Making Moves
CDR startups are under pressure from numerous sources including current economic downturns, criticisms from the United Nations about carbon removal methods, and problems within the carbon offset market. Despite these challenges, significant investments continue to flow into the industry. This is largely due to the perception among investors that CDR plays a crucial role in reaching the goal of net-zero emissions.
In this episode our business panel analyze the impacts of three recent significant announcements from CDR startups.
- Charm Industrial has secured a $100 million Series B funding round to further their bio-oil pyrolysis approach.
- Carbon to Sea has successfully obtained $50 million in philanthropic funding to progress their work on ocean alkalinity enhancement.
- Newcomer DAC startup, Holocene, has formed a partnership with the Department of Energy to accelerate their next-generation technology from lab to market.
These developments represent new scientific research supported by philanthropy, fresh cutting-edge technology, and significant funding efforts. Radhika and the business panel unpack what these milestones mean for CDR startups.
Providing expert commentary and analysis on these developments are Na’im Merchant and Susan Su. They lend their expertise to help us understand the potential implications these headlines will have on the future of the CDR sector.
On This Episode
Resources
Na’im’s Carbon Curve episode w/ panel from Carbon Unbound
Connect with Nori
Nori’s other podcast Reversing Climate Change
Nori’s CDR meme twitter account
Tracking the CDR Policy Explosion w/ Sebastian Manhart
On this episode we’re joined by Sebastian Manhart, a tech entrepreneur and policy expert who is serving as the Senior Policy Advisor at Carbonfuture, a purveyor of high-quality CDR credits based in Germany.
He is analyzing the growth of CDR policy worldwide and has recently published “CDR Policy Maturity” across all 50 U.S. states. This comprehensive report maps each state’s progress based on factors like specific CDR targets, funding incentives, and legal frameworks.
We’ll hear about what states are leading the way, the role of federal policy in pushing things forward, and the challenges of public acceptability.
Sebastian also fills us in on a new CDR trade organization in Germany, which will work to focus the world’s fourth biggest economy on drawing down co2 and his gives insights on some recent industry gatherings he’s attended.
Join Radhika and Sebastian as they talk about the explosive growth of CDR policy throughout the U.S. and Europe.
On This Episode
Resources
Article about California’s SB 308
Sebastian’s Posts on the DAC Summit and the CDR Summit
Connect with Nori
Nori’s other podcast Reversing Climate Change
Nori’s CDR meme twitter account
Could This Law Supercharge U.S. CDR?
Since last year’s landmark climate legislation, members of congress are looking for niche areas of climate progress. Enter the Carbon Removal and Emissions Storage Technologies (CREST) Act, a bipartisan piece of legislation aimed at accelerating carbon removal and storage solutions.
It was introduced by U.S. Senators Susan Collins and Maria Cantwell and also has a bipartisan version in the House, the CREST Act tasks the Departments of Energy with initiating research programs and exploring the feasibility of a number of carbon removal pathways.
The legislation focuses on several carbon removal techniques, such as biomass-based removal, ocean CDR, and DAC and geologic storage. A wide swath of organizations, including many familiar to the CDR industry like Clearpath, Stripe, and Vesta, have signed a letter of support.
In this episode, we going to delve into the details of the CREST Act, its potential impact on our climate, and the implications of its bipartisan support. Will it help scale up a domestic CDR industry? How will the Act's pilot reverse auction purchasing program facilitate the commercialization of carbon removal?
We’ll also take a look at the recent developments at the UNFCCC and their work on revising Article 6.4. The tone of their first draft has attracted a lot of attention and controversy for the way it characterized CDR.
Joining our policy panel are two experts in the field of carbon removal: Savita Bowman, Program Manager at ClearPath, who works on organization's carbon dioxide removal initiatives, and Holly Buck, Assistant Professor of Environment and Sustainability at the University at Buffalo and author of “Ending Fossil Fuels: Why Net-Zero is Not Enough”.
On This Episode
Resources
Connect with Nori
Nori’s other podcast Reversing Climate Change
Nori’s CDR meme twitter account
What's Happening at the UNFCCC? w/ Wil Burns
An important climate body at the U.N. is causing controversy as they seek to define use of CDR, and many supporters of carbon removal are not happy.
The UNFCCC is in the process of figuring out how carbon removal fits into emissions reduction plans. A recent draft statement caused a stir among advocates of CDR and climate experts, as it described CDR as 'unproven' and ‘not contributing to sustainable development’.
Many CDR advocates have contested these claims, especially given the crucial role attributed to CDR in last year's report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
In response, the Carbon Business Council is drafted a letter, with support from over 100 CDR experts, in an attempt to persuade the UNFCCC to provide a clearer definition of CDR.
In today's discussion, we'll speak with Wil Burns, Co-Executive Director of the Institute for Carbon Removal Law and Policy at American University. We'll explore the purpose of this new definition, what's been proposed so far, and why it's so important."
This episode’s second segment is an interview with - Todd Myers, the Director of the Center for the Environment at the Washington Policy Center. His 2022 book, “Time to Think Small: How nimble environmental technologies can solve the planet’s biggest problems,” sheds light on how compact, innovative technologies are giving individuals the power to safeguard endangered wildlife, cut back on CO2 emissions, and combat the issue of ocean plastic.
Radhika talks with Todd about a landmark decision in Washington State that recently made headlines as it became the first in the U.S. to pass its capital budget with funding specifically allocated for carbon dioxide removal. Todd also discusses his work on environmental policy and its applications to carbon removal.
On This Episode
Resources
Carbon Business Council Letter
Connect with Nori
Nori’s other podcast Reversing Climate Change
Nori’s CDR meme twitter account
Robert Höglund's Cautious Optimism on Carbon Removal
Robert Höglund refers to himself as a "chronicler of CDR" or Carbon Dioxide Removal. He has established himself as an authority in this area, providing enlightening insights through his popular blog, Marginal Carbon. His significant contributions to Milywire, a CDR fund, coupled with his extensive involvement in various roles as a Climate Advisor, have further solidified his status as a thought leader.
Recently, Robert attended Carbon Unbound, the world's first conference solely focused on carbon removal businesses. His reflections from this groundbreaking event, which he shared under the intriguing title "Cautiously Optimistic Removers," shed light on the current state and future direction of the CDR sector.
Radhika and Robert delve into his eight key insights from the event, uncovering the crucial issues facing the CDR sector - from the challenges of scale and certification standards to the essential role of public engagement.
This episode is an inside look at the pressing issues of carbon removal and their significance in our increasingly carbon-conscious world. Why, despite the hurdles, is Robert’s mood was one of cautious optimism? Tune in to find out.
On This Episode
Resources
Robert’s Blog Post about the conference
Connect with Nori
Nori’s other podcast Reversing Climate Change
Nori’s CDR meme twitter account
Differentiating Emissions Cuts and CDR
Following 2015’s UN Paris Agreement, each signatory country submitted a strategy indicating how they intend to decarbonize their economy. While much of the work comes from cutting emissions, plans can also include a ‘residual emissions’ category- that’s where carbon removal comes in.
But recent research from our panelist Holly Buck and her colleagues found no standard definition of residual emissions.
Residual emissions are significant; most come from agriculture, industry, and mobility. Crucially, land-use sinks won’t offset all residual emissions by 2050- meaning many countries hope new CDR technologies are reliable.
For the world to meet climate goals, countries must achieve the ambitions set out in their plans. If those plans are not well-defined, it is unlikely they will achieve success.
Also on this episode, the panel discusses Climeworks’ call to differentiate CDR from emissions cuts, as well as Stanford’s new CDR program and some controversy surrounding it.
One of the authors, Holly Buck, joins us today to talk about this important research. And returning to our policy panel is another leading expert in the legalities of CDR- Wil Burns, the Co-Director at the Institute for Carbon Removal Law & Policy at American University.
On This Episode
Resources
Holly’s Research on Residual Emissions
Chronicle of Higher Education Article on Stanford + Oil Companies
Connect with Nori
Nori’s other podcast Reversing Climate Change
Nori’s CDR meme twitter account
Inside Planetary's Public Outreach
Last year Planetary Technologies won the Carbon Xprize Milestone award for their ocean-based CDR method. That same year they started testing their ocean alkalinity enhancement process in a small trial in England, partnering with the local water company. The test showed improved alkalinity and reduced CO2 in local waters. Now the company plans to do a longer, 120-day test this summer, hoping to remove 200 net tons of CO2 from the water.
Planetary has conducted public outreach about their plan, and published a public code of conduct laying out how they intend to make the experiments safe.
But last month protesters gathered at Gwithian beach in North Cornwall, expressing concerns about the potential impact on the bay's marine ecosystem.
In a Guardian article about the project Mike Kelland CEO of Planetary Technologies said “People often say to me: ‘You wouldn’t want to swim in this stuff, would you?’ But the answer is that we already do because it’s already widely used in wastewater management.”
He said that the company would be transparent and diligent in their evaluations and monitoring during the study.
Joining us on this episode are two people who are working firsthand on the issues of public acceptability and community outreach that we’ve set out to explore CRN- Will Burt, Chief Ocean Scientist at Planetary and Pete Chargin, Planetary’s VP of Commercialization and Community Relations.
On This Episode
Resources
Planetary’s public code of conduct
Guardian article on Planetary’s proposal
Connect with Nori
Nori’s other podcast Reversing Climate Change
Nori’s CDR meme twitter account
The Business of Enhanced Rock Weathering
In December 2022, the carbon credit platform Puro added a methodology for enhanced rock weathering (ERW) credits. This announcement opens the door for the ERW to be sold into the billion-dollar voluntary carbon marks.
ERW is one of the oldest known forms of carbon removal, long studied by geologists. But it is only recently that a growing number of startups are applying the science of this technique on a larger scale.
Other businesses are taking note. Microsoft is expanding its carbon removal portfolio to include ERW credits purchased from UNDO. They will pay the Scottish company to spread basaltic rock onto farmland, hoping to sequester 5000 tons of CO2 over the next few decades.
ERW can potentially deliver massive amounts of CDR if scaled up. Nearly every country has the necessary basaltic rock to spread on its farmland and it doesn’t require any new technological innovations. But an industry large enough to affect global temperatures will need to build lots of new infrastructure, supply chains, and rock crushers.
That’s going to take significant investment, along with MRV, that can grow with the industry.
Is all that possible? Today we’ll discuss this exciting technique's business dimensions with our business panel. Welcome, Susan Su and Na’im Merchant.
On This Episode
Resources
Energy Monitor Article on ERW Business
Climeworks Expansion Announcement
Connect with Nori
Nori’s other podcast Reversing Climate Change
Nori’s CDR meme twitter account
State-Level CDR Policy Advocacy with Toby Bryce
About one year ago we were joined on this show by Toby Bryce, who works with the volunteer-advocacy group the OpenAir Collective on a variety of projects that support the growth of carbon removal. Toby told us about the groups work advocating for state-level legislation called the Carbon Dioxide Removal Leadership Act in New York State.
Since then, the legislation has been proposed in several more states, and the group’s network of policy advocates has grown along with it.
Today we’ll talk to Toby about what’s going on with CDRLA, and what kind of political dynamics he’s found as OpenAir wades into state-level policymaking.
Radhika and Toby will also delve into some of the bigger questions about the public acceptability challenges of growing carbon removal. What should advocates and CDR companies be doing to communicate with the public, and what are the stakes?
On This Episode
Resources
Carbon Dioxide Removal Leadership Act
Co Biochar to Oil Wells Legislation
Connect with Nori
Nori’s other podcast Reversing Climate Change
Nori’s CDR meme twitter account
SVB + CDR
The ramifications of Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse two weeks ago are still rippling across the global economy. SVB was a major lender to VCs, and served silicon valley: two factors that meant its rapid demise will affect the climate tech industry.
SVB worked with 1550 climate tech companies, and gave the industry billions in loans.
Other banks may fill the void to support this lucrative sector, but many carbon removal companies are now spending time figuring out their financial stability, rather than developing their CDR products.
Peter Reinhardt, Founder and CEO of Charm Industrial, told Semafor that “…the SVB collapse will cause a one to two-quarter delay on a lot of things in climate tech. That doesn’t sound like a lot, but when you look at how much needs to get deployed in the next decade, losing half a year is really not good.”
The business panel also discusses some other recent CDR business news:
- South Korea’s announced carbon exchange
- a new alliance of carbon removal companies
- Na’im’s work as the ED of the brand-new org Carbon Removal Canada
On This Episode
Resources
NYT Article on SVB’s climate lending
Semafor Article w/ Reinhardt quote
Na’im on diverse sources of funding
South Korea’s new carbon exchange
Carbon Removal Canada jobs- work with Na’im!
Connect with Nori
Nori’s other podcast Reversing Climate Change
Nori’s CDR meme twitter account
Innovations in Remote Sensing for Blue Carbon
Blue carbon has emerged as a popular climate solution, with offset marketplaces like Verra and Gold Standard eyeing blue carbon methodologies and Salesforce and the World Economic Forum teaming up to announce their own blue carbon credit framework at COP27 last year.
Crediting for blue carbon usually means protecting ecosystems like mangrove forests, seagrass beds, and salt marshes. It can also include restoring these ecosystems when they’ve been degraded or destroyed.
A recent paper published in the journal “Earth Science Reviews” titled “Remote Sensing for Effective Blue Carbon Accounting” reviewed the potential for new technology to improve the remote sensing of blue carbon ecosystems.
Carbon markets continue to grow, and billions of dollars will likely flow toward blue carbon projects. So how well can scientists even tell when ecosystems are sequestering CO2? And what is the promise of new technologies to improve those estimates?
Joining Radhika on this episode are Holly Jean Buck and Shannon Valley.
On This Episode
Shannon Valley
Resources
Article about Gold Standard Blue Carbon Project
Salesforce Blue Carbon initiative
Paper: Remote Sensing for Effective Blue Carbon Accounting
Bloomberg NEF Report on Potential Growth of Carbon Markets
Vox Article about Palm Oil Industry
WSJ Article about Indonesia Deforestation
Inside Climate News Article on Satellite Monitoring of Flood Zones
Report on 50 Years of Endangered Species Act
Connect with Nori
Join Nori’s Discord to hang out with other fans of the podcast and Nori
Nori’s other podcast Reversing Climate Change
Nori’s CDR meme twitter account
EU Carbon Price Hits All-Time High & New CO2 Legislation in Alaska
The Emission Trading Systems is the cap-and-trade carbon market that Europe has been using since 2005 to decarbonize its economy. Companies have to pay to pollute, and this week that price hit an all-time high as it traded for over 100 euros/ton. In the first segment of today’s show Na’im Merchant and Asa Kamer discuss the significance of that milestone, what it might mean for the CDR industry, and news that Lanzatech became the first carbon capture company ever to go public.
On the other side of the planet a different government made steps towards capitalizing on the money flowing towards carbon markets. Earlier this month, Alaska’s GOP Governor proposed a package of bills that would expand the state’s ability to store carbon via both forestry projects and underground storage of CO2 if passed. Will these ambitions contribute to actually increasing carbon sequestration?
On the second segment of today’s show we explored this topic with one of the people behind Alaska’s push toward carbon management: the state Department of Natural Resource’s Deputy Commissioner John Crowther.
Radhika is out this week, this episode is hosted by CRN producer Asa Kamer.
On This Episode
Resources
CCUS Investment Hits All-Time High
Alaska Governor’s Proposed Legislation
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Nori’s other podcast Reversing Climate Change
Nori’s CDR meme twitter account
CDR Axed from Climate Plans
Should carbon removal be included in institutional climate plans? It’s a debate that’s taken place across business, government, and science in recent years.
The rise of the net-zero framework has sharpened the focus on how and when organizations should decarbonize. And how carbon removal fits in.
Last week two influential organizations weighed in on how they plan to use carbon removal in the coming years.
The Net-Zero Owner Alliance, a UN-convened group of 84 large investors, declared that their members will not be able to invest in carbon removal to reach their climate goals until at least 2030.
And the European Commission released its draft Green Deal Industrial Plan, a new set of policy objectives to build out their climate infrastructure. It includes support for many decarbonization technologies, but at least one CDR NGO says it doesn’t do enough for carbon removal.
We’re pleased to announce the return of long-time friend of the show Holly Jean Buck. Welcome back, Holly!
On a less happy note, it is the last episode for Chris Barnard as a regular panelist. Chris, you will be missed.
On This Episode
Resources
European Commission’s Green Deal Industrial Plan
Carbon Gap post about Green Deal
Reuters article about US/EU trade dynamics
Clean Energy is Cheaper Than Coal Across Whole US, Study Finds
Connect with Nori
Nori’s other podcast Reversing Climate Change
Nori’s CDR meme twitter account
The State of CDR report
In January, a team of researchers led by the University of Oxford’s Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment released a report titled “The State of Carbon Dioxide Removal.”
The authors called it the first global assessment of the field and what gaps need to be closed to scale carbon removal.
The 101-page report covered how much CDR currently exists, the research landscape, existing policy support, and the gap between current plans and what will be needed to reach climate goals.
It contained some good news: CDR is scaling fast, and managed forests are doing a lot of drawdown already- and some bad: we’re not on track to have enough.
Today we’ll review this comprehensive snapshot with our science panel: Dr. Jane Zelikova and CRN producer Asa Kamer.
On This Episode
Asa Kamer
Resources
CarbonBrief article about the report- w/ charts
Bloomberg article on potential of voluntary carbon markets
Connect with Nori
Nori’s other podcast Reversing Climate Change
Nori’s CDR meme twitter account
Where Are the Buyers?
Where are the buyers? That’s the question CDR-observer and climate advisor Robert Höglund asked in a much-discussed recent post.
Höglund points out that while significant growth occurred for CDR through voluntary markets in 2022, the number of large buyers is low and growing slowly.
He called the market “upside down”: lots of marketplaces, fewer companies doing removal, even fewer buyers.
Today we’ll look at his post and use it as a jumping-off point to discuss some recent headlines in the business of carbon removal. Including-
· CDR startups announcing new funding from oil and gas companies
· The Guardian’s recent reporting claiming the climate benefit of Verra’s carbon offsets is overstated
· Patch’s new offtake agreement format
· Climeworks’ third-party verification of their DAC process
· Should CO2 credits also include co-benefits?
On This Episode
Resources
Captura & 44.01 new fundraising
Verra’s response to the article
Connect with Nori
Nori’s other podcast Reversing Climate Change
Nori’s CDR meme twitter account
DAC Hubs w/ Jason Hochman of the DAC Coalition
In 2021 the U.S. congress passed the bipartisan Infrastructure bill, which alongside funding for roads and bridges, included $3.5 billion for 4 DAC demonstration hubs. Each will be a large-scale DAC facility, and they may be the first engineered CDR built at scale in the U.S.
Since the bill was passed, DAC-watchers and interested entrepreneurs have been waiting for more information on what the funding would be spent on and who would be eligible to receive it.
In the meantime, the DOE under the Biden administration has been filling out its DAC expertise with industry experts such as Jen Wilcox, Noah Deich, and Rory Jacobson, among others joining the department. This has led to anticipation and expectations that the DOE’s planning for the DAC hubs projects would be sophisticated and well thought-out.
DOE gave the most in-depth look yet at the DAC hubs program last month with the release of a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA).
On this show we speak with Jason Hochman, Co-founder and Senior Director of the DAC Coalition, a group” bringing together diverse, leading global innovators…to educate, engage, and mobilize around Direct Air Capture”. Chris Barnard is also on this episode's policy panel.
On This Episode
Resources
Connect with Nori
Nori’s other podcast Reversing Climate Change
Nori’s CDR meme twitter account
Advancing ERW Measurement
Last month, the non-profit Carbon Drawdown Initiative published a blog post featuring pictures of 11 projects across the world where researchers were spreading basaltic rock dust onto farm fields. This technique is known as enhanced weathering, and the post shows an upward trend in popularity.
According to the post, the projects photographed cumulatively spread 50,000 tons of rock dust onto farm fields last year, with another 500,000 planned for this year.
These pilot programs are conducted by a growing number of organizations that believe vast amounts of co2 can be sequestered from the atmosphere by applying basaltic rock dust to working croplands while also improving agricultural yields.
If that’s true, it will represent an affordable carbon removal method with significant co-benefits.
But how can scientists tell that co2 drawdown occurs after the rock dust is applied to the fields? What techniques and experiments will confirm that this process is ready to be scaled up?
On this episode the science panel looks at two recent pieces of ERW news that shed light on the state of ERW measurement-
In December, a group of researchers from the UK published the results of their 14-month study in which basaltic rock dust was spread over soil cores for 14 months. The study found limited CO2 removal compared to their models.
At the end of last year, Puro.earth, one of the largest vendors of carbon removal credits, added a framework to certify ERW credits to be sold on their platform. Previously ERW-based credits have never been available on a large scale in the carbon markets. Even Puro acknowledges "general scientific consensus on best practice … does not yet exist", but they've taken the first stab at connecting ERW with carbon funding streams.
Joining Radhika to discuss the scientific challenges of measuring the CDR potential of enhanced weathering is our regular science panel Dr. Shannon Valley and Dr. Jane Zelikova.
On This Episode
Resources
Carbon Drawdown Initiative blog post
Connect with Nori
Nori’s other podcast Reversing Climate Change
Nori’s CDR meme twitter account
December's CDR Headlines w/ Ben Rubin
It's our last business episode of 2022. It's been a newsworthy year for startups, corporate commitments, and investing in carbon removal, and December has been no different.
This week we'll talk about a grab-bag of headlines:
- Prince William came to the U.S. to give a promising carbon storage startup $1 million (among other things).
- A major investor doubled down on their climate fund at a time when general VC funding is drying up.
- An on-the-ground look at one DAC company's foray into bringing CDR to Wyoming's oil and gas country.
Ben Rubin joins Radhika and Susan as a guest business panelist. Ben is the Executive Director of the Carbon Business Council, a trade group for CDR companies.
On This Episode
Resources
Union Square Ventures announcement
Inside Climate News article on CarbonCapture in Wyoming
Vox coverage of nuclear fusion announcement
Connect with Nori
Nori’s other podcast Reversing Climate Change
Nori’s CDR meme twitter account
Carbon Removal Knowledge Gaps
Back in April of this year, Stripe, Alphabet, Shopify, Meta, and McKinsey announced a joint project to invest $925 million into carbon removal by 2030.
Using an Advanced Market Commitment structure, the group aims to provide a source of stable demand and revenue to potential CDR companies to help the industry grow.
In November, Frontier offered a new resource to the CDR industry- a database of “Carbon Removal Knowledge Gaps.”
In a blog post announcing the release of the work, the authors said, “we’ve noticed a few areas that are underexplored relative to their potential. So, here we’re experimenting with a supply “push.” Our hypothesis is that we can more quickly shake the proverbial tree for the most promising ideas in CDR.”
To discuss the report this week and talk about what they see as big knowledge gaps for CDR are our regular science panel Shannon Valley and Jane Zelikova.
On This Episode
Resources
Frontier blog post
Frontier database
Connect with Nori
Nori’s other podcast Reversing Climate Change
Nori’s CDR meme twitter account
What We're Thankful for in CDR
The U.S. elections provided a boost to a President who has overseen climate action, world leaders are gathering in Egypt for COP27 to discuss our climate future, and what could be the next Enron has crashed crypto.
What does it all mean for the business of carbon removal?? Join us this week to learn more-
Susan thinks this election was a big win for climate voters, and provides some data about the unexpected impact that bloc has begun to have.
Na’im reflects on the lesson’s of the FTX collapse and what carbon removal and climate tech communities should learn from it.
The panelists also talk about the people, organizations, and trends they’re thankful for this year in the world of CDR.
Our regular business panel Susan Su and Na’im Merchant join host Radhika Moolgavkar.
On This Episode
Resources
NY Voters pass Environmental Bond in the midterms
Connect with Nori
Nori’s other podcast Reversing Climate Change
Nori’s CDR meme twitter account
CDR in the Next Congress
We planned an episode this week about carbon removal policy in the next Congress. At the time of recording we still don’t know which party will control either chamber. Since it looks most likely that the GOP will win at least the House of Representatives, we focused this episode on the prospect for bipartisan CDR policy opportunities.
While Joe Biden and the Democrats retain control of the White House, they likely can’t pass legislation without Republican votes like they’ve been able to do for the last two years. All legislation, including the annual budget, must be agreed upon by both parties.
The U.S. invested a lot in CDR during the last congress…
-Some of that the Democrats passed alone, like increases to the 45Q tax credit included in the Inflation Reduction Act,
-but some were done on a bipartisan basis, like the direct investments in CDR found in the Infrastructure bill and CHIPS Act.
What can we expect from Federal Government in the next two years? Will divided government bring more or less support for CDR?
We have two special guest panelists here to discuss this with us today, Savita Bowman, a Program Manager at Clearpath, and Karly Matthews, the Communications Director at the American Conservation Coalition.
Chris Barnard is away at COP27 this week and Radhika Moolgavkar is away. This episode was guest hosted by CRN producer Asa Kamer.
On This Episode
Resources
American Conservation Coalition
Increases to the 45Q tax credit
CDR in the Infrastructure bill and CHIPS Act
Growing Climate Solutions Act stalls
US Climate Targets Achievable if Congress Flips
Connect with Nori
Nori’s other podcast Reversing Climate Change
Nori’s CDR meme twitter account
Foresting Dryland Regions
If you’ve read about carbon removal online, you’ve seen the refrain, “just plant trees”! It’s true that a living tree draws down co2 as it grows, but can mass forestation slow climate change? That math of forest carbon sequestration is complicated.
But a lot of government climate plans, ESG investing rules, and most of the carbon offset markets are relying on forest projects to deliver CO2 removals.
A new study from Israeli researchers sheds some light on the forestation carbon math. Specifically, this study evaluated whether afforestation in arid environments or in geographies that currently do not support trees would lead to carbon removal, if we take into account albedo.
This, combined with new data that shows that deforestation did not slow down enough this year to meet international climate agreements, puts the potential for forests to deliver additional climate mitigation into question.
With me to discuss the news in forestry is our science panel: Jane Zelikova and Shannon Valley.
On This Episode
Resources
Limited climate change mitigation potential through forestation of the vast dryland regions
Anthropocene Magazine article about the paper
Forest Declaration Assessment report of 2022 deforestation
Nature article about the report
New President of Brazil and the Amazon
Connect with Nori
Nori’s other podcast Reversing Climate Change
Nori’s CDR meme twitter account
New CDR Funding Streams Emerge
Just a few years ago, DAC technology existed exclusively on a lab bench. This year the industry raised over $1 billion in VC funding, with over 50 funded startups in existence.
While there are still technological hurdles to overcome to bring CDR to scale, funding also needs to be diversified and innovated, something we’ve discussed before on this show.
Tech money continues to pour into CDR. Just this week, two large new funding mechanisms for CDR companies have been announced.
Terraset is a new philanthropy that aims to fill CDR’s ‘funding gap.’ They aim to pool $1 billion by 2030 to fund startups directly. Early announced funders are Tim Ferriss and Segment co-founder Calvin French-Owen.
Propellor is a new VC fund that announced its first seed round of $100 million to invest in ocean-based climate tech.
We’ll discuss both announcements with our regular business panel, Susan Su and Na’im Merchant.
On This Episode
Resources
$1 Billion in DAC VC Funding in 2022
Wood’s Hole Oceanographic Institute
Connect with Nori
Nori’s other podcast Reversing Climate Change
Nori’s CDR meme twitter account
The Carbon Business Council
In July, over 40 carbon removal startups announced the launch of a new industry group: The Carbon Business Council. Since then, the list of members has grown past 70 companies.
The group’s goal is to serve as a “resource for our members, lawmakers, the energy industry, and the environmental community to advocate for the responsible growth of the carbon management industry.”
They recently published an Ethical Oath to Restore the Earth, which many members have signed.
This pledge states that signed member companies will adhere to a set of ethical guidelines, such as a commitment to ensuring that the industry grows to benefit communities and that companies will support emissions reduction efforts. CO2BC Executive Director Ben Rubin likened it to a Hippocratic Oath for CDR.
Ben joins this episode alongside regular policy panelist Chris Barnard.
On This Episode
Resources
CBC’s Ethical Oath to Restore the Earth
DAC Hub Regional Manager job opening
Connect with Nori
Nori’s other podcast Reversing Climate Change
Nori’s CDR meme twitter account
Can 'Rewilding' Draw Down CO2?
Can restoring animal populations in the ocean sequester CO2? This question has generated a lot of conversation and was explored in depth in the 2022 in the National Academy of Sciences report on Ocean Carbon Dioxide Removal.
Chapter 6 of that report covered ecosystem restoration and how much CO2 it can potentially sequester. The report found the fully restoring ocean ecosystems would draw down CO2 equivalent to 5% of annual human emissions.
In 2019 Alex Trembath and Seaver Wang at the Breakthrough Institute wrote an article about the concept of “Negative Emission Whales” in response to a that large whale populations would drawdown significant amounts of CO2.
Trembath and Wang balked at this report and cited other, less ambitious figures assessed by other research. They also focus on the limited ability of existing methods to quantify the CDR ability of this approach.
Today we’re joined for the first time as a regular co-host by Shannon Valley. We’re happy to welcome her as a monthly science guest! Shannon has been a researcher of paleoceanography and marine biogeochemistry, has served on Joe Biden’s NASA transition team and is currently a AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow at USAID (US Agency for International Development).
This week Radhika, Jane, Shannon discuss a wide range of topics related to ocean habitat restoration. Can it pull down CO2? Can we measure the sequestration? And should we still do it ASAP even if those measurements aren’t yet possible?
On This Episode
Resources
Breakthrough article on “Negative Emissions Whales”
Connect with Nori
Nori’s other podcast Reversing Climate Change
Nori’s CDR meme twitter account
Two XPRIZE Winning Teams
On April 22nd, XPRIZE announced the 15 winners of the second round of their competition for carbon removal solutions. Each of these teams has been awarded $1 million to help them compete for the grand prize of $50 million, or 3 $30 million runner-up slots, awarded three years from now.
The grand prize winner may not be one of the 15 Milestone awardees, but these teams are a step ahead of the competition and have already demonstrated an ability to impress the Xprize judges.
This episode features two segments with interviews of Milestone-winning teams.
First, Radhika and Na’im spoke with Carbin Minerals CTO Peter Scheuermann. Carbin’s work with mine waste streams is based on the pioneering research of Dr. Greg Dipple. Peter joined us to discuss how they plan to make mining carbon negative, their testing so far, and how their MRV approach will be “modular.”
In the second segment, CRN producer Asa Kamer fills in as guest host to talk with the two companies who make up the XPRIZE team “Project Hajar”: Mission Zero and 4401. 4401 Commercial Lieutenant Karan Khimji and Mission Zero CEO Nicholas Chadwick join us for a discussion on their DAC to Mineralization approach in Oman, their progress so far, and what keeps them up at night as they scale up.
On This Episode
Resources from pt. 1
Elon Musk seeks sustainable nickel
Resources from pt. 2
Connect with Nori
Nori’s other podcast Reversing Climate Change
Nori’s CDR meme twitter account
What Polling Says About CDR
Earlier this year, the think tank and polling organization Data for Progress released polling that showed that voters all across the political spectrum support federal procurement of carbon removal.
Researchers conducted two polls, one of New York voters on statewide legislation there and another of voters nationwide on pending Federal legislation. These two similar bills would compel the government to directly purchase carbon removals. In a February episode, we discussed the specifics of these bills with policy advocate and co-author of this report Toby Bryce.
Data for Progress also released polling last year, which also found support, though low recognition, for CDR and government investment into it.
This week Radhika and Chris talk with Celina Scott-Buechler of DFP about how this research was conducted, what the researchers found, and what she makes of the prospects for CDR procurement legislation.
On this episode
Resources
-Forbes article “The Top Five Legal Barriers To Carbon Capture And Sequestration In Texas
-Manchin-Shumer permitting reform legislation
-Susskind et al. research on renewable energy siting
Connect with Nori
Nori’s other podcast Reversing Climate Change
Nori’s CDR meme twitter account
Summer Schedule Announcement
Hi listeners, we won’t have a new episode this month and will return the first week of September. Due to Covid disruptions our summer break has been a bit longer than anticipated, but we’re looking forward to bringing you our regular schedule next month. Thanks for listening
CDR Update from UK and EU
This week we're joined by two experts in the evolving world of CDR policy in Europe. Eli Mitchell-Larson from Carbon Gap and Lee Beck from the Clean Air Task Force.
The E.U. is working on a certification standard for CDR to complement its existing climate plan. When completed, it will likely represent the largest jurisdiction with a comprehensive policy plan to scale up carbon removal.
Last week the U.K. government sought public input on its own CDR effort. This particular policy effort aims to find business models that will help CDR scale by the end of this decade.
The text of the release finds that a significant barrier to scaling up CDR is “the absence of a predictable revenue stream for negative emissions.” Notably, it also says that “the cost of deploying these techs is borne by polluting sectors to compensate for their remaining emissions.”
Radhika, Eli, and Lee talk about how important these policies could turn out to be, what timeline they are on, and what their organizations are doing to support carbon removal in Europe.
Carbon Accounting and Climate Justice
This week Radhika is joined by Dr. Jane Zelikova and Dr. Sarah Myhre, Program Director, Climate Advocacy & Democracy Reform, at the Glaser Progress Foundation.
For decades, the climate science community has examined the problems with climate pledges and carbon markets. But the ascendancy of carbon removal has prompted researchers to take a fresh look at the topic.
Recently Carton, Lund, and Dooley’s commentary piece looked at assumptions often made in climate pledges and net-zero plans. They highlighted three ways government and corporate climate plans gloss over important nuances when planning their path to decarbonization.
The hosts also discuss a recent article in which David Wallace-Wells examined the confusing and competing narratives about our climate future. This piece warns against looking for a convenient climate story as both the best- and worst-case scenarios imagined in the past now appear unlikely.
The excitement, investment, and research into carbon removal have percolated into international diplomacy and big business. This week Radhika, Jane, and Sarah discuss how CDR fits into the confusing and rapidly evolving global climate conversation.
CDR in New Economic Conditions
This week we recorded our business episode live in front of a Zoom audience. The audience was invited to pose questions to our hosts Radhika, Susan, and Na’im. They discussed-
-Which type of CDR will be the first to achieve 1 gigaton of removal
-The effect of global economic turbulence on CDR’s prospects
-The First Movers Coalition
-Occidental’s plan for 70 DAC plants
-& more!
Growth of CDR Policy w/ Greg Nemet
This week we talk about recent developments in local, state, federal, and international policymaking that aim to help scale up CDR.
Joining the conversation is Greg Nemet. His 2019 book “How Solar Energy Became Cheap” traced the history of PV technology and the government policies that helped it become the cheapest form of electricity in history.
At the book’s conclusion Greg examined how the lessons from solar’s rise could inform the effort to scale up DAC and other newer climate technologies. Greg was also an author of the IPCC’s AR6 mitigation report, released in April.
Radhika, Chris, and Greg discuss-
LOCAL: Last month Boulder, Colorado, and Flagstaff, Arizona, announced a partnership to pool $300,000 to purchase carbon removals to help them meet their climate commitments.
STATE: California’s Governor Newsom proposed that the state spend $100 million in this year’s budget to match funding for CDR projects that have received federal grants, specifically mentioning the recent federal infrastructure bill.
FEDERAL: In April the Federal Carbon Dioxide Removal Leadership Act was introduced by two Democratic members of congress, and in May, two Senators introduced a version of the bill. If passed, this legislation would compel the federal government to directly procure carbon removal from various technological methods.
INTERNATIONAL: Carbon removal found its way into two intranational agreements recently. In May, President Biden announced the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework with Australia, Japan, and South Korea. According to Brian Dees, the White House Director of the National Economic Council, this plan will promote “carbon removal purchasing agreements.”
That same week the US Special Climate Envoy John Kerry at the Davos Conference announced an expansion of the “First Movers Coalition,” a group of corporations committing to supporting six hard-to-decarbonize sectors, including carbon removal. At this announcement, Alphabet, Salesforce, and Microsoft agreed to spend $500 million on carbon removal purchasing by 2030.
Recent Science in Ocean CDR
Ocean CDR is attracting attention from many corners of the climate community. In recent episodes, we’ve covered global policy developments in Ocean CDR regulation and research with Wil Burns and the business challenges in the space with two startups working to develop commercial methods to remove CO2 from the ocean.
On this episode we complete the trilogy with a look at some recent science on the topic, focusing on the outstanding scientific questions that we’ll need to be answered before Ocean CDR can be deployed safely and effectively.
First, we look at a 2021 paper from D A Siegel et al., which assesses how long CO2 stored in seawater will remain sequestered in the ocean based on the given location and depth of the process.
Then we’ll discuss a Perspective piece from Nature: Ecology and Evolution from Boyd, Bach, and Hurd et al. Researchers suggested some possible unintended ecological consequences of proposed large-scale kelp planting, such as widespread drift of kelp into new ecosystems and the spread of invasive species. The authors outlined potential research metrics which should be established to evaluate the safety of ‘ocean afforestation.’
Joining us on this episode to talk about the scientific challenges of assessing the safety of ocean carbon storage are Dr. Shannon Valley, United States Geological Survey Postdoctoral Scholar at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and Dr. David Ho, a professor at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.
1000 CDR Companies
“Inflection Point,” “New Frontier,” “Finally Getting Serious”- are some of the ways the carbon removal field has been described in headlines over the past few weeks. With Frontier Climate, Lowercarbon capital, and Climeworks all announcing big new infusions of money into the wicked problem of pulling CO2 from the air, it’s fair to say the field has entered a new stage.
At a recent panel at Columbia University, Carbon Direct Vice-Chair Nili Gilbert said that she believes there are currently over 1000 companies working on carbon removal. She also noted that of those that are vetted, only 5% will be invested in.
The online newsletter Climate Tech VC found that after the IPCC mitigation report identified a major need for carbon removal in April, over $2.2 billion has been invested into CDR.
Forty-five companies received funding, with $1,100 million flowing to climate tech, $920 million to carbon accounting and marketplaces, and $65 million to MRV (with the other $1b committed by Stripe et al. via Frontier).
Before all this happened, our co-host Susan Su said that if a startup has a good CDR idea, it will access funding. That has turned out to be very prescient in the months since that forecast.
On this episode we talk about some of the big deals that have happened in 2022, the technical aspects of different funding methods, as well as what VC can and cannot do for CDR companies. The group also discuss Adam Neumann’s much-publicized foray into the world of carbon credits.
There’s also one more piece of big news we can announce - Na’im Merchant will be joining us as a regular co-host! That means every month you can hear Radhika, Susan, and Na’im discuss the latest news in CDR Business.
4 Xprize Winning Teams
This week, we’re joined by four of the teams that won the Carbon Removal Xprize Milestone award.
On April 22nd, Xprize announced the 15 winners of the second round of their competition for carbon removal solutions. Each of these teams was been awarded $1 million to help them compete for the grand prize of $50 million, or 3 $30 million runner-up slots, which will be awarded three years from now.
The grand prize winner may not be one of the 15 Milestone awardees, but these teams are a step ahead of the competition and have already demonstrated an ability to impress the Xprize judges.
Of the 15 teams, six are building DAC solutions, three are sequestering CO2 from seawater, three are producing biochar, one is growing algae (stay tuned for more on that), one is utilizing enhanced weathering, and one encourages tree-planting.
In the first segment, we spoke with:
Steve Oldham, CEO of Captura, which is building plants that will extract co2 from ocean water and…
Hans de Neve, CEO of Carbyon which is developing a novel machine design for a DAC system with a small footprint.
In the second segment, we heard from two other Milestone-award winners:
Jason Vallis, VP of External Relations Planetary which aims to use direct ocean capture to remove co2, reverse ocean acidification, and create renewable fuels and…
Dave Hazlebeck, Founder & CEO Global Algae which uses algae farming to capture co2 and make products like polymers and displace farming operations, leading to the regrowth of rainforests.
Joining Radhika to talk with these teams are Na’im Merchant and Susan Su.You’ll learn about the CDR approaches these teams are using, what they are working on right now, how the $1 million prize will help them advance towards their goals, and what they think they need to do to win the grand prize in a few years.
CRN on "Reversing Climate Change"
Special behind-the-scenes episode!
This week we're rebroadcasting a show from the other Nori podcast, "Reversing Climate Change" hosted by Ross Kenyon.
From the RCC Feed- "Carbon Removal Newsroom, the sister podcast to Reversing Climate Change, was born out of a desire to explore current events in the carbon removal space from a policy perspective.
But since the show debuted in early 2019, its production team has evolved and so has our approach to discussing the latest in climate news. Radhika Moolgavkar is Head of Supply and Methodology at Nori and Host of Carbon Removal Newsroom, and Asa Kamer serves as Producer of CRN.
On this episode of Reversing Climate Change, Radhika and Asa join Ross to explain how CRN evolved to focus on the business, policy, and science of carbon removal news and share their favorite episodes from the recent past.
Radhika and Asa explore how podcasting facilitates thoughtful public conversations around meaningful issues and describe how a show benefits when its host approaches the subject matter with a beginner’s mind. Listen in to understand how CRN stays up on big news in the industry and get Radhika and Asa’s take on the future of carbon removal."
A New Era of Carbon Removal Funding w/ Noya's Josh Santos
It’s been a big month in carbon removal funding news.
Climeworks announced $650 million in new fundraising from an extensive group of private equity and investment management firms.
Then, Stripe made public a nearly $1 billion plan to take their CDR purchasing program to a new level by partnering with Alphabet, Meta, McKinsey, Shopify, and more to pool their carbon credit dollars and buy removals from companies and facilities that don’t even exist yet. This plan was inspired by programs that have developed vaccines with Advanced Market Commitments.
Rounding out the month’s big funding news was an announcement from climate-focused VC firm Lowercarbon Capital that they’ve raised $350 million to invest in carbon removal companies.
Add that to the 15 $1 million milestone grants given in the first round of the carbon Xprize and the extensive public conversation around carbon removal that’s taken place since early April’s IPCC mitigation report. There’s a lot of news to talk about in the world of carbon removal.
Joining Susan and Radhika to talk about all this is Josh Santos, CEO, and Co-Founder of Noya. Josh also gives some updates about Noya's recent progress.
Resources: A Revamped Cost Curve for Reaching Net Zero Emissions- EDF https://www.edf.org/revamped-cost-curve-reaching-net-zero-emissions
The Three Demons of CDR w/ Roger Aines
This week our guest is Roger Aines the Energy Program Chief Scientist in E Program at Lawrence Livermore National Lab. Roger leads the Carbon Initiative at LLNL, which “aims to understand, develop, and implement technologies for the removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.”
Several months ago, Roger wrote about the “Three Demons of Carbon Removal” in a submission to the journal Chem about “Misconceptions and Myths Surrounding Carbon Removal.”
In that piece, he said that three big issues stand between us and our goal of reaching our climate goals-
-The Timing Demon- resources are required to stop emissions today but building a carbon removal industry will take decades and needs to begin now.
-The ‘Me-Too’ Demon- will the reality of carbon removal mean that emitting industries do not pursue decarbonization aggressively?
-The Demon of Injustice- carbon removal must demonstrate it can exist to benefit, not burden, communities who have previously been burdened by industry.
On today’s show, we’ll discuss these demons with Roger and how he sees them in the context of some recent news in the world of carbon removal. Also with us, as always, is our policy co-host Chris Barnard, Policy Director at the American Conservation Coalition.
IPCC Report and Carbon Removal
Earlier this week the IPCC released its report on climate mitigation. It recommended enormous funding levels to deploy renewable energy to reduce carbon emissions from power generation while suggesting more funding still to research and invent the technologies needed to decarbonize other emitting sectors.
Under any future scenario, carbon removal is necessary to limit warming. Any pathway that leads to 1.5 degrees of warming, and nearly all that lead to 2 degrees of warming, include large-scale use of forestry, BECCS, and DAC.
The report finds that a wide range of stakeholders will need to move fast to deploy high levels of many different types of negative emissions approaches.
Joining Radhika on this episode to discuss this 3000-page report is Simon Nicholson, the Co-Director of the American University Institute for Carbon Removal Law and Policy.
Simon and Radhika take a look at the recommendations mean, how the report finds CDR scale-up might be achieved, and what are some of the implications for businesses, governments, and civil society?
Ocean Visions Launchpad Teams
Back in January of 2021, Elon Musk tweeted that he'd be "donating $100 million towards a prize for best carbon capture technology." If you're following carbon removal, you probably know he has partnered with the XPrizeorganization to launch a multi-stage, multi-year prize program attracting not only attention but applications from a considerable range of serious science and business minds.
Ocean Visions is a non-profit that supports ocean CDR's research and deployment. Now, it is seeking to help some of the most promising ideas in that space get the attention and support that comes with such a visible prize.
Ocean Visions has selected six teams that will receive support to apply for the prize in the form of technical expertise and physical resources like labs and vessels to develop their technique.
On this episode Radhika and Susan are joined by a panel of representatives from the Launchpad: program manager Nikhil Neelakantan and representatives from two of the teams: Dr. Franziska Elmer the Scientific Lead of Seafields, which is building offshore seaweed aquafarms, and Ben Tarbell the CEO of Ebb Carbon which is developing an electrochemical method for CO2 removal from seawater.
They discuss their methods for removing CO2, why they are applying for the prize, and what they’d hope to accomplish with the proceeds. Susan shares her thoughts on prize programs, and how she thinks they can have the most impact.
Plus- Susan is hosting an event! “How Startups Can Engage with Climate Policy” with Anne Hoskins, Chief Policy Officer at SunRun & Peter Minor, Director of Innovation at Carbon180 — 4pm Apr 8.
Sign-up link below-
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeEpNQ8lWvBz9tp70gR5_SOV9IMZB7IRAInjdcq8uBLB4UR7A/viewform
CRN Live!
In this Bonus episode of Carbon Removal Newsroom, Radhika is joined by Susan Su and Chris Barnard, plus special guest Erin Burns, Executive Director of Carbon180, for a wide-ranging discussion about carbon removal in 2022. The group touched on some of the most pressing news announced this year: Microsoft’s 2022 purchases, Oxy Petroleum’s big foray into DAC, Carbon180’s Soil Carbon Moonshot proposal, and much more in front of a live Zoom audience.
Did you miss the live recording? Catch up with the conversation here and follow us on social media for to get alerted next time we host a live show.
Ocean Carbon Removal w/ Wil Burns
In this week’s policy-focused episode of CRN, Radhika, and Chris are joined by one of the foremost authorities on the laws and policies which govern carbon removal: Wil Burns, Visiting Professor, Environmental Policy & Culture Program, Northwestern University & Emeritus Co-Executive Director of the Institute for Carbon Removal Law and Policy at American University.
Wil joins our hosts to discuss recent developments around ocean based CDR.
In December of 2021, the National Academy of Science, Engineering, and Medicine released its much-anticipated report, which outlined a research agenda for ocean-based carbon removal. Ocean-based approaches have the theoretical potential to remove significant amounts of co2 from the atmosphere, and thus help fight climate change.
The authors outlined six carbon removal categories they found worthy of further research: Ocean Nutrient Fertilization, Artificial Upwelling, Seaweed Cultivation, Ecosystem Recovery, Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement, and Electrochemical Processes. Each was assessed by the researchers on several criteria, such as the existing knowledge base, efficacy, and governance and public acceptance considerations. Overall, NASEM found ocean CDR at the gigaton scale is possible and recommended a federal research budget of $850 million over the next five years.
Wil also provides a CDR update from the world of international diplomacy. The London Convention is a global treaty governing the disposal of wastes into the ocean. The 87 nations which have signed on to the agreement share a standard set of rules that limit the dumping of pollution into the ocean from seaward vessels (it does not cover pollution originating on land). Recently, the London Convention has convened a new working group to assess ocean-based carbon removal.