Carbon Removal Newsroom

What responsibility do we have for our ideas once they leave us? The assignment of moral blame usually stops close to the source since true attribution is hard, e.g. how much responsibility does Friedrich Nietzsche have for the Nazis? Open question, though it doesn’t strike most of us as fair that we have to game out who our ideas might influence and how decades or centuries ahead of time. This is...

A confession from someone who works on power grid connections for large emitters, and who has watched low-level regulators quietly close off the routes that new gas plants need to connect unless they include CCS. No announcement, no press release. Just minor changes to grid codes and guidances until the business case for a plant without carbon capture stopped existing. They call themselves a termi...

Today's submission is about why perhaps less scrutiny is shown to artisanal biochar than industrial, and how that actually may be harmful to these artisanal biochar project developers. Will dMRV providers notice? But first... Is this a diary? I intended for Climate Workers Anonymous to be a conduit for the submissions of others, but reading them always make me think. When they are simple calls for...

When is your startup’s failure your fault? Saying your startup failed because of macroeconomic conditions is a bit like saying your marriage failed because being married is hard. Yes, but is that really all the analysis you’ve got handy? It can’t all be the business cycle and macroeconomics, right? Today’s submission to Climate Workers Anonymous is about what to do with macro conditions and the bu...

Things are going poorly for you? That’s too bad, because I’m having a grand ol’ time. Are you subscribed to Climate Workers Anonymous? Do so now to listen in and read whenever a new edition is released and support this fledgling collective art project. Welcome to Climate Workers Anonymous , where those who work in climate are able to share the feelings and experiences they want to share but aren’t...

It’s easy to dunk on LinkedIn. There are times when I will polish every word of a post that points to a deep yearning for our labor in climate to feel spiritually meaningful, and for that yearning not to be corrupted by commercial pressures of sucking up to companies whom our conscience commands us to jeer at, challenge, or at the very least not believe. It will get eighty impressions. Then I will...

There’s a Tom Waits line I had thought was from his VH1 Story Tellers album (though I can’t find the exact moment now) where he discusses that a rooster will wait until one is between sung phrases to crow. In my memory, it was about his song “Chocolate Jesus”. The point being—sometimes art coalesces without any intentional will one can detect. Maybe it’s coincidence. Or it’s a vibe people are tuni...

Welcome to Climate Workers Anonymous , where those working in climate share their anonymous and unverified experiences, feelings, and analysis about their labor. Today’s show has submissions covering both the highs and the lows. But even in saying that, I wonder if I start to cross my own editorial standards that I discuss in the podcast version of this episode. Someone left a review on Apple Podc...

Welcome to Climate Workers Anonymous , where those who work in climate get to share their anonymous and unverified feelings, experiences, and analysis. Today’s episode has two longer pieces that were submitted. Before I get into those, I wanted to share an additional reflection about the origins of the show’s name. A friend of mine said it and I cottoned onto it right away, and I didn’t quite make...

Welcome to episode #4 of Climate Workers Anonymous , where those workers in climate can share their anonymous and unverified thoughts, feelings, and experiences about their work. What do you dare to think when you might not be judged for it? What’s your heretical thought, your foolish hope, or your hard-won experience? Share it here for publication on the written Substack and to be read in the pod...

Warning: these submissions are anonymous and unverified. We’ve barely even started Climate Workers Anonymous and I’m already receiving such challenging and intriguing pieces of feedback, and so many submissions. Thank you to everyone who has participated to date and taken time to share something real with this project. A friend of mine wrote me right before I recorded this episode and mentioned th...

Warning: these submissions are anonymous and unverified. Today we have thirteen(!) submissions to read that cover despair, rage, and other feelings about working climate that the authors could not say aloud. The intro to this show also explains why this project isn't an act of investigative journalism, but a collective art project about feelings. I can't verify the claims of submissions and don't...

Here it is: the first show with anonymous submissions to Climate Workers Anonymous. In this episode there are six short thoughts (or four depending upon whether technology has its say), and one longer one. There are big thoughts and analysis. There are feelings of dread and hope. Listen in for yourself. Also, this episode starts with some of my thoughts on some of the ethics and aesthetics of a sh...

Welcome to the first episode of Climate Workers Anonymous . If you are listening on your usual podcast app, you might notice that the old feed for Carbon Removal Newsroom has been officially repurposed for this new project. I started Carbon Removal Newsroom a very long time ago. My name is Ross Kenyon, and I’m a former cofounder of the Nori carbon dioxide removal marketplace and registry. This sho...

So much is happening in the world of biochar. It's both a physical product and can also be a more abstract concept called a "carbon removal". How is the industry balancing the divergent business logic of these two different markets, and what challenges and opportunities will it face? In today's episode of Carbon Removal Newsroom , producer and guest host Asa Kamer interviews Myle...

Everyone used to say carbon removal was supply-constrained. Now everyone says it is demand-constrained. So which is it? Today's show has Dr. Gabrielle Walker , Co-Founder of the carbon removal marketplace CUR8 and the Founder of Rethinking Removals , an NGO working to change the conventional environmental story around CDR. She is hosted by Nori 's VP of Supply and Methodology, Radhika Mool...

The  XPRIZE  remains one of the top stories in carbon removal and one of the largest funding sources for CDR start-ups. The Elon Musk-backed competition will award $50 million to the winning CDR startup in 2025 and send $10 million to three other runner-up teams. Over 1000 teams worldwide have applied since the award was announced in 2021. This month, XPRIZE released the detailed  “Getting to Giga...

Lots of news in carbon removal this past week! Frontier made their largest-ever purchase   of $58 million from relatively new BiCRS company Vaulted Deep , Climeworks   unveiled their Mammoth facility in Iceland , and   Microsoft purchased 3.3 million tons   of CO2 from BECCs in Sweden. These deals represent significant private market volume in CDR. But a new report in Nature called The carbon diox...

Biochar is an increasingly global carbon removal pathway. What does it look like to do business in Ghana and India? What does it mean for biochar to be decentralized? Mart de Bruijn is the Co-Founder and Director of Carboneers , a Dutch biochar company working to implement carbon removal solutions in India and Ghana. The conversation covers the challenges of securing enthusiastic participation fro...

Europe has a lot happening for carbon removal, and on several different levels. What is the state of CDR policy and industry? Today's episode has Nori's VP of Supply and Methodology, Radhika Moolgavkar, on hosting duties, and Sylvain Delerce, the Associate Research Direct of Carbon Gap, joining the show to catch listeners up on Carbon Gap and the latest on European carbon removal news. Syl...

The Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi) recently came out and announced they would be issuing guidance for how some carbon offsets may be used to address Scope 3 emissions (activities beyond direct business operations and energy). This set off a firestorm of protest within and outside of SBTi, as well as some calls of support. It was essentially a tabula rasa one could project one's carbon...

Carbon removal is sometimes thought to be enjoying policy tailwinds. But is it anywhere close to what we need to avoid the worst of climate change? A new report from the Rhodium Group suggests the CDR industry is receiving about 1% of what it would need to reach a one CO2 gigatonne/year capacity! Our regular panelists, Drs. Holly Jean Buck & Wil Burns discuss the challenges of government budge...

InPlanet  is an enhanced weathering company spreading rock dust on agricultural fields to draw down CO2. In November, it announced a new investment of  $4.6 million  from a group of investors. Based in Germany, InPlanet collaborates with farmers in Brazil, aiming to remove 1 million tons of CO2 by 2026. As they work to scale their operations, they face a similar challenge all ERW operations are de...

Criticism of VCM is very common. But what about CCM?! Compliance Carbon Markets face design and political economy issues as well. Could we replace them both with industrial policy? Maybe, but that has trade-offs too. For what is a climate-concerned person to root? This show delves into the fluctuations in the European Union's Emissions Trading System (ETS) carbon price and the U.S. Department...

Do carbon removal suppliers and registries have a responsibility in choosing their customers, or in enforcing how their carbon removals are used? Is it better that the money go to carbon removal than alternative uses? What matters, and at which magnitudes? In today's episode of Carbon Removal Newsroom , host Radhika Moolgavkar , Nori's VP of Supply and Methodology, is joined by her busines...