Carbon Removal Newsroom

This week, we’re bringing you a panel discussion from the Institute for Carbon Removal Law and Policy’s annual CDR conference. Our policy panelist, Wil Burns, hosted the conference and led this panel discussion on the role of mandates in growing CDR in the US. The US government has stepped forward into the role of subsidizing and encouraging CDR in recent years, offering a ‘carrot’ to promote the...

In recent months, we’ve covered CDR developments  in the EU , followed CDR’s role in international climate agreements, and interviewed startups working to bring  DAC to Kenya . There’s so much happening with CDR around the globe that it’s a challenge to cover all the news of carbon removal’s rise. That’s why on this episode we’re fortunate to have Tom Mills and Shantanu Agarwal join us today to sh...

As CDR’s notoriety increases, so too does the scrutiny upon it. Carbon removal companies are beginning to deploy in communities, and are facing local concerns about the effect their projects will have communities. As these companies  work to communicate  the benefits of their projects, a CDR trade group is announcing a new program to help companies responsibly deploy carbon removal.    Scrutiny of...

In our guest’s corner of the geoscience field, inertinites are well-known to be stable forms of carbon. So Hamed Sanei was surprised to learn that there was significant debate over the stability of CO2 storage in biochar, which is an inertinite. In his view, the science of that question has been settled for a long time, and the answer is clear: biochar is durable carbon removal.  Biochar represent...

A few weeks ago, the US government  announced  it would directly purchase carbon removal. The Department of Energy released news of a $35 million fund to procure CDR credits. The prize fund will take the form of offtake agreements and cover four pathways.  More and more governments are funding CDR pilots, supporting research, and adding CDR targets to their climate plans. CDR has quickly entered a...

Not long ago it was difficult to find any information about the carbon removal ecosystem in Europe. Beyond academic papers, and a researcher or two at larger environmental non-profits, CDR policy was not an area with a mature ecosystem. The situation is much different today. Not only is the EU considering ways to incorporate removals into their existing cap-and-trade scheme, but there are non-prof...

It’s been a few months since our business panel has gathered to break down the many headlines coming from the world of CDR. On this episode we’ll talk about some of the biggest news from September: new funds, new deployments, new corporate purchases, and a gathering of the who’s who in carbon removal in New York City. You’ll hear news about Amazon + Occidental Microsoft + Heirloom DOE’s DAC Hubs M...

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, pr...

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...

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...

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 N...

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...

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 embr...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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 Hous...

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 contributin...

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...

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 emi...

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...

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 techni...

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 sever...

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 secto...