Climate Workers Anonymous

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-profits, carbon marketplaces, startups, and a new trade group offering sophisticated information and analysis of the rapidly developing CDR policy landscape in Europe.

One of them is Carbon Gap they describe themselves as “a science-based and philanthropy-funded expert non-profit"   NGO working to bring just and equitable carbon removal policies to Europe through informed scientific research. Launched two years ago, the organisation keeps the carbon removal ecosystem informed through its Policy Tracker and regularly publishes articles.” Their most recent piece released last week approaches the thorny topic of avoiding emissions deterrence.

Their senior researcher is Kayla Cohen, whose work focuses on the developing soil carbon policies in Europe and climate justice issues.

Another organization that continues to provide high-level insight in Europe is Carbonfuture, a marketplace for ‘durable’ carbon credits. They claim over 40% of the market for durable carbon removal this year. And luckily for the public they also continue to publish information on the CDR market, including work on the topic of creating a trusted and inclusive MRV system, which we delved into on this show just a few weeks ago. The author of much of this work is their Senior Policy Advisor Sebastian Manhart.

The EU is poised to be a world leader in CDR, as it has been with climate policy. It features ambitious climate targets, robust academic research in the field, a talented labor pool, and a sophisticated non-profit sector taking on the challenge. But it also faces many of the headwinds found elsewhere against CDR such as high-costs, ambivalence from some of the public and existing environmental sector, fear of moral hazard, and broader macro-economic challenges threatening investment into newer climate tech.

On this episode Kayla and Sebastian join to talk about the current situation in Europe, the developments they’d like to see, and where they predict policy will be in 2030 and beyond.

On This Episode

Sebastian Manhart

Kayla Cohen

Asa Kamer

Resources

Carbonfuture

Carbon Gap

Carbon Gap article on ‘solutions to mitigation deterrence’

Our show on Carbonfuture’s work on Trust + MRV

EU Soil Monitoring Law

Sebastian’s Article on Incorporating CDR in the ETS

Kayla’s Article on the EU Soil Monitoring Law

Carbonfuture report on CDR law in 31 EU States

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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

Microsoft + Carbon Streaming

Climeworks

The Reykjavik Protocol

Climate Weeks NYC

& more…

Joining us on this episode is our business panel: Susan Su, a partner focused on climate investing at TOBA capital, a board member at the Carbon Business Council, and a board advisor to the Environmental Voter Project and Na'im Merchant the Executive Director of Carbon Removal Canada, an Elemental Excelerator policy fellow and the author of the The Carbon Curve, a newsletter about the policies and technologies needed to grow the carbon removal market.

On This Episode

Radhika Moolgavkar

Susan Su

Na'im Merchant

Resources

Amazon’s deal with Occidental

Microsoft’s deal with Heirloom

Heirloom DAC Hub

Microsoft’s deal with Carbon Streaming

Climeworks in Kenya

Our interviews with Octavia’s CEO

The Reykavik Protocol

Web Summit Climate Track

Carbon Removal Canada’s launch event

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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

Radhika Moolgavkar

Dr. Anna Lehner

Resources

Carbonfuture

Carbonfuture’s Trust Framework

SBTi Standards

cdr.fyi

Robert Höglund’s post on which companies are buying carbon removal

CCS+ Initiative

European CRCF

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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

Radhika Moolgavkar

Wil Burns

Holly Jean Buck

Resources

Size of VCMs

Article on “Tipping Point” report

West et al. Paper on Carbon Offsets

Liberia + Dubai Offset Deal

Oxy buys Carbon Engineering

NOAA Awards

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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…

·      CarbonCure

·      Airminer’s Kiloton Fund

·      Twelve

·      EU Climate VC funding

·      Prime Coalition

·      Avnos

·      Brimstone

·      Deep Sky + Captura

·      Octavia

·      “500 Climate Unicorns in 20 Years?”

On This Episode

Susan Su

Na’im Merchant

Asa Kamer

Resources

CarbonCure announcement

Airminer’s Kiloton Fund

Twelve’s new plant

Sifted article on EU climate funding

Prime Coalition fund

Avnos

Brimstone announcement

Deep Sky hub in Canada

Octavia

Our Episode w/ Octavia’s CEO

Sean O’Sullivan Interview

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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

Radhika Moolgavkar

Martin Freimüller

Resources

Octavia Carbon

Octavia’s Project Hummingbird Announcement

Puro.earth

Cella

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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

Holly Jean Buck

Wil Burns

Radhika Moolgavkar

Resources

New Zimbabwe Regulations

Amazon Deforestation Decrease

Cerrado Deforestation Increase

“Brazilian Amazon Indigenous Territories” paper

Petrobras Increasing Oil Output

UK ETS Changes

Drax BECCS projects

Our Episode on California’s SB 308

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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

Ugbaad Kosar

Nikki Batchelor

Radhika Moolgavkar

Resources

Xprize Carbon Removal

Carbon180

From the Ground Up report

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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

Radhika Moolgavkar

Chris Neidl 

Resources

OpenAir Collective

Our Ep w/ Sebastian Manhart

SB308

Josh Becker

OpenAir Action Page for SB308

Join a Citizen Lobbying Call

Sign the Support Letter for Companies and Orgs

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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

Radhika Moolgavkar

Todd Myers

Resources

Washington Policy Center

“Time to Think Small”

Washington State Funding

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