Climate Workers Anonymous

The Canadian company Planetary is currently seeking regulatory approval to release Magnesium Hydroxide into the ocean off the coast of Cornwall, England. Another ocean CDR firm, Running Tide, announced last week that they are partnering with global consulting giant Deloitte to evaluate the quality of their carbon credits. Last month, a research team at MIT received news coverage for their ocean carbon capture technique which they say is a breakthrough that is more effective than direct air capture.

These recent announcements indicate real and widespread interest in researching techniques that pull CO2 from the ocean. But how is research into these approaches governed? And what important regulatory issues have yet to be resolved, that will have a big impact on the climate?

On this episode, we’ll take a look at the state of ocean CDR research governance with one of the field’s foremost experts, Wil Burns.

Wil talks us through some the main international agreements that govern the seas, and experiments within them. What does existing law mean for plans to test ocean CDR?

The panel also discuss the recent news of a geoengineering experiment in England that was leaked to the press.

Holly Jean Buck is also back with us as part of our regular policy panel.

On This Episode

Holly Jean Buck

Wil Burns

Radhika Moolgavkar

Resources

Planetary Experiment

Planetary Project website

Running Tide + Deloitte

Coverage of MIT Ocean Capture announcement

2022 London Protocol Announcement on Geoengineering

UN Treaty on Ocean Biodiversity

Law of the Sea Convention

Project Vesta Beach in Southhampton, NY

Holly’s Research on What Farmers Think of Carbon Sequestration in Soils

Haida Salmon Music Video- “40 Million Salmon Can’t Be Wrong”

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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

Holly Jean Buck

Shannon Valley

Radhika Moolgavkar

Resources

Verra Blue Carbon Project

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

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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

Na’im Merchant

Asa Kamer

John Crowther

Resources

ETS Price Hits All-Time High

CCUS Investment Hits All-Time High

Lanzatech SPAC

Alaska Governor’s Proposed Legislation

Legislation FAQ

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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

Holly Jean Buck

Chris Barnard

Radhika Moolgavkar

Resources

Net-Zero Owner Alliance

Glasgow Alliance for Net-Zero

NZOA coverage from Reuters

European Commission’s Green Deal Industrial Plan

EC’s Q&A about new plan

Carbon Gap

Carbon Gap post about Green Deal

Reuters article about US/EU trade dynamics

Clean Energy is Cheaper Than Coal Across Whole US, Study Finds

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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

Dr. Jane Zelikova

Asa Kamer

Radhika Moolgavkar

Resources

State of CDR Report

CarbonBrief article about the report- w/ charts

Guardian article on Verra

Bloomberg article on potential of voluntary carbon markets

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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

Susan Su

Na’im Merchant

Radhika Moolgavkar

Resources

Höglund blog post

Captura & 44.01 new fundraising

Guardian’s reporting on Verra

Verra’s response to the article

Patch Offtake

Climeworks announcement

EPA EJ agreement

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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

Chris Barnard

Jason Hochman

Radhika Moolgavkar

Resources

DAC Coalition

2021 US Infrastructure Bill

DAC Hubs announcement

DAC Hub FOA

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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

Jane Zelikova

Shannon Valley

Radhika Moolgavkar

Resources

Carbon Drawdown Initiative blog post

ERW soil core study

Puro.earth

Puro ERW Framework

Global Mangrove Loss Halted

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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

Susan Su

Radhika Moolgavkar

Ben Rubin

Resources

Carbon Business Council

Earthshot Prize

4401

DOE new CDR funding

Union Square Ventures announcement

Frontier Announcement

Inside Climate News article on CarbonCapture in Wyoming

Vox coverage of nuclear fusion announcement

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In our final policy episode of the year we’re going to look back at some of the biggest news in CDR policymaking in 2022.

Some of the topics we took a look back on-

COP27

At COP27 this year, each member country of Mission Innovation’s Carbon Removal Launchpad committed to build at least one pilot facility and contribute towards a collective fund of $100 million by 2025.

IRA + CDR

The U.S. passed its largest-ever climate bill this year after nearly two years of political convulsions and backroom drama. It included a significant boost to CDR with enhancements to the existing 45Q tax credit for carbon removal, storage, and utilization.

Carbon Business Council

In July, a group of 40 carbon removal businesses announced the launch of the Carbon Business Council, a trade group that aims to help grow the CDR industry.

European CDR Framework

In November, the European Commission released its framework for certifying carbon removals.

To break it all down for us, Radhika and Chris are joined by one of the foremost authorities on the laws and policies which govern carbon removal- Wil Burns.

On This Episode

Chris Barnard

Wil Burns

Radhika Moolgavkar

Resources

David Wallace-Wells on COP27

Article 6

Mission Innovation Announcement at COP27

IPCC AR6

Carbon180 on CDR in IPCC

The Atlantic on significance of the IRA

CATF on 45Q changes

GOP reaction to IRA

EU CDR Framework proposal

Carbon Business Council