Welcome back to The Carbon Removal Show! We’re kicking off Season 4 with a view from the top - checking in on the state of the carbon removal industry here in the dizzying heights of 2025.

In this episode:

🌍 Where are we now? Durable CDR purchases hit 8 million tonnes in 2024 (a 78% bump from 2023), but 64% of that was Microsoft flexing. Deliveries? Still catching up – and most of it’s biochar.

📉 Caveats, ahoy: Sales are booming, but actual removals are still lagging. The buyer pool is basically a tech giant party.

🚨 Bubble watch: Are we living in a beautifully optimistic carbon bubble? Is it about to pop? Will Tom’s optimism hat survive the bubble bath? We explore industry hype vs. hard truths, including the risks of undelivered credits and startup casualties.

📊 The vibe check: Emily’s on an emotional rollercoaster. Tom is backing the CDR horse. Ben’s beard is greyer. Collectively, we’re cautiously hopeful.

🛠️ What needs to happen?: Scaling isn’t just tech - it’s finance, policy, public understanding, and clear comms. We need to get the message out of the bubble and into the next layer of the onion. (Just… not into Emily’s bubble bath. Please.)

🚗 A history lesson you didn’t know you needed: Did you know the best-selling car in 1897 was electric? We could’ve been 100 years ahead… but markets are messy.

👥 Featuring:

• Guest insights from Robert Höglund and Sebastian Manhart
• Hosts Emily Swaddle and Tom Previte
• Producer Ben Weaver-Hincks

🔗 Links & Resources:

• CDR.fyi – The go-to source for up-to-date data on carbon removal purchases, deliveries, and market trends.
• CDRjobs – A live job board dedicated to carbon removal opportunities.
• "Public perception of carbon dioxide removal technologies in the United States and the United Kingdom" – Emily Cox, Elspeth Spence and Nick Pidgeon, Nature Climate Change, 2020
• This episode of Freakonomics Radio, all about the history of electric vehicles.

🎧 Featured Podcasts & Voices

• Grounded: A Climate Startup Journey – Hosted by Tom Previte - a climate startup podcast for fans of this show.
• CDR Policy Scoop – Hosted by Sebastian Manhart & Eve Tamme - deep dives into CDR policy.
• Milkywire – Robert Höglund's organization supporting impactful climate and CDR initiatives.

The Carbon Removal Show team are dusting off our mics, and we have some exciting news!

The biggest of welcomes and ‘thank you’s to our coalition partners: BeZero, Carbon Engineering, Carbonfuture, Carbon Gap, CarbonX, Klarna, MASH Makes, Milkywire, the Negative Emissions Platform, Opna, Patch, Pinwheel, Planboo, ReCarber, Standard Gas Technologies and Supercritical; and to our individual supporters: Sebastian Manhart and Eve Tamme.

To learn more about The Carbon Removal Show, including how to support our mission, head to thecarbonremovalshow.com.

While you’re waiting for more episodes of The Carbon Removal Show, we wanted to introduce you to another project that our very own Tom Previte has been busy on…

Grounded: A Climate Startup Journey

This is the story of a startup that wants to remove carbon from the atmosphere and help reshape our relationship with the planet. Ideally without burning to the ground in the process.

It was a good few years back when Tom stumbled across biochar. That was during the first season of The Carbon Removal Show. And it turns out that this biochar stuff… it's not just an ancient technology but also a cutting-edge solution for today’s climate problems. 

Grounded: A Climate Startup Journey captures the highs and lows of a green startup - from sharp learning curves to unlikely breakthroughs. Listen in as Tom digs deep into the realities and complexities of setting up a carbon removal project, and gets to grips with the science, the money, and everything it takes to build an environmentally (and financially) sustainable business.

Because if we’re going to save the planet, we’re going to need a lot more businesses like this one.

Search for ‘Grounded: A Climate Startup Journey’ in your favourite podcast player, or click here for all the links.

What happens when an individual company bakes industry scale up into their business philosophy? In this episode, Jakob Andersen shares the “gigaton thinking” mindset that drives his company, MASH Makes, in their approach to business and biochar.

MASH Makes started as a project at the Technological University of Denmark focusing on technology that could convert various waste streams (mainly residue biomass) into different energy products. In short, MASH Makes use automated machines that are able to produce bio oil, hydrogen and electricity from agricultural waste, with the main byproduct of this process being biochar – a soil amendment that actively absorbs CO2 from the atmosphere.

Big thanks to MASH Makes for supporting this episode.

To learn more about The Carbon Removal Show, including further reading and all our sources, head to thecarbonremovalshow.com.

And thanks to Cofruition for consulting on and producing the show.

With scaling up in mind, this episode dives into an innovative concept that could help the industry take big steps forward. Tom and Emily are joined by Jonny Gilson from Carbonaires and Professor Niall Mac Dowell from Imperial College London to discuss Carbonaires’ ideas for the future of the voluntary carbon market. 

Big thanks to Carbonaires for supporting this episode.

To learn more about The Carbon Removal Show, including further reading and all our sources, head to thecarbonremovalshow.com.

And thanks to Cofruition for consulting on and producing the show.

2023 was a big year for carbon removal! With only 27 years until 2050, Tom and Emily look back on the last 12 months to reflect on the current stage of the industry’s growth commercially, socially and politically. With big thanks to the organisers, speakers and participants of Carbon Unbound Europe 2023 for welcoming us to the event and for all the inspiration.

Huge thanks to all our guests in this episode:

Sebastian Manhart, Senior Policy Advisor at Carbonfuture

Oliver Katz, Founder and CEO of Unbound Summits

Michelle Li, Founder and Executive Director of Women and Climate

Gabrielle Walker, Co-Founder of CUR8 and Founder of Rethinking Removals

Bilha Ndirangu, CEO at Great Carbon Valley

Ted Christie-Miller, Director of Carbon Removal at BeZero Carbon

And our very own Producer Ben, making his on-mic debut for The Carbon Removal Show!

We also shout out a lot of other hard working CDR companies and organisations in this episode:

• CDR.fyi
• Carbon Removals at COP
• Mission Zero
• Heirloom
• Climeworks
• Rewind: biomass sinking
• Brilliant Planet: macroalgae
• Equatic: ocean direct carbon removal
• Deutscher Verband für negative Emissionen
• CO2RE Future Leaders Network: join the Slack
• Women and Climate: join the Slack

To learn more about The Carbon Removal Show, including further reading and all our sources, head to thecarbonremovalshow.com.

And thanks to Cofruition for consulting on and producing the show.

Resources and further reading

Climeworks and Great Carbon Valley chart path to large-scale direct air capture and storage deployment in Kenya: https://climeworks.com/news/climeworks-and-great-carbon-valley-chart-path-to-large-scale-dac 

Mission Zero turns on UK’s first direct air capture plant to enable jet fuel made from air: https://www.missionzero.tech/news/uk-first-direct-air-capture-plant 

Suck carbon from the air? US facility launches novel climate solution: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/nov/19/carbon-dioxide-direct-air-capture 

On the durability of biochar carbon storage: https://biochar.systems/durability-statement/

Assessing biochar's permanence: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0166516223002276?via%3Dihub 

Frontier Makes Largest Carbon Removal Purchase From Lithos Carbon: https://carbonherald.com/frontier-makes-largest-carbon-removal-purchase-from-lithos-carbon/

Carbonfuture, Exomad Green, and Microsoft Sign One of the Largest Biochar Carbon Removal Deals To-Date: https://www.carbonfuture.com/project-showcase/carbonfuture-announces-innovative-offtake-collaboration-with-exomad-green-and-microsoft-for-large-scale-biochar-carbon-removal 

COP28 — Mixed Results on Removals, Markets and Carbon Capture: https://evetamme.com/2023/12/14/cop28-on-carbon-removal-ccs-and-markets/ 

Why Carbon Removals Are Center Stage At COP28: https://www.forbes.com/sites/phildeluna/2023/12/07/why-carbon-removals-are-center-stage-at-cop28/?sh=26a7e1e82c68 

Climeworks Direct Air Capture Summit 2023 Highlights: https://www.google.com/url?q=https://climeworkscom.cdn.prismic.io/climeworkscom/9493f4d4-676f-47cc-a1f8-8959bc84abee_DAC%2BSummit%2Bhighlights%2B2023%2B%25282%2529.pdf&sa=D&source=docs&ust=1704643167135658&usg=AOvVaw1O0rP7eNt04mSMiYQB3UKo

Paying for Quality: State of the Voluntary Carbon Markets 2023: https://3298623.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/3298623/SOVCM%202023/2023-EcoMarketplace_SOVCM-Nov28_FINALrev-1.pdf

The State of Carbon Dioxide Removal Report: https://www.stateofcdr.org/

Fossil-fuel industry embrace raises alarm bells over direct air capture: https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/climate-energy/fossil-fuel-industry-embrace-raises-alarm-bells-over-direct-air-capture-2023-10-10/

Biden picks two DAC hubs for federal funding: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/cen-10127-buscon1

Season 3 continues and the team remains focused on scaling up. The question today: has it been done before? The task ahead is huge and can sometimes feel insurmountable. In order to deliver what scientists say is needed, the carbon removal industry must go from the young seedling emerging market we know today to a great complex ecosystem - and time is against us. Has this level of growth ever been seen before?

In today’s episode, Tom and Emily go hunting for reassuring precedents and inspirational analogies. Every global industry that we now take for granted was once a young seedling too. How do those industries compare to CDR? What can we learn from their development? And will looking at their histories help us feel more prepared for the future?

In this episode, we listen back to brief clips from Sophie Purdom, co-founder of CTVC, and Dr Steve Smith, executive director of CO2RE. We first heard from them in season 1 episode 1 and season 2 episode 2 respectively.

To learn more about The Carbon Removal Show, including further reading and all our sources, head to thecarbonremovalshow.com.

And thanks to Cofruition for consulting on and producing the show.

Resources and further reading

Analogies and ecoraps for more carbon removal - https://medium.com/nori-carbon-removal/analogies-and-ecoraps-for-more-carbon-removal-3f4e8d92d1b4

Explaining the Exponential Growth of Renewable Energy - https://www.wri.org/insights/growth-renewable-energy-sector-explained 

Developments in wind power - https://post.parliament.uk/research-briefings/post-pn-0602/ 

The Hole: How Ronnie and Maggie Saved the World - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2JzOlRff08&t=1s

Back from the brink: how the world rapidly sealed a deal to save the ozone layer - https://rapidtransition.org/stories/back-from-the-brink-how-the-world-rapidly-sealed-a-deal-to-save-the-ozone-layer/ 

Learning from Success: Lessons in Science and Diplomacy from the Montreal Protocol - https://www.sciencediplomacy.org/article/2020/learning-success-lessons-in-science-and-diplomacy-montreal-protocol 

Should carbon removal be treated as waste management? Lessons from the cultural history of waste - https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsfs.2020.0010#d1e755 

Is the UK’s waste infrastructure ready for a circular economy - https://rrfw.org.uk/2018/01/08/is-the-uks-waste-infrastructure-ready-for-a-circular-economy/ 

Shifting the Direct Air Capture Paradigm - https://www.bcg.com/publications/2023/solving-direct-air-carbon-capture-challenge

How have COVID-19 vaccines been developed so fast - https://www.immunology.org/public-information/vaccine-resources/covid-19/covid-19-vaccine-infographics/speed-of-development 

A Guide to Global COVID-19 Vaccine Efforts - https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/guide-global-covid-19-vaccine-efforts

How COVID‐19 vaccine supply chains emerged in the midst of a pandemic - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8447169/

How did we develop a COVID-19 vaccine so quickly? - https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/how-did-we-develop-a-covid-19-vaccine-so-quickly 

Smart phones:

https://blog.textedly.com/smartphone-history-when-were-smartphones-invented

https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2011/07/11/overview-of-smartphone-adoption/

https://www.pcmag.com/archive/smartphone-adoption-rate-fastest-in-tech-history-301990

https://www.govtech.com/products/how-smartphones-revolutionized-society-in-less-than-a-decade.html

https://www.oberlo.com/statistics/how-many-people-have-smartphones

https://www.bankmycell.com/blog/how-many-phones-are-in-the-world

Streaming continues to overtake TV - https://digitalcontentnext.org/blog/2023/05/16/streaming-continues-to-overtake-tv/

The rise of social media - https://ourworldindata.org/rise-of-social-media

We are back! Did you miss us?

Kicking off Season 3, Tom and Emily are exploring what it will take to grow the carbon removal industry to the scale we need. They speak to various actors in the carbon removal space, from project developers and policy experts to marketplaces and buyers. Their curiosity for the scaling problem took the team on a trip to Basel, Switzerland for a CDR conference hosted by Carbonfuture: Carbon Removal Basel.

The team uses this episode to highlight some key themes around trust and scaling up that will be explored throughout the season.

A huge thanks to our guests

Jan Minx, Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change, MCC and co-author of The State of Carbon Dioxide Removal report

Hannes Junginger, CEO and co-founder at Carbonfuture

Ben Brandt, CPO and co-founder at Ledgy

Adam Sipthorpe, Senior Portfolio Manager - CDRs at South Pole

Paolo Piffaretti, CEO and co-founder at Carbonx

Sebastian Manhart, Senior Policy Advisor at Carbonfuture

Our guests for this episode were recorded in April 2023. Their input reflects the individuals' and organisations’ views at that time.

To learn more about The Carbon Removal Show, including further reading and all our sources, head to thecarbonremovalshow.com.

Thanks to Carbonfuture for hosting us at their inaugural Carbon Removal Basel even

And thanks to Cofruition for consulting on and producing the show.

Resources

State of CDR: https://www.stateofcdr.org/resources

Carbonfuture’s recap of Carbon Removal Basel: https://www.carbonfuture.com/magazine/recap-of-carbon-removal-basel-2023 

Carbon Removal Basel retirement credits: https://platform.carbonfuture.earth/balancer/portfolios/view/main/50fa5b10-e4de-412c-8d75-0d1df060a63b

The world’s coastal areas are some of the most at risk places on earth when it comes to climate change, but could they potentially be some of the most valuable places for creating solutions too?

It’s time for part two in our mini-series on Oceans and... it's the Season two finale!

As we established in last week’s episode, oceans are now becoming a much bigger part of the climate conversation and are a huge site of interest for carbon removal innovation. In this episode Tom and Emily will be taking a deeper look at some of the most exciting coastal-based solutions that are popping up. 

They’ll be putting another biomass-based solution into focus – mangroves; they’ll be discussing The Blue Carbon Challenge, a program launched by Friends of Ocean Action to find viable solutions in blue carbon; and they’ll be looking at an interesting ocean-based take on rock weathering - an entirely different context to what we’ve looked at in previous episodes!

A note from our fact-checking corner: midway through this episode we discuss the relative rates of carbon sequestration of mangrove forests vs. the tropical forests you may be more familiar with. For the sake of clarity, we wanted to say here that mangroves store more carbon per year than the forests we mention on a per hectare basis. Forests still come out on top in absolute terms – not to take anything away from the magnificent role of mangroves

A huge thanks to our guests:  

Ronald Tardiff, Pillar Lead at Friends of Ocean Action

Kelly Erhart, President & Co-Founder at Vesta

To learn more about The Carbon Removal Show, including further reading and all our sources, head to restored.cc.

Thanks to Patch for sponsoring the podcast.

And thanks to Cofruition for consulting on and producing the show.

The time has finally come to talk about ocean-based carbon removal!

In this episode (the first in our two-part mini-series on Oceans) Tom and Emily will be exploring the role that oceans can play in carbon removal.

They'll be focusing on the way kelp is being used as a biomass-based approach to carbon removal speaking to two companies who are using kelp as a carbon removal solution, in very different ways.

Many thanks to our guests in this week's episode:

• Marty Odlin, Founder at Running Tide
• Caroline Hooft-Slootweg, Co-Founder at Kelp Blue

To learn more about The Carbon Removal Show, including further reading and all our sources, head to restored.cc.

Thanks to Patch for sponsoring the podcast.

And thanks to Cofruition for consulting on and producing the show.