For carbon removal to thrive under capitalism, we need thriving carbon removal businesses. And thriving carbon removal businesses need an income - but who's paying? Can a service like this, operating for the good of humanity, really work in a world that revolves around money?

That's the crux of this week's episode.

Carbon marketplaces offer one model: buy and sell carbon on the open market in the form of credits. It sounds straightforward enough, until you realise that no two tonnes of carbon removed from the atmosphere are the same. Plus, doesn't this kind of system just give greenwashing companies a licence to pollute?

Utilisation of carbon, rather than storage, is another potential revenue generator. Take your captured carbon, pop it in your product and sell on at a healthy margin. We focus on concrete here (for good reason), though the possibilities really are endless. But beyond the wow factor, does it bring the climate benefits we need?

Many thanks to our excellent guests in this episode:

• Sophie Purdom
• Andrew Shebbeare
• Rob Niven
• Apoorv Sinha

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To learn more about The Carbon Removal Show, including further reading, sources from the episode, and our free newsletter head to: https://restored.cc/

Thanks to Patch for sponsoring the podcast.

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

We're taking a short mid-season break this week but don't worry, we'll be back next week.

In this short bonus episode to tide you over, Tom and Emily discuss what we've learned so far and where we'll be going next.

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To learn more about The Carbon Removal Show, including further reading, sources from the episode, and our free newsletter head to: https://restored.cc/

Thanks to Patch for sponsoring the podcast.

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

Measurable, instant, continuous carbon capture and safe, reliable, permanent storage. Sound too good to be true?

Actually, this is exactly what engineered solutions like DAC (Direct Air Capture) and geological sequestration claim to bring to our carbon removal toolkit. The former promises technological innovation that does a tree's job better than a tree. The latter offers one of our surest bets that once we've got the CO2 down, we can keep it down, out of the atmosphere for as good as forever.

Naturally, however, these unnatural solutions have catches, complications... even controversies. Are we engineering our ways out of one problem and into several others?

Many thanks to our excellent guests in this episode:

• Dr Katherine Romanak, Research Scientist at the Bureau of Economic Geology, University of Texas
• Steve Oldham, CEO of Carbon Engineering

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To learn more about The Carbon Removal Show, including further reading, sources from the episode, and our free newsletter head to: https://restored.cc/

Thanks to Patch for sponsoring the podcast.

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

At first, the idea of harvesting, harnessing, even burning our beloved biomass may seem counterintuitive, at least from a carbon removal perspective. Why not just leave biomass be?

Well, as we've heard so far this season, the carbon cycle is out of kilter. Even with our best efforts of restoration and enhancement, relying on forests and soils alone for the carbon removal we need may be too slow, too short, too unreliable.

This is where biochar and Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) come in. While different, both offer to do more with biomass, for the sake of carbon removal and more.

Can these really achieve carbon neutrality, let alone removal? Is there enough biomass out there? Are these the scalable, permanent and reliable silver bullets we've been dreaming of?! In this episode, Tom and Emily teach each other a thing or two about how to get the best from your biomass, for carbon drawdown's sake.

Many thanks to our excellent guests in this episode:

• Dr Naomi Vaughan, Senior Research Associate at the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research
• Pia Henrietta Moon, Co-founder & CEO at Carbo Culture

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To learn more about The Carbon Removal Show, including further reading, sources from the episode, and our free newsletter head to: https://restored.cc/

Thanks to Patch for sponsoring the podcast.

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

"We can sequester with regenerative agriculture between 5% of all emissions and 100% of all emissions. That's a big difference"

Whenever we used to find ourselves around farmland, we never paid much attention to the soil beneath our feet. Making this episode will make us think twice next time...

Why? Because, when you dig a little deeper, soil is far more important for carbon storage than you might have imagined. The world's soils hold more carbon than the atmosphere and the world's forests combined - but what potential do they hold for helping our carbon removal cause?

In this episode, we delve into the silent crisis of our soils, and discover the regenerative agriculture movement ready to address it, with a mix of ancient wisdom and novel technologies.

This episode's guests

Many thanks to our excellent guests in this episode:

• Aldyen Donnelly, co-founder and Director of Carbon Economics at Nori
• Ben Flock, Head of Transition Finance at Climate Farmers

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To learn more about The Carbon Removal Show, including further reading, sources from the episode, and our free newsletter head to: https://restored.cc/

Thanks to Patch for sponsoring the podcast.

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

"The jingle which everyone quotes is the right tree in the right place" (Harriet Rix)

At first, the clear need for carbon removal begs the question - isn't that what trees do?

And they do - amongst a whole host of other benefits that they bring to our lives (tree-huggers exist for good reason).

Yet human activity certainly does not always display our gratitude for the value that trees bring us. With continued deforestation, raging wildfires and rising storm damage, our forests are facing a tough time.

So it's simple - plant more trees and protect the ones we have?

Well, sort of...

In this episode, Tom and Emily work through the complexities to understand the role that our forests may play in the carbon removal puzzle.

Many thanks to our excellent guests in this episode:

• Gert-Jan Nabuurs (Leading author on IPCC Report 6 for Land Management & Professor of European Forest Resources at Wageningen University)
• Diego Saez Gil (CEO of Pachama)
• Harriet Rix (Tree Science and Research Projects Manager at the UK charity The Tree Council)

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To learn more about The Carbon Removal Show, including further reading, sources from the episode, and our free newsletter head to: https://restored.cc/

Thanks to Patch for sponsoring the podcast.

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

"The need is irrefutable. It's scientific fact. We need carbon removal" (Sophie Purdom)

If you're reading this, you've probably considered a certain question at some point in your life. It's the same question that puzzles the mind of many others, from activists to artists, businesses to busy parents: how do we heal the damage we've caused - and are still causing - in our planet's climate?

Step one - Plan A - has to be stopping our greenhouse gas emissions. But even if we managed to do that tomorrow (if only), we would still have an almighty mess to clean up.

And that's where carbon removal comes in.

When we started making this series, we didn't know much about carbon removal, so our first questions were naturally: why do we need it, and why now? In this first episode, hosts Emily and Tom explore the case for carbon removal.

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To learn more about The Carbon Removal Show, including further reading, sources from the episode, and our free newsletter head to: https://restored.cc/

Thanks to Patch for sponsoring the podcast.

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

The facts are clear - the planet is heating up because of emissions humans are putting into the atmosphere.

Even if we are able to cut out all our carbon emissions as fast as possible, we would still need to remove carbon we've already put in the atmosphere to hit global temperature targets.

Join Emily Swaddle and Tom Previte as they explore the world of carbon removal. What is it? Why is it necessary? How does it work? And who is doing it?

Along the way they'll be speaking to the people who are working to make carbon removal a widespread reality.

Subscribe today wherever you get your podcasts.

For more information on carbon removal, head to restored.cc.