The CDR Procurement Guide

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In this episode of CDR Procurement Guide, Eli spoke with Greg Nemet Professor and Director of La Follette School of Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Greg specializes in energy systems, negative emissions, and climate policy. He is a leading voice in the development of CDR at the scale required and is a lead author of the State of CDR Report, first published in 2023, with a second edition recently published. He has been one of the leading scientific thought leaders on carbon removal as a climate change mitigation tool.

Highlights from this episode:

• The importance of objective evidence based information about carbon removal, what it is and what it isn’t and the diverse and increasing range of solutions
• The need for society to engage with a broad portfolio of solutions at this stage of development to give the greatest chance of success.
• Why climate science so challenging to communicate and what will help build a strong social license for CDR
• The goal of The State of CDR report and data portal to put the information needed in the hands of those that need it to facilitate the rapid development of CDR
• The 4 gigaton CDR gap and how to fill it
• How new technologies develop and move through the formative proving stage through deployment and adoption
• The need to get to a global standard equivalent to what we have for financial accounting (GAAP), converging from the 102 standards and protocols today
• The important features of effective government policy
• The value of learning by doing to gain experience and start to establish market practices
• The challenge: lessons from the industrial scale up of ammonia synthesis
• The need to scale up capacity now across the range of CDR solutions in order to meet 2050 goals. The role of absorptive capacity.

-Relevant Links-

• Greg Nemet’s LinkedIn
• Greg Nemet’s website
• The State of CDR Report
• CDR infogrphaphic

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In this episode of CDR Procurement Guide, Eli spoke with Robert Höglund, the leading CDR influencer.

Robert Höglund is an advisor in carbon dioxide removal (CDR) and climate policy. He manages the charitable Milkywire Climate Transformation Fund, co-founded the CDR market overview CDR.fyi, and writes regularly on carbon removal and corporate climate contributions. For Carbon Gap he co-authored the report Bridging the Ambition Gap. He is also a member of the EU Expert Group on Carbon Removals (observer status), and of the Science-based Target initiative’s (SBTi) Technical Advisory Group. Robert previously headed Oxfam Sweden’s policy and communications team and founded the Climate Goal Initiative in Sweden.

CDR.fyi is the largest open data platform dedicated to providing information durable carbon removal. Our goal is to equip market participants, policymakers, consultants, academic researchers, and capital allocators with up-to-date, accurate data on the CDR industry to guide investment and help sustainably scale the solution.

Some of the highlights from this episode:

• Simple ways to understand CDR
• No reason to fear CDR. Comparing carbon removal with the early development of other industries
• Scaling challenges. Highlighting the need for increased buyer participation to scale carbon removal efforts.
• Role of carbon pricing. Putting a price on carbon allows investment in reduction and removal.
• Call for universal action. Advocates for widespread support, even by individuals purchasing just one tonne of carbon removal.

-Relevant Links-

• Robert’s LinkedIn
• Robert’s Illuminum page
• Carbon Gap Report: Bridging the Ambition gap: A framework for scaling corporate funds for carbon removal and wider climate action
• CDR.fyi
• Milkywire [Klana] Case Study
• Milkywire Climate Transformation Fund
• How to set an internal carbon fee

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In this episode of The CDR Procurement Guide, Eli spoke with Marian Krueger Co-Founder & Managing Director of remove.

remove is Europe's leading whole ecosystem accelerator program, focused on maximizing the potential of the best CDR market solutions through support for early-stage startups from across the region, and now beyond. A non-profit program supported by leading climate investors and philanthropists, they support startups in all CDR pathways with funding, entrepreneurship and CDR expert coaching and in parallel contribute to the creation of a supportive European CDR ecosystem.

Marian is a climate entrepreneur and a CDR ecosystem enabler. He's dedicated his career to the development of CDR and has been a key instrumental figure in the development of the European CDR community. He sits at the intersection of science and market solutions, starting with thought leadership in one of Europe's foremost academic institutions (ETH Zurich) and acting as a conductor of the flow of talent and ideas into an emerging market. Marian Krueger could best be described as an impact entrepreneur: first as a venture developer at the German green utility, Innogy; then founding his own startup, Ucair, to increase photovoltaic yield using drones and AI data analytics; he then went on to join ETH Zurich’s Sustainability in Business Lab, ETH sus.lab, as Decarbonisation Lead, where he co-founded the remove accelerator.

Marian holds two Masters degrees, one in education and one in behavioral economics and sustainability from the London School of Economics. He is also the book author for the CDR buyer community, published for the German speaking market, titled ‘Race to Zero’.

Some of the highlights from this episode:

• Why it’s so important for decision-makers to engage in CDR early and understand the science and economics. There is no substitute for seeing CDR solutions physically. Seeing is believing!
• The different approaches to buying, either building internal expertise or working with external experts.
• Why we should not see a choice between emissions reduction or carbon removal, but pursue both in parallel.
• The need for C-level support for CDR purchases from the outset.
• Marian’s belief that there are strategic opportunities from being early to CDR procurement beyond meeting public commitments of meeting net zero by a date and removing historical emissions.

-Relevant Links-

• Marian’s LinkedIn
• remove Accelerator’s website
• Race to Zero
• Microsoft procurement process/learnings
• ETH sus.lab/BMW Foundation From Awareness to Action: The Six Building Blocks for Purchasing Carbon Removal
• Carbon Gap Envisioning a carbon removal strategy for Europe

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