I have worked with 18 innovative startups hailing from 11 different countries on the Carbon Removal ClimAccelerator, led by Trinity College Dublin in partnership with EIT Climate-KIC and supported by Munich Re and ERGO. Future framing is essential when you are a start-up. Hence carbon candy. This is my selection of the last quarter 2024
The topics are BCG, Terradot, emerging carbon removal technology, a standardises test, carbon storage, CO2 transport, cement, questionable assumptions, Calcite, marine carbon dioxide removal, non-compliance, Morgan Stanley, direct-air-capture, carbon myopia, tug of war, trees and land absorption, food, cooling the planet, wood, covalent organic frameworks, biodiversity, COP24, carbon trading deals, carbon data, roof farms, and data centres (Amazon).
BCG Buys Over 50,000 Tonnes of Carbon Removals Spanning Broad Range of Technologies
The technologies included in the BCG purchase include enhanced rock weathering (ERW) by provider Lithos Carbon, microbial carbon mineralization on agricultural fields by Andes, concrete mineralization by O.C.O, and subsurface biomass storage by Graphyte.
With $58.2M in Funding & Landmark Carbon Removal Deals, Terradot Launches with Bold Plan to Scale CO2 Removal this Decade
Google, a Frontier member, has signed an additional deal with Terradot to remove 200,000 tonnes in 2029 and beyond – representing the tech giant’s largest single purchase of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) and also its largest single purchase from an enhanced weathering project.
Plans to stabilise Earth’s climate rely on emerging carbon removal technology – we need to get moving
https://www.csiro.au/en/news/All/Articles/2024/December/Emerging-carbon-removal-technology
It’s becoming increasingly clear that limiting global warming to 1.5°C will require much more than existing efforts to reduce emissions and decarbonise industry. We also need to remove enormous amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, 7-9 billion tonnes a year.
A Standardized Test for Carbon Removal
https://heatmap.news/climate/absolute-carbon-standard
Absolute Climate wants to grade all carbon credits the exact same way.
Pulling CO2 out of the air won’t stop climate change…unless it is stored for at least 1,000 years.
Researchers pinpoint an unexpected threat to climate action: ambiguous carbon accounting
426 feet long: China reveals world’s first commercial CO2 transport ship
https://interestingengineering.com/transportation/worlds-first-liquefied-co2-ship
Chinese shipbuilding firm has constructed the world’s first commercial liquefied carbon dioxide (CO2) carrier. The ship is about 426 feet (130 meters) long and 69 feet (21.2 meters) wide, and it can transport 2,64,860 cubic feet (7500 cubic meters) of liquefied carbon dioxide in a single trip.
The future cement industry: A cementitious ‘golden age’?
https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/engineering-construction-and-building-materials/our-insights/the-future-cement-industry-a-cementitious-golden-age
If the cement industry can accelerate adoption of supplementary cementitious materials, it could fuel decarbonization efforts while unlocking a new horizon of value creation.
Reality check on technologies to remove carbon dioxide from the air
https://news.mit.edu/2024/reality-check-tech-to-remove-carbon-dioxide-from-air-1120
Study finds many climate-stabilization plans are based on questionable assumptions about the future cost and deployment of “direct air capture” and therefore may not bring about promised reductions.
Calcite: the versatile mineral shaping the future of carbon removal
https://www.csiro.au/en/news/All/Articles/2024/November/Calcite-mineral
Calcite, one of Earth’s most common carbonate minerals, is key to both ancient formations and cutting-edge climate solutions.
Marine Carbon Dioxide Removal is About to Go Big
https://hakaimagazine.com/news/marine-carbon-dioxide-removal-is-about-to-go-big/
Following its Singaporean pilot project, carbon sequestration start-up Equatic aims to build a massive plant in Quebec.
Widespread non-compliance and poor performance’ in world’s largest nature-based carbon removal projects
The projects aim to regenerate native forests across large parts of Australia, but analysis shows most of the selected areas have never had forests, are unsuitable for forest regeneration and are not producing the increase in tree canopy cover that projects are being credited for.
Morgan Stanley IM Sets Up $750 Million Fund To Invest In Carbon Removal And Reduction
https://carbonherald.com/morgan-stanley-im-750-million-fund-invest-carbon-removal-reduction/
Morgan Stanley Investment Management (MSIM) have announced the successful final closing of its 1GT climate-focused private equity fund, securing $750 million in equity capital commitments for growth-stage investments in carbon removal and reduction companies across North America and Europe. The fund’s target, embedded in the name, is to achieve a 1 gigatonne impact by 2050.
Observers warn the US must do more to boost demand for carbon removal
The US is spending billions to build direct-air-capture plants. But some fear the projects won’t succeed unless the government buys more of what they’re selling.
Carbon myopia is concealing a deeper problem: our insatiable appetite for materials
https://thenextweb.com/news/carbon-myopia-insatiable-appetite-for-material-footprint
In 2017, humanity’s total material footprint — which refers to the total amount of raw materials we extract to fuel our economies — was 92 billion tonnes. The UN predicts this will more than double by 2060 without a change to the current patterns of consumption.
How to end the tug-of-war over carbon capture
https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2024/10/13/2003825202
Discounting CCS completely would be a mistake, but we should have more nuanced conversations about what to use it for — like industrials and carbon removal — and how to fund it.
Trees and land absorbed almost no CO2 last year. Is nature’s carbon sink failing?
The sudden collapse of carbon sinks was not factored into climate models – and could rapidly accelerate global heating.
These companies are creating food out of thin air
Autotrophic microbes survive on a meager diet of oxygen, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, and water vapor drawn directly from the atmosphere. In the lab, they do the same, eating up waste carbon and reproducing so enthusiastically that their populations swell to fill massive fermentation tanks.
Trying to reverse climate change won’t save us, scientists warn
New research throws cold water on the idea that cooling the planet after it has already heated beyond a key turning point can avoid serious damage.
The idea of burying wood to store carbon is so simple it almost sounds absurd. But is it?
Researchers made an ancient find that suggests with the right conditions the potential impact of “wood vaults” could be significant.
One Cup of This New Material Could Rewrite the Climate Change Equation
https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/green-tech/a62720736/carbon-capture-new-material/
Covalent organic frameworks
How biodiversity credits could help to conserve and restore nature
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-03475-2
Biodiversity-credit markets could succeed in ways that, so far, carbon-credit markets have not — as long as the right rules of play are in place from the start.
Cop29: what are carbon credits and why are they so controversial?
Many observers fear that a poorly designed global carbon market could fatally undermine the Paris agreement for three main reasons: environmentally worthless credits, moral hazard, and secrecy.
After nearly 10 years of debate, COP29’s carbon trading deal is seriously flawed
Carbon trading was a controversial part of the global Paris climate deal clinched in 2015.
Why engineered carbon removals are at odds with energy security and affordability
The costs of engineered carbon removals – which rely on human-made technologies rather than nature-based solutions – could be prohibitive at the scale currently envisaged in many countries’ net zero strategies
Bridging the carbon data gap: How predictive insights for data sustainability are revolutionising emission accounting
Overcoming the challenges of fragmented data in carbon emission accounting is crucial for achieving global sustainability goals
Recycled Carbon Dioxide May Be the Key to Bountiful Rooftop Farms
https://ambrook.com/research/technology/rooftop-farming-urban-ag-recycled-air-carbon-dioxide
New research finds that the CO₂ pumping out of building exhaust vents could help give rooftop produce outputs a boost.
Amazon to pilot AI-designed material for carbon removal
Amazon.com Inc plans to pilot a new carbon-removal material for data centers, which are at risk of worsening emissions from artificial intelligence systems they power. It’s like a sponge at the atomic level. Each cavity in that sponge has a specific size opening that interacts well with CO2, that doesn’t interact with other things.
