The Carbon Curve

Episode 60 is a special ask me anything style episode with Na’im Merchant and Rahima Dosani

In this annual “flip the script” episode of The Carbon Curve, Na’im is back in the hot seat as his wife Rahima Dosani interviews him AMA-style to reflect on the past year in carbon removal and life outside of work.

The conversation starts with personal (and intentionally uncomfortable) questions—turning 40, parenting two young kids, and hard-earned life lessons—before zooming out to the state of carbon removal in 2025. Na’im shares why 2025 felt like a year of renewal at Carbon Remo...

Episode 59 is with Rory Brown, Co-Founder & CEO at Airhive

In this episode, Na’im speaks with Rory about his journey into carbon removal technology with a focus on direct air capture (DAC). Other major themes include the importance of financing, the policy landscape for carbon removal in different regions, and the need for transparency about DAC costs.In this episode, Na’im and Rory discuss:

* Rory’s transition to climate and DAC

* The founding and growth of Airhive, including their technology and team

* Key features and operational efficiency of Airhive’s DAC tech...

Episode 58 is with Marc Roston (Stanford’s Precourt Institute for Energy) and Peter Minor (Absolute Climate)

This episode features Marc Roston, senior research scholar at Stanford’s Precourt Institute for Energy, and Peter Minor, co-founder of Absolute Climate. They explore fundamental flaws undermining voluntary carbon markets, focusing on how carbon credits are accounted and valued. Mark explains challenges like the “original sin” of credit retirement, custody issues, and fungibility differences among carbon removal types. Together, they discuss a new concept of carbon delivery companies as long-term counterparties to enhance accountability and trust. The dialogue highlights the urgent need to...

Episode 57 is with Adam Fraser, CEO of Terraset.

In this episode, Na’im speaks with Adam Fraser about Terraset, an innovative nonprofit dedicated to removing greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. They discuss Adam's background in sports journalism and his transition to climate action. They highlight the unique approaches Terraset uses to fund carbon removal, including a recently launched revolving fund which pre-purchases carbon removal and reinvests proceeds to create a sustainable funding model. They also discuss the importance of philanthropic capital to catalyze the nascent carbon removal industry and how Terraset collaborates with various stakeholders to support an...

Episode 56 is with Jonathan Rhone and Natalie Khtikian, co-founders of CO280.

In this episode, Na’im speaks with Jonathan and Natalie about their groundbreaking work in large-scale carbon dioxide removal (CDR) projects, specifically in partnership with pulp and paper companies. They discuss their innovative approach to carbon removal by partnering with pulp and paper companies. They highlight the importance of leveraging existing industrial frameworks to scale effectively. The episode delves into their successful partnerships with major companies like JP Morgan and Microsoft, and the critical role of government policies in facilitating large-scale carbon removal projects.

In...

Episode 55 is with Will Kain, Founder & CEO of Avnos

In this episode, Na’im speaks with Will Kain about the advancement and commercialization of hybrid direct air capture (HDAC) technology at Avnos. The conversation also covers Will’s journey into the climate tech space, the unique hybrid DAC approach and the resource-efficient and cost-effective benefits of HDAC, as well as the challenges of scaling DAC technologies and the role of supportive policy regimes.

In this episode, Na’im and Will discuss: 

* Will’s journey in carbon removal

* Avnos’ approach to Direct Air Capture...

Episode 54 is with Shantanu Agrawal, Founder and CEO of Mati Carbon and Nikki Batchelor, Executive Director for the $100M Carbon Removal XPRIZE.

In this episode, Na’im delves into the groundbreaking achievements in carbon removal led by Mati Carbon and the XPRIZE Carbon Dioxide Removal Competition. Shantanu Aggarwal, CEO of Mati Carbon, discusses winning the $50 million grand prize of the XPRIZE competition. Nikki Bachelor from XPRIZE highlights the competition’s impact in catalyzing the carbon removal market, with insights into scaling solutions and responsible deployment. The conversation covers the intersection of carbon removal, economic development, and global coll...

Episode 53 is a Special Episode with Ed Whittingham of Advance Climate Solutions and Grégoire Baillargeon, President of BMO Québec and Vice Chair of BMO Capital Markets.

In this special live episode of The Carbon Curve, Na’im is joined by Ed Whittingham of Advance Climate Solutions and host of the Energy vs. Climate podcast and Grégoire Baillargeon, President of BMO Quebec, Vice Chair of BMO Capital Markets, and Board Member of Carbon Removal Canada. Recorded at the Climate Solutions Prize Festival, the “multi-host” panel discusses the potential of Canada to scale carbon removal technologies and seize...

Episode 52 is a special joint episode with Plan Sea host Anna Madlener and Lennart Bach, Associate Professor and ocean alkalinity enhancement (OAE) scientist at the University of Tasmania.

In this episode, Na’im joins Anna Madlener for a special co-hosted episode between Plan Sea and The Carbon Curve, recorded live at the Carbon to Sea 2025 Annual Convening. Anna and Na’im speak with Lennart Bach, to share insights and key takeaways from this year’s convening.

Last month, Carbon to Sea hosted its third Annual Convening in Washington, D.C., bringing together scientists, entrepreneurs, and policy...

Episode 51 is with Erin Burns, Executive Director of Carbon180.

This episode highlights the critical need for long-term strategies and adaptability in carbon removal policies amidst changing political landscapes. Key takeaways include the importance of making carbon removal efforts tangible and real for policymakers by emphasizing measurable impacts and local benefits, the necessity of building broad coalitions and engaging various stakeholders to sustain and expand carbon removal initiatives, and the focus on developing new, specialized carbon removal policies while defending existing programs to ensure continued progress in the sector.

In this episode, Na’im and Erin di...

Episode 50 is a special AMA style episode with Na’im Merchant and Rahima Dosani

In this special “ask me anything” episode of the Carbon Curve podcast, the tables are turned and Na’im is interviewed by his wife, Rahima Dosani, to discuss the past year's accomplishments and challenges, as well as future plans for 2025 in the carbon removal space.

With Na’im leading Carbon Removal Canada, he shares insights on policy achievements, the growth of the sector, and the balancing act of managing an organization and parenthood. The conversation covers significant policy milestones and Na’im shares fr...

Episode 49 is with Peter Minor (Absolute Climate) and Travis Caddy (Evident)

Despite all of the recent progress to integrate carbon removal in carbon markets globally, a significant problem remains. Existing market mechanisms continue to commoditize carbon removal credits that we haven’t effectively standardized yet. Carbon credits are sold as interchangeable units despite differences in how project quality is evaluated. Absolute Climate thinks it has solved this problem with the Absolute Carbon Standard and its partnership with longstanding registry Evident. I speak to Peter Minor and Travis Caddy about this standard and exciting new partnership.

In...

Episode 48 is with Senator Colin Deacon, Senate of Canada

Independent Senator Colin Deacon was appointed to represent Nova Scotia in the Senate of Canada in June 2018. Senator Deacon shares his vision on how government policy can empower entrepreneurs and encourage investment in carbon removal technologies, and that regulator agility is critical to adapting to the fast evolving needs of carbon removal and climate solutions more generally. We dive deep on what regulatory agility could look like, including regulatory sandboxes, touch on opportunities for international cooperation on carbon removal given that Canada will host the G7 in 2025, and...

Episode 47 is with Giana Amador, Executive Director at Carbon Removal Alliance

Monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) is critical to ensuring carbon removal quality, but what is the role of public policy to enable MRV to deliver on this promise? Giana Amador, Executive Director at Carbon Removal Alliance, describes the catalytic role government can play in supporting MRV standards, fostering transparency, and promoting community benefits for long-term carbon removal industry growth. We also discuss the significance of the newly introduced 45BB production tax credit aimed at fostering technological diversity in carbon removal solutions.

In this episode...

Episode 46 is with Josh Albert, Associate Partner with KONU

You’ll often hear people say climate is a systems problem, but we in the carbon removal field don’t have a useful framework for driving systems change. In this episode, we explore the complexities of climate change, going beyond single solutions and acknowledging the diverse stakeholders and shifting systems involved. Our guest introduces the Adaptive Leadership Framework, a unique approach to driving systems change. We'll discuss its potential in combatting climate change and scaling carbon removal.

In this episode, Na’im and Josh discuss:

* Jo...

Episode 45 is with Eli Mitchell-Larson, Co-founder and Chief Scientist at Carbon Gap, and Robert Höglund, Co-founder of CDR.fyi and Fund Manager at Milkywire.

Today Na’im speaks with Eli and Robert about their latest publication titled “All excess emissions must be removed”, which argues for the central role of carbon removal (CDR) to address the global carbon debt, especially among historically high emitters, not only the “residual emissions” remaining at the year of net zero - and how this reframing expands the use case for carbon removal.

In this episode, Na’im, Eli, and Robert di...

Episode 44 is with Jim Mann, Founder and CEO of UNDO

A few weeks ago, Microsoft inked a new 15,000 ton carbon removal deal with UNDO and similar deals with other enhanced rock weathering (ERW) companies. Na’im speaks with Jim Mann, Founder and CEO of UNDO, about the company’s efforts in scaling carbon removal through ERW both in the U.K. and in Canada.

In this episode, Na’im and Jim discuss:

* The origin of UNDO and the reasons for exploring ERW as the key CDR method; 

* The operational processes at UNDO;<...

Episode 43 is with Luke Connell and Shannon Sterling

As we wrap up Climate Week NYC today, I wanted to share a special episode with the CarbonRun leadership team on their exciting $25M offtake agreement with Frontier Climate - probably the biggest carbon removal news of Climate Week. It even hit the front page of the New York Times. We talk about what they’ve been up to leading to this announcement, and what this major milestone means for their company and the communities they work with.

In this episode, Na’im, Luke, and Shannon discuss: 

...

Episode 42 is with Sebastian Manhart, Senior Policy Advisor at Carbonfuture

Sebastian Manhart discusses recent carbon dioxide removal (CDR) policies in Europe and the U.S. He points out key policy achievements, compares the EU's and U.S.'s different CDR approaches, and emphasizes the importance as well as the challenges of integrating CDR into compliance markets. He also mentions his own projects aimed at advancing the CDR industry.

In this episode, Na’im and Sebastian discuss:

* recent developments in carbon removal policies across Europe and the U.S.;

* significant policy wins ov...

Episode 41 is with Noah Deich, Senior Advisor for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management

Today Na’im speaks with Noah Deich about how the US Department of Energy (DOE) is contributing to the carbon removal landscape through innovative programs and policies aimed at decarbonizing the energy sector and advancing carbon removal technologies. 

In this episode, Na’im and Noah discuss:

* Noah's journey into the carbon removal space; 

* The role of DOE’s Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management;

* Key innovation programs a...

Episode 40 is with Anu Khan, Founder and Executive Director at Carbon Removal Standards Initiative

Anu founded the Carbon Removal Standards Initiative or CRSI in early 2024 while an Entrepreneur in Residence at Carbon180. She previously led the Science & Innovation team at Carbon180 where her work focused on measurement, reporting, and verification (or MRV) as a crucial level for building a just, equitable, and highly accountable carbon removal (or CDR) sector. Prior to Carbon180, Anu worked in climate philanthropy at Founders Pledge. Her academic background is in electrochemistry and materials science. 

CRSI is a new nonprofit initiative t...

Episode 39 is with Mark Cyffka, Co-Founder and COO of AirMyne. 

Today Na’im speaks with Mark Cyffka about common barriers to scaling the different approaches of direct air capture technologies, how AirMyne is looking to bypass those barriers with its technology, what the cost trajectory of DAC will be between now and 2050, and how to think about the modularity versus large-system approaches of developing DAC technologies.

In this episode, Na’im and Mark discuss:

* AirMyne’s progress since the company was launched;

* Common barriers to scaling direct air capture today;

* Air...

Episode 38 is with Dai Ellis (Co-founder and CEO) and Vilas Rao (Co-founder) of Cascade Climate.

Today Na’im speaks with Dai Ellis and Vilas Rao about how Cascade Climate is working to address key challenges in open-system carbon dioxide removal (CDR), particularly around quantification of enhanced rock weathering (ERW), why a community-built quantification standard is key to increase consistency in MRV practices across the ERW market, and how to encourage industry adoption and data sharing to advance understanding of ERW.

In this episode, Na’im, Dai, and Vilas discuss:

* The co-founders’ vision for launch...

Episode 37 is with Lukas May, Head of Policy and Expansion at Isometric

The traditional carbon offset market is riddled with problems. We've seen reporting on this from The Guardian, Bloomberg, and other media outlets. Researchers at CarbonPlan have also done some excellent work exposing just how broken some of these systems really are. As we build a new carbon removal industry, we now have an opportunity to build trust in a high integrity carbon removal market.

One company, Isometric, is working to figure that out, building scientific integrity, transparency, and incentive alignment into their business...

Episode 36 is with Nikki Batchelor of XPRIZE and Ben Rubin of Carbon Business Council.

Carbon removal can be a force for good - not just in creating lasting climate benefits - but in delivering social, economic, and ecological benefits as well. Indeed, the future of carbon removal depends on that promise playing out. But it isn’t a foregone conclusion that large scale carbon removal is uncompromisingly and unequivocally good for people and planet. As we build this new industry - an intentional approach to its responsible deployment is absolutely necessary. Today, Na’im speaks with Nikki Batch...

Episode 35 is with Anastasia Pavlovic, CEO of Eion and Elliot Chang, Co-founder and CSO of Eion.

Today Na’im speaks with Anastasia Pavlovic, CEO of Eion and Elliot Chang, CSO of Eion. Enhanced rock weathering (ERW) is an area of carbon removal that I’ve been really intrigued by. When I think about ERW, I think about high potential for scale, benefits to farmers, and potentially challenging MRV.

So 35 episodes into this podcast, I’m finally doing an episode on ERW. Today I’ll be speaking with Eion’s co-founder, alongside a newly minted CEO, to educate...

Episode 34 is with Phil De Luna, Chief Carbon Scientist and Head of Engineering at Deep Sky. 

In this episode, Na’im speaks to Phil De Luna, Deep Sky’s Chief Carbon Scientists and Head of Engineering. Na’im and Phil cover a broad range of what Deep Sky - a carbon dioxide removal (CDR) project developer that raised C$75M last year - has done to date, how they think about new technology adoption, why Canada is well suited for large scale carbon removal, and the policies that would help advance their work. And we get a few hin...

Episode 33 is with Dr. Julio Friedmann, Chief Scientist at Carbon Direct, and with Tim Bushman, Director of Policy and Research at Carbon Removal Canada.

Today Na’im speaks with Dr. Julio Friedmann and Tim Bushman about Canada's potential to scale up carbon dioxide removal (CDR). Late last year, Carbon Removal Canada released a report on Canada's readiness to scale carbon removal and the policies needed to unlock its potential. Today, Na’im speaks to two leading experts on carbon removal's future in Canada: Tim Bushman, who co authored the report and who has surveyed the Canadian landscape to u...

Episode 32 is with Na’im Merchant and Rahima Dosani.

Building off of the special episode they did a year ago, Na’im and Rahima are back to reflect on all things carbon removal in 2023 and what’s in store for 2024. They also get into launching Carbon Removal Canada, the role Canada can play in scaling carbon removal (CDR), managing changing professional demands, and other personal questions that Na’im was clearly not prepared for!

We hope you enjoy the episode and wish everyone a happy 2024!

About Rahima Dosani

Rahima Dosani is the Dire...

Episode 31 is with Paul Needham, CEO of Arca.

Today Na’im speaks with Paul Needham about the potential for accelerated carbon mineralization using mine waste as a carbon dioxide removal (CDR) method to decarbonize mining. Mining will play a huge role in the energy transition given the huge need of critical metals - and CDR can help ensure it’s done in a net-zero fashion.

Arca is working to stop - and reverse - climate change by capturing carbon dioxide from the air and transforming it into rock, where it is safely stored forever. Co-founded by P...

Episode 30 is with Bilha Ndirangu, CEO of Great Carbon Valley.

Today Na’im speaks with Bilha Ndirangu. Bilha is the CEO of Great Carbon Valley. She is also the co-founder of Jacob’s Ladder Africa, a non-profit focused on green workforce preparation.  In this and other roles, she is at the intersection of climate action, technology, and education, positioning Africa as an investment destination for the green economy, identifying and scaling relevant technologies, and preparing its youth to provide the requisite skills mix. She has had previous roles as CEO of the African Leadership Academy and CEO of Af...

Episode 29 is with Anna Stukas, Vice President of Business Development at Carbon Engineering Ltd.

Today Na’im speaks with Anna Stukas about how Carbon Engineering is helping the aviation industry to decarbonize, and what roles direct air capture (DAC) technologies play in the sector’s overall strategy to reach net-zero.

Anna Stukas is a Vice President of Business Development at Carbon Engineering Ltd.  Anna is a professional engineer with nearly two decades experience bridging the gap between technology and business to overcome barriers to cleantech commercialization. She currently leads a variety of CE’s partnering and bus...

Episode 28 is with Marty Odlin, Founder and CEO of Running Tide.

Today Na’im speaks with Marty Odlin about how Running Tide is navigating the waters of open ocean CDR.

Marty Odlin is the Founder and CEO of Running Tide, a global ocean health company. A systems engineer from a 4th generation fishing family, Marty founded the company in 2017 after seeing the devastating implications of climate change on his own community. 

Running Tide designs and deploys cutting-edge diagnostics and comprehensive interventions that rebalance the carbon cycle, decarbonize global supply chains, restore marine ecosystems, and...

Episode 27 is with Sebastian Manhart, Senior Policy Advisor at Carbonfuture and Board Chair of DVNE, a new German carbon removal association.

In the last year, carbon removal news has been dominated by policy wins in the United States. But we know that climate change is the ultimate collective action problem, and I've been keen to learn what other jurisdictions are doing to scale carbon removal globally. The EU is likely to be a big player in the carbon removal field.

My guest today, Sebastian Manhart, will tell us about a number of meaningful policy developments...

Episode 26 is with Rahul Shendure, CEO of CarbonBuilt.

There are many different storage pathways for carbon dioxide removed from the atmosphere.

One storage medium that we don't talk about enough is storage of CO2 in long-lived products like concrete. Storing CO2 in concrete not only helps solve the CO2 storage problem - especially for smaller, modular carbon removal deployments - but helps decarbonize a very carbon intense product.

My guest today, Rahul Shendure, leads a company that is developing ultra low carbon concrete that is coming off the production line today and demonstrates...

Episode 25 is with Jack Andreasen (Breakthrough Energy) and Dr. Claire Nelson (Cella).

Today Na’im digs deep into the safe and secure storage of CO2 with Jack Andreasen and Dr. Claire Nelson.

Jack Andreasen covers carbon management policy for Breakthrough Energy. In this role he works on policy across NGOs, federal and state governments, industry and start-ups in DAC, CCS and carbon storage. Previous to this role he was an energy policy analyst at The Climate Reality Project and worked for Duke Energy. 

Dr. Claire Nelson is a geochemist with expertise on geologic car...

Episode 24 is with Professor Gregory Nemet, a Professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in the La Follette School of Public Affairs and Convener of the State of CDR report.

Today Na’im speaks with Professor Gregory Nemet to learn more about the current state of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) globally, the varying magnitudes of carbon removal needed by midcentury as they correspond to different decarbonization scenarios, and the gap between the amount of carbon removal needed and the amount countries are planning to deploy.

Greg Nemet is a convener of the State of CDR repo...

Episode 23 of The Carbon Curve is with Dr. Julio Friedman (Chief Scientist at Carbon Direct), James Mwangi (Co-Founder and CEO of Africa Climate Ventures), Ugbaad Kosar (Director of Environmental Justice at Carbon180), and Marcius Extavour (Chief Climate Solutions Officer at TIME CO2). This episode was recorded from the 2023 Direct Air Capture Summit hosted by Climeworks on June 6, 2023.

A couple of weeks ago, I attended the 2023 Direct Air Capture (DAC) Summit hosted by Climeworks and had the chance to moderate a discussion on setting up policy frameworks for scaling up carbon removal.

The summit attracted 400 participants...

Episode 22 is with Dr. Sifang Chen, a Managing Science and Innovation Advisor at Carbon180 and author of the recent white paper, Depending on the Ocean: Research and Policy Priorities for Responsible Ocean Carbon Removal.

We continue to see growing interest in enhancing the ocean's ability to remove and store carbon dioxide. In the last month alone, we've seen the largest investment to date in an ocean-based carbon removal startup, California-based Ebb Carbon.

Soon after, Dalhousie University announced it received CA$154 million - its largest grant ever - from the Canadian government to investigate the ocean's...

Episode 21 of the Carbon Curve is with Dr. Shuchi Talati, founder of the recently launched nonprofit, The Alliance for Just Deliberation for Solar Geoengineering.

In this episode, Na’im and Dr. Shuchi Talati talk about shifting the conversation on two major climate interventions in the course of her career. First, we discuss her experience working with the Department of Energy to help facilitate a major shift in mandate for the Office of Fossil Energy and making it the Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management. Second, we discuss an exciting new nonprofit that proposes a major shift in...

Episode 20 of The Carbon Curve is with Marian Krüger, co-lead of the Remove Accelerator and Decarbonization Lead for Sus.Lab at ETH Zürich

Let’s hop over the Atlantic and talk about the carbon removal (or CDR) innovation and policy landscape in Europe. The EU is the world’s third largest economy, and it’s well positioned to have a major impact on the future of carbon removal policy and innovation. I wanted to understand Europe's potential in terms of what's in the innovation pipeline, as well as what systemic gaps need to be addressed to make...

Episode 19 of The Carbon Curve is with Ted Christie-Miller, Head of Carbon Removal at BeZero Carbon

Scalability is essential to the success of long-term CDR deployment - it is broadly acknowledged that by midcentury, CDR must grow from its current capacity of thousands of tons to billions of tons of removal per year. But how do we evaluate the potential to scale, the barriers that could prevent the necessary scaling, and the levers needed to overcome these barriers?

BeZero Carbon is a ratings agency for the voluntary carbon market. Combining expertise across climate science, finance...

This is a special episode with Rahima Dosani (my amazing wife) who interviews me about my career transition from working in international development to carbon dioxide removal (CDR) and my thoughts on the CDR field more broadly.

Over the last few years, countless people have asked me about my journey from working in global health to working on climate and the steps I took to shift into this field. Over the holiday break, Rahima and I recorded a special episode to reflect on that journey, including what I’ve learned along the way, what I think about th...

This episode features interviews with Rob Niven (CEO and Chair of Carbon Cure), Shashank Samala (Co-Founder and CEO of Heirloom), Natalia Dorfman (Co-Founder and CEO of Kita), Mike Kelland (Co-Founder and CEO of Planetary), Peter Reinhardt (Co-Founder and CEO at Charm Industrial), Adrian Corless (CEO at CarbonCapture), and Stacy Kauk (Head of Sustainability at Shopify)

This episode is sponsored by Carbonfuture.

Carbonfuture is an end-to-end platform for companies that want to participate in removing carbon from the atmosphere. Unlike conventional marketplaces, Carbonfuture’s monitoring, reporting, and verification platform solves carbon credit uncertainty for buyers like Mic...

Episode 16 of The Carbon Curve is with Mike Kelland, CEO and Co-Founder of Planetary.

This episode is sponsored by Carbonfuture.

Carbonfuture is an end-to-end platform for companies that want to participate in removing carbon from the atmosphere. Unlike conventional marketplaces, Carbonfuture’s monitoring, reporting, and verification platform solves carbon credit uncertainty for buyers like Microsoft and SwissRe while Carbonfuture’s support helps scale the world’s most promising carbon removal ventures for real climate impact.

According to ocean climate NGO, Ocean Visions, the ocean is under threat from overfishing, plastic pollution, and of course...

Episode 15 of The Carbon Curve is with Natalia Dorfman, CEO and Co-Founder of Kita

This episode is sponsored by Carbonfuture.

Carbonfuture is an end-to-end platform for companies who want to participate in removing carbon from the atmosphere. Unlike conventional marketplaces, Carbonfuture’s monitoring, reporting, and verification platform solves carbon credit uncertainty for buyers like Microsoft and SwissRe while Carbonfuture’s support helps scale the world’s most promising carbon removal ventures for real climate impact.

After a short pause on new episodes, I’m excited to cover something I’ve been dying to talk about...

Episode 14 of The Carbon Curve is with Peter Minor, Director of Science and Innovation at Carbon180

This episode is sponsored by Carbonfuture.

Carbonfuture is an end-to-end platform for companies who want to participate in removing carbon from the atmosphere. Unlike conventional marketplaces, Carbonfuture’s monitoring, reporting, and verification platform solves carbon credit uncertainty for buyers like Microsoft and SwissRe while Carbonfuture’s support helps scale the world’s most promising carbon removal ventures for real climate impact.

Since its founding in 2015, Carbon180 has played a central role in building the dynamic carbon removal (or CDR...

Episode 13 of The Carbon Curve is with Dr. Cara Maesano, Geochemical Lead at RMI’s CDR Initiative

This episode is sponsored by Carbonfuture.

Carbonfuture is an end-to-end platform for companies who want to participate in removing carbon from the atmosphere. Unlike conventional marketplaces, Carbonfuture’s monitoring, reporting, and verification platform solves carbon credit uncertainty for buyers like Microsoft and SwissRe while Carbonfuture’s support helps scale the world’s most promising carbon removal ventures for real climate impact.

The core message of this podcast series is that the monumental task of removing gigatons of CO2 fr...

Episode 12 of The Carbon Curve is with Adrian Corless, CEO and CTO of CarbonCapture Inc.

This episode is sponsored by Carbonfuture.

Carbonfuture is an end-to-end platform for companies who want to participate in removing carbon from the atmosphere. Unlike conventional marketplaces, Carbonfuture’s monitoring, reporting, and verification platform solves carbon credit uncertainty for buyers like Microsoft and SwissRe while Carbonfuture’s support helps scale the world’s most promising carbon removal ventures for real climate impact.

About this episode:

In early September, direct air capture (DAC) company CarbonCapture announced plans to build a...

Episode 11 of The Carbon Curve is with Celina Scott-Buechler, Senior Resident Fellow of Climate Innovation at Data for Progress (DFP).

This episode is sponsored by Carbonfuture.

Carbonfuture is an end-to-end platform for companies who want to participate in removing carbon from the atmosphere. Unlike conventional marketplaces, Carbonfuture’s monitoring, reporting, and verification platform solves carbon credit uncertainty for buyers like Microsoft and SwissRe while Carbonfuture’s support helps scale the world’s most promising carbon removal ventures for real climate impact.

About this episode:

All too often, promising large-scale projects fall by the...

Episode 10 of The Carbon Curve is with Stacy Kauk, Head of Sustainability at Shopify.

After a few weeks off, I’m excited to bring you a new series of interviews with policy experts, market shapers, and entrepreneurs who are working tirelessly to responsibly and effectively scale up the carbon removal (or CDR) innovations needed to draw down CO2 from the atmosphere.

Over the next 8 weeks I’ll be speaking with guests on topics including environmental justice, measurement, reporting, and verification, and the policies that helped spur plans for a multi-million ton per year direct air capt...

Episode 9 of The Carbon Curve is with Robert Höglund and Dr. Natalya Jarlebring from Milkywire’s Climate Transformation Fund.

Over the last year or so, interest in carbon removal (CDR) has taken off.

From the formation of new corporate buying coalitions, like Frontier, to large venture rounds, and ambitious new policies like Direct Air Capture Hubs, CDR is starting to hit an inflection point. All of this early traction is encouraging, but it also necessitates taking a step back, and reflecting on the carbon removal industry as it currently stands, and where it should go...

Last month, the Department of Energy hosted a virtual summit convening innovators, environmental organizations, government leaders, and other stakeholders about The Carbon Negative Shot. The DOE launched this bold initiative last year to stimulate innovation in carbon removal (CDR) pathways that remove and durably store CO2 from the atmosphere at gigaton scale for less than $100/net metric ton of CO2.

I wrote about this target in a recent report I did on barriers to scaling up the carbon removal industry. In my conversations with stakeholders across the carbon removal field, there’s a widely held belief that in...

In Episode 7 of The Carbon Curve, Na’im speaks to Dr. Meron Tesfaye and Dr. Danny Broberg from the Bipartisan Policy Center.

This week, President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act, which has been called the most consequential climate bill in history. Among other things, it makes a $369 billion investment in reducing carbon emissions and lowering energy costs, putting America closer to reaching the climate goals set by the current administration.

It also has provisions that affect the carbon removal sector directly - expanding much-needed incentives that will grow the CDR industry, and position the US...

Episode 6 of The Carbon Curve is with Robert Niven, Chair and CEO of CarbonCure Technologies.

Carbon removal (or CDR) is often represented as a process that involves pumping captured CO2 back underground where it belongs. But we can actually use CO2 removed from the atmosphere in every day products like plastics, fuels, and building materials. This is a burgeoning industry known as “carbontech” - where innovators are working on carbon neutral, and even carbon negative, products.

One application that’s really intriguing to me is the process of infusing CO2 into concrete. Which means that concre...

Episode 5 of The Carbon Curve is with Ben Rubin, Executive Director of the Carbon Business Council.

Over the past two years, the carbon removal (CDR) sector has flourished according to a Climate Tech VC report.

Carbon removal, carbon utilization and CCS companies, as well as carbon marketplaces raised a combined $1.5 billion in the first half of this year. That's an eightfold increase over the same period last year (with much of that growth happening in the carbon removal space) which led me to ask: with the carbon removal industry beginning to take shape, when does...

Our 4th episode of The Carbon Curve is with Peter Reinhardt, CEO and co-Founder of Charm Industrial, where they're developing novel carbon removal and renewable industrial syngas technology. Prior to charm, Peter was CEO and co-founder at Segment a software as a service customer data platform, which grew to 600 people before it was acquired by Twilio in 2020 for 3.2 billion. He previously studied aerospace engineering at MIT

Building trust is absolutely critical to generating the political will and stakeholder buy-in we need to scale up carbon removal or CDR.

The challenge is that there are few...

The third episode of The Carbon Curve podcast is with Dai Ellis.

Today’s discussion is about sketching out a vision for the carbon removal market. Creating that market is going to be really tricky. Unlike other climate technologies carbon removal, for the most part, doesn’t deliver a product or service besides its climate benefit. But the market for carbon removal can’t exist without large purchasers creating consistent demand.

In recent months we’ve seen the private sector take up that mantle by banding together with other companies to create advance market commitments (or AMCs...

The second episode of The Carbon Curve Podcast is with Chris Neidl (Twitter, LinkedIn), Co-Founder of the OpenAir Collective. OpenAir is a volunteer-led, global network accelerating carbon removal advancement and evolution through member initiated missions. OpenAir has completely re-imagined climate activism by mobilizing people to not just support, but co-create policies at the local, state, and federal level to scale up carbon removal. The group is grounded in open source principles like decentralization and peer production. Through OpenAir, people are discovering ways to get involved in carbon removal that draws on their unique backgrounds and experiences - which will...

Introducing The Carbon Curve Podcast with Na’im Merchant

Na’im is an advisor and thought partner to start-ups, policy groups, and research organizations on scaling up the climate technologies to meet the monumental challenge removing billions of tons of CO2 from the atmosphere. According to the IPCC, large scale carbon dioxide removal is “essential” to meeting our climate goals - but few people know about carbon removal, how critical a tool it is in combating climate change, or the ways they can have an impact on this field.

Na’im launched The Carbon Curve newsletter...