Ben Rubin on launching the Carbon Business Council to help the carbon removal industry reach gigaton scale

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 it make sense for this plethora of startups to join forces, learn from one another and secure the policy wins necessary to thrive as an industry? And how do you find common interests across companies with different technologies, geographies, and business models.

A few weeks ago, the Carbon Business Council officially launched with 40 member organizations in tow representing every facet of the carbon management space. I thought I'd ask their new Executive Director, Ben Rubin, about their theory of change (especially given their technology neutral approach) and how they are going to find a shared set of priorities in this nascent and disparate industry to help get to gigaton scale carbon removal.

In this episode, Na’im and Ben discuss:

* What makes the Carbon Business Council different from other system actors in the carbon removal space

* The types of members represented in the Carbon Business Council, and how they’re being brought together to help shape the policy landscape to achieve gigaton scale carbon removal

* Why they endorsed the Carbon Removal and Emissions Storage Act (CREST Act) at launch

* How they address the needs of members outside of the US

* Their Ethical Oath to Restore the Earth

Mentioned in this episode:

* Climate Tech VC’s analysis on climate funding in 2022

* Carbon Business Council website and Oath to Restore the Earth

* Bipartisan Policy Center’s blog post comparing the CREST Act and CDRLA; also my previous post on government procurement of carbon removal

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Na’im Merchant 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 to combat climate change. Every two weeks, Na’im will release a short interview with individuals advancing bold new ideas and taking a collective action approach to scaling up carbon removal.

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