The Carbon Curve

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 in person and thousands more online. It has become a central convening of DAC and carbon removal experts from around the world. As I stand up a new initiative aimed at scaling carbon removal in Canada, the sessions and networking provided useful insights on where the industry is going, the opportunities on the horizon, and challenges we should expect to contend with. I personally came away from the event re-energized about the prospects of DAC and carbon removal more broadly.The team at Climeworks did a great job organizing and hosting this event, and they worked with me to facilitate a handful of interviews live from the event venue with leaders in the carbon removal field to discuss their reflections from the summit and what is energizing them at this important juncture of this new industry. I had a chance to speak with:* Dr. Julio Friedmann, Chief Scientist at Carbon Direct (LinkedIn, Twitter)* James Mwangi, Co-Founder and CEO of Africa Climate Ventures (LinkedIn, Twitter)* Link to: Africa Climate Summit 2023* Ugbaad Kosar, Director of Environmental Justice at Carbon180 (LinkedIn, Twitter)* Dr. Marcius Extavour, Chief Climate Solutions Officer at TIME CO2 (LinkedIn, Twitter)I think the substance of these conversations reveal some valuable themes coming out of the event itself that I hope will be orienting and enlightening as we navigate this rapidly growing sector.This podcast is created and published by Na’im Merchant. Episode production and content support provided by Lucia Simonelli.Na’im Merchant is the co-founder and Executive Director of Carbon Removal Canada, a policy initiative focused on scaling carbon removal in Canada. He is also a policy fellow with Elemental Excelerator. He previously ran carbon removal consulting practice Carbon Curve, and publishes The Carbon Curve newsletter and podcast. Every two weeks, Na’im will release a short interview with individuals advancing the policies, technologies, and collective action needed to scale up carbon removal around the world.If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to this podcast on your favorite podcast app or subscribe via The Carbon Curve newsletter here. If you’d like to get in touch with Na’im, you can reach out via Twitter and LinkedIn. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit carboncurve.substack.com

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 role in climate change, including advancing the science and technology around ocean-based carbon removal. In the face of economic uncertainty, it looks like ocean-based carbon removal isn't going anywhere, but a number of critical questions remain about its future.Today Na’im speaks with Dr. Sifang Chen from Carbon180 to learn more about ocean carbon removal pathways and how policy can help clarify efficacy, ecosystem impacts, and necessary regulations and governance.Dr. Chen authored the recently published Carbon180 white paper entitled, Depending on the Ocean: Research and Policy Priorities for Responsible Ocean Carbon Removal. This paper explores how policy can help lower existing uncertainties around ocean carbon removal and offers specific recommendations aimed at clarifying efficacy, ecosystem impacts, and necessary regulations and governance. In this episode, Na’im and Sifang discuss:* Fun facts about the ocean and the immense amount we still don’t know about it;* Categories and types of ocean carbon removal methods;* Major challenges facing ocean carbon removal;* A responsible vs. irresponsible future for ocean carbon removal;* Policy’s role in ensuring the responsible future; and* Centering environmental justice in ocean carbon removal.Relevant Links:* Depending on the Ocean: Research and Policy Priorities for Responsible Ocean Carbon Removal* Ebb Carbon’s $20M Series A raise* Dalhousie University receives CA$154M to study the ocean’s pivotal role in climate change* Follow Sifang on Twitter and LinkedInAbout Dr. Sifang ChenDr. Sifang Chen is a Managing Science and Innovation Advisor at Carbon180 and currently leads the organization's ocean CDR focus. Sifang works to ensure Carbon180’s policy work is informed by the most up-to-date science and industry knowledge. She has previously worked in science policy, biotechnology, and nanotechnology. Sifang holds a BS in physics from the University of British Columbia and PhD in physics from the University of Washington.This podcast is created and published by Na’im Merchant. Episode production and content support provided by Lucia Simonelli.Na’im Merchant is the co-founder and Executive Director of Carbon Removal Canada, a policy initiative focused on scaling carbon removal in Canada. He is also a policy fellow with Elemental Excelerator. He previously ran carbon removal consulting practice Carbon Curve, and publishes The Carbon Curve newsletter and podcast. Every two weeks, Na’im will release a short interview with individuals advancing the policies, technologies, and collective action needed to scale up carbon removal around the world.If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to this podcast on your favorite podcast app or subscribe via The Carbon Curve newsletter here. If you’d like to get in touch with Na’im, you can reach out via Twitter and LinkedIn. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit carboncurve.substack.com

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 how we advance deliberations on a contentious topic that is often wrongly conflated with carbon removal - solar geo engineering.In this episode, Na’im and Dr. Talati discuss:* Dr. Talati’s experience as Chief of Staff of DOE’s Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management;* DOE’s CDR initiatives including the Carbon Negative Shot, Direct Air Capture Hubs, and Mission Innovation;* The growing focus on environmental justice and community engagement in CDR;* The important distinction between CDR and solar geoengineering;* The need for inclusive governance structures and capacity building in the context of solar geoengineering; and* The launch of her new nonprofit, The Alliance for Just Deliberation for Solar Geoengineering.Relevant Links:* Our New Name is also a New Vision (DOE)* DOE’s Carbon Negative Shot* Mission Innovation - CDR* How Direct Air Capture Succeeds: A framework for Effective DAC Hubs* The Alliance for Just Deliberation for Solar GeoengineeringAbout Dr. Shuchi TalatiDr. Talati is the founder of the recently launched nonprofit, The Alliance for Just Deliberation for Solar Geoengineering. She is also a Senior Visiting Scholar at Carbon180 where she is focusing on how to build just and sustainable carbon removal at scale. She most recently served as a Presidential Appointee in the Biden-Harris Administration as Chief of Staff of the Office of Fossil Energy & Carbon Management at the U.S. Department of Energy. She has also worked for multiple nonprofits as well as in the U.S. Senate. Dr. Talati earned a BS in environmental engineering from Northwestern University, an MA in climate and society from Columbia University, and PhD from Carnegie Mellon in engineering and public policy.This podcast is created and published by Na’im Merchant. Episode production and content support provided by Lucia Simonelli.Na’im Merchant is the co-founder and Executive Director of Carbon Removal Canada, a policy initiative focused on scaling carbon removal in Canada. He is also a policy fellow with Elemental Excelerator. He previously ran carbon removal consulting practice Carbon Curve, and publishes The Carbon Curve newsletter and podcast. Every two weeks, Na’im will release a short interview with individuals advancing the policies, technologies, and collective action needed to scale up carbon removal around the world.If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to this podcast on your favorite podcast app or subscribe via The Carbon Curve newsletter here. If you’d like to get in touch with Na’im, you can reach out via Twitter and LinkedIn. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit carboncurve.substack.com

Episode 20 of The Carbon Curve is with Marian Krüger, co-lead of the Remove Accelerator and Decarbonization Lead for Sus.Lab at ETH ZürichLet’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 Europe a carbon removal powerhouse.Today, Na’im speaks to Marian Krüger, co-lead of the Remove Accelerator and Decarbonization Lead for Sus.Lab at ETH Zürich. Remove is a new accelerator program designed to support carbon removal innovators while strengthening the CDR ecosystem.Sus.Lab or The Sustainability in Business Lab is a “Think and Do Tank” launched by the Chair for Sustainability and Technology at ETH Zürich. The lab was founded in 2016 with a mission to bring sustainability research into the real world through hands-on industry projects. The Remove Accelerator (formerly known as Carbon Removal ClimAccelerator before the rebrand) is Europe’s first and only accelerator program purely focused on CDR startups. Originated as a project at ETH Zurich’s Sustainability in Business Lab, the non-profit, non-equity program has supported more than 60 European early-stage CDR startups since its start in 2021 with coaching, expert matchmaking, ecosystem access and non-dilutive capital.In this episode, Na’im and Marian discuss:* The carbon removal work at ETH Zürich’s Sustainability in Business Lab* The genesis and evolution of the Remove Accelerator (previously the Carbon Removal ClimAccelerator)* Country-level carbon removal policies in the EU and UK* EU-level policy progress and gapsRelevant Links:*  Sus.Lab at ETH Zürich* Carbon removal work* DemoUpCARMA & DemoUpStorage* Remove Accelerator* EU Carbon Removal Certification Framework* Luxembourg Negative Emissions Tariff* The L NET Straw Proposal - A Negative Emissions Tariff for Luxembourg and Beyond* Sweden’s carbon removal strategy * Is Sweden becoming the world leader on BECCS?* Switzerland’s long term climate strategy * UK greenhouse gas removal (GGR) business models About Marian Krüger:Marian Krüger has spent his whole career in impact entrepreneurship. First as a venture developer at the German green utility, Innogy, before founding his own startup, Ucair, to increase photovoltaic yield using drones and AI data analytics. After its acquisition, he went on to join ETH Zurich’s Sustainability in Business Lab as Decarbonization Lead and co-founded and now leads the Remove Accelerator. Marian holds two Masters degrees, one in education and one in behavioral economics and sustainability from the London School of Economics.This podcast is created and published by Na’im Merchant. Episode production and content support provided by Lucia Simonelli.Na’im Merchant is the co-founder and Executive Director of Carbon Removal Canada, a policy initiative focused on scaling carbon removal in Canada. He previously ran carbon removal consulting practice Carbon Curve, and publishes The Carbon Curve newsletter and podcast. Every two weeks, Na’im will release a short interview with individuals advancing the policies, technologies, and collective action needed to scale up carbon removal around the world.If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to this podcast on your favorite podcast app or subscribe via The Carbon Curve newsletter here. If you’d like to get in touch with Na’im, you can reach out via Twitter and LinkedIn. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit carboncurve.substack.com

Episode 19 of The Carbon Curve is with Ted Christie-Miller, Head of Carbon Removal at BeZero CarbonScalability 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 and policy, it provides ratings, risk and data tools that improve information accessibility and decision making with the aim to build markets for environmental impact. As part of its work on carbon removal, BeZero Carbon has developed a methodology for assessing scalability across multiple carbon removal methods. Ted Christie-Miller, BeZero Carbon’s Head of Carbon Removal, discusses how the methodology was developed, what it can be used for, what its limitations are, and what’s next for BeZero on assessing CDR going forward.In this episode, Na’im and Ted discuss:* The strategic importance of long-duration CDR to BeZero Carbon and why BeZero decided to assess the scalability of long-duration CDR methods;* The methodology used to assess CDR methods and how it’s different from methodologies used by other groups;* Challenges and surprises the team encountered when assessing scalability;* Key take-aways from this analysis and how BeZero hopes this assessment will be used, as well as planned future work.Relevant Links:* Carbon Removal Scalability assessment* Introduction* Methodology* Summary* Deep Dive: Biochar* Investing in early-stage carbon dioxide removal* Removals for Growth* Carbon Removals in the VCM* Barriers to scaling the long-duration carbon dioxide removal industry (CarbonPlan, by Na’im Merchant, Freya Chay, Danny Cullenward, and Jeremy Freeman)About Ted Christie-Miller:Ted joined BeZero in October 2021 to lead the carbon removal team at BeZero Carbon. Before joining BeZero he founded and led the cross-party Getting to Zero climate policy programme at the thinktank Onward. He regularly writes in the national media on topics of climate and carbon markets, including for The Times, The Telegraph, CityAM, CarbonPulse and BusinessGreen. Previous research has been cited in a series of UK Government reports, including the Net Zero Review and the Levelling Up White Paper.This podcast is created and published by Na’im Merchant. Episode production and content support provided by Lucia Simonelli.Na’im Merchant is the co-founder and Executive Director of Carbon Removal Canada, a policy initiative focused on scaling carbon removal in Canada. He previously ran carbon removal consulting practice Carbon Curve, and publishes The Carbon Curve newsletter and podcast. Every two weeks, Na’im will release a short interview with individuals advancing the policies, technologies, and collective action needed to scale up carbon removal around the world.If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to this podcast on your favorite podcast app or subscribe via The Carbon Curve newsletter here. If you’d like to get in touch with Na’im, you can reach out via Twitter and LinkedIn. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit carboncurve.substack.com

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 the CDR field more broadly (as well as challenges and opportunities), and the personal impacts of this career transition. We hope this episode offers helpful insights for people looking to make a career move to working on climate in 2023.About Rahima:Rahima Dosani works in global health at the US Agency for International Development, where she helps scale up access to cutting-edge health interventions for some of the world's poorest countries. She also worked for the Clinton Health Access Initiative in Malawi, which is where we first met, and in Myanmar after doing healthcare strategy consulting in New York City. Rahima holds a BA from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from the Harvard Business School, as well as a Master's in Public Health from the Harvard School of Public Health. She spends her spare time teaching yoga and being a private chef in Washington, DC.If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to this podcast on your favorite podcast app or subscribe via The Carbon Curve newsletter here. If you’d like to get in touch with Na’im, you can reach out via Twitter and LinkedIn.Na’im Merchant, Founder and Managing Director of Carbon Curve, is an advisor and thought partner to start-ups, policy groups, and research organizations on scaling up climate technologies to meet the monumental challenge of removing billions of tons of CO2 from the atmosphere. Every week, Na’im will release a short interview with individuals advancing bold new ideas and taking a collective action approach to scaling up carbon removal. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit carboncurve.substack.com

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 Microsoft and SwissRe while Carbonfuture’s support helps scale the world’s most promising carbon removal ventures for real climate impact.2022 has been a big year for carbon removal. I remember saying the same thing about CDR in 2021, and I’m excited to see what 2023 will bring.Since the launch of this podcast in June, I’ve interviewed scientists, entrepreneurs, and policy experts on what it’s going to take to reach gigaton-scale carbon removal (CDR).In the US, we’ve seen the passage of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that supports ambitious initiatives like the Direct Air Capture Hubs Program … and of course, the Inflation Reduction Act, a huge win for the climate, and for CDR through the expansion of the 45Q tax credit.In addition, Frontier Climate, an advance market commitment that provides much-needed revenues to advance the CDR space, launched this past year and has supported a number of CDR companies with pre-purchase and long-term purchase agreements.There is still a lot to be done to scale CDR, from policy to financing to measurement, reporting, and verification - especially for non-direct air capture CDR methods. But with early policy and financing wins in the books, and programs like DAC Hubs finally getting underway, the focus is shifting to implementation.So I wanted to use this episode to highlight some of the excellent insights from entrepreneurs, and folks who support those entrepreneurs, from episodes that were recorded over the last year on what it will take to scale CDR.I’ve had a ton of great guests on this show, so it wasn’t easy to put together a greatest-hits episode like this. So I wanted to use this opportunity to shine a spotlight on entrepreneurs in the space running CDR start-ups and organizations that will be critical in implementing CDR at scale.In this episode, you’ll hear from (links to full episodes):* Rob Niven, Chair and CEO at Carbon Cure* Shashank Samala, Co-Founder and CEO at Heirloom* Natalia Dorfman, Co-Founder and CEO at Kita* Mike Kelland, Co-Founder and CEO at Planetary* Peter Reinhardt, Co-Founder and CEO at Charm Industrial* Adrian Corless, CEO and CTO at CarbonCapture* Stacy Kauk, Head of Sustainability at Shopify2022 was a busy year. Here are some of my favorite Carbon Curve posts, episodes, and projects from this last year worth checking out:* 🇨🇦 Canada: The next leader in carbon dioxide removal?* 💵 Rapidly reducing the costs of carbon removal (guest post by Grant Faber)* 💵 Three innovative funding solutions for carbon removal (co-authored with Max Bode and Johannes Lohmann)* 🎙️ My podcast episode with Peter Minor at Carbon180 on high-accountability measurement, reporting and verification* 🎙️ My episode with Celina Scott-Buechler at Data for Progress on equitable CDR deployment * ✈️ My report with Clean Air Task Force on decarbonizing aviation* 🏭 My report with CarbonPlan on the barriers to scaling the CDR industry* 🌎 Three countries positioned to lead on government procurement of carbon removalIf you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to this podcast on your favorite podcast app or subscribe via The Carbon Curve newsletter here. If you’d like to get in touch with Na’im, you can reach out via Twitter and LinkedIn.Na’im Merchant, Founder and Managing Director of Carbon Curve, is an advisor and thought partner to start-ups, policy groups, and research organizations on scaling up climate technologies to meet the monumental challenge of removing billions of tons of CO2 from the atmosphere. Every week, Na’im will release a short interview with individuals advancing bold new ideas and taking a collective action approach to scaling up carbon removal. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit carboncurve.substack.com

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 climate change. But the organization thinks - if managed responsibly - the opportunity to harness the power of the ocean to sequester and store CO2 is massive compared to terrestrial methods.That’s why researchers are exploring the carbon removal (or CDR) potential of this vast resource that covers 70% of our planet’s surface. But ocean-based CDR methods are unique and pretty complex ranging from ocean alkalinity enhancement to sinking seaweed. In addition, the ocean is a dynamic environment: it’s tricky to measure the quantity of CO2 removed, it’s unclear what impact different ocean-based CDR methods will have on ecosystems, and figuring out the policies and regulations to responsibly pilot, test, and eventually scale up the best solutions is really difficult.This is a field within carbon removal that’s gaining a lot of traction precisely because there’s so much to learn about what responsible and effective ocean-based CDR looks like. So today, I’m speaking to Mike Kelland, Co-Founder and CEO of Planetary, committed to enhancing the ocean’s potential as a carbon sink while addressing ocean health in the process.In this episode, Na’im and Mike discuss:* Planetary’s origin story and their ocean-based CDR method* Why the ocean is an important medium for CDR* Some of the risks associated with ocean-based CDR and how to mitigate them* How to get measurement, reporting, and verification (MRV) right with ocean-based CDR methods* Planetary’s Code of Conduct* What effective engagement of coastal communities and supportive policies and regulations look like* A 10-year vision of success in scaling up ocean-based CDR methodsRelevant links:* Planetary’s website* Planetary’s Science and Technology Code of Conduct* Recent coverage of Planetary’s work on the TODAY Show (Twitter)* Learn about ocean-based CDR at Ocean VisionsIf you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to this podcast on your favorite podcast app or subscribe via The Carbon Curve newsletter here. If you’d like to get in touch with Na’im, you can reach out via Twitter and LinkedIn.Na’im Merchant, Founder and Managing Director of Carbon Curve, is an advisor and thought partner to start-ups, policy groups, and research organizations on scaling up climate technologies to meet the monumental challenge of removing billions of tons of CO2 from the atmosphere. Every week, Na’im will release a short interview with individuals advancing bold new ideas and taking a collective action approach to scaling up carbon removal. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit carboncurve.substack.com

Episode 15 of The Carbon Curve is with Natalia Dorfman, CEO and Co-Founder of KitaThis 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 … insurance. Just hear me out.According to carbon removal purchase tracker CDR.FYI, around 640,000 tons of CO2 removal have been purchased globally, and only 7% of those tons have actually been delivered. Carbon dioxide removal (CDR) is still very much in its infancyAs CDR solutions move from pilot to commercial scale and purchases and deliveries really start to pick up, the market is going to become increasingly complex.We’ll see more public sector involvement, more private sector buyers, more projects being deployed, and more communities being impacted. We’ll see more successes, but also more failures - and as a result - more risk.My guest today, Natalia Dorfman, CEO and Co-Founder of Kita, thinks that insurance is critical to unlocking the scale potential of CDR. We talk about what problems innovative new insurance products can solve for buyers and sellers in the CDR market and the limits of insurance in solving some of the more thorny risks associated with scaling up CDR.In this episode, Na’im and Natalia discuss:* Natalia’s career shift into climate and Kita’s origin story* What Kita plans to cover, and their first insurance product - carbon purchase protection cover* How Kita is developing carbon removal-specific insurance products in a field this nascent* The role insurance can play in the durability or reversibility of carbon storage* Why carbon removal needs robust insurance offerings to successfully scaleRelevant links:* Kita’s website* Carbon Business CouncilIf you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to this podcast on your favorite podcast app or subscribe via The Carbon Curve newsletter here. If you’d like to get in touch with Na’im, you can reach out via Twitter and LinkedIn.Na’im Merchant, Founder and Managing Director of Carbon Curve, is an advisor and thought partner to start-ups, policy groups, and research organizations on scaling up climate technologies to meet the monumental challenge of removing billions of tons of CO2 from the atmosphere. Every week, Na’im will release a short interview with individuals advancing bold new ideas and taking a collective action approach to scaling up carbon removal. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit carboncurve.substack.com

Episode 14 of The Carbon Curve is with Peter Minor, Director of Science and Innovation at Carbon180This 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) ecosystem that exists today. Carbon180 is a climate NGO focused exclusively on CDR, collaborating closely with policymakers, peer organizations, and entrepreneurs to design the policies needed to get CDR to gigaton scale.Carbon180’s tireless work is paying off in a big way - with key CDR provisions in the recently passed Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act (listen to my episode on recent CDR policy wins). We’re now entering a new phase of growth in CDR, and Carbon180 believes that the success of that growth depends largely on trust. Their view is that measurement, reporting, and verification (or MRV) can be designed to enhance accountability while addressing the needs of a wider group of stakeholders, beyond just serving as a means for carbon accounting.So, Carbon180 has developed a tool to help us reframe our thinking on MRV. Today they introduced their High-Accountability MRV Matrix (see blog post). A principles first approach to MRV that will help drive innovation and enhance confidence in CDR among the next wave of its buyers.Peter Minor from Carbon180 will talk us through this tool and what it means for the CDR industry as it enters a new stage of growth. He also previews how high-accountability MRV could one day be used to build trust with communities at the front lines of CDR deployment and help unlock the public sector dollars we’re going to need to scale up this critical climate solution.In this episode, Na’im and Peter discuss:* Peter’s role at Carbon180* The importance of monitoring, measurement, reporting, and verification* The risks of setting a “low bar” for MRV, and the benefits of setting a “high bar” without stifling innovation* Why Carbon180 took a principles-based approach to MRV* An introduction to the High-Accountability MRV Matrix, what it’s trying to solve (and not trying to solve)* How this matrix will be used and Carbon180’s plans for MRV going forwardRelevant links:* A procurer’s guide to high-accountability MRV, by Anu Khan, Deputy Director of Science and Innovation (blog post)* High-Accountability MRV Matrix (Google Sheets)* Carbon180 websiteAbout Peter Minor:Peter Minor (LinkedIn) uses his knowledge of the latest science, along with his relationships within the innovation community, to help the Carbon180 team craft policy recommendations that catalyze the carbon removal industry. Before joining the fight against climate change, he built a startup accelerator and venture fund focused on frontier innovation. He is a staunch believer that technology can help solve humanity’s greatest challenges. Peter is based in the SF Bay Area and is a friend to all who are working in climate.If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to this podcast on your favorite podcast app or subscribe via The Carbon Curve newsletter here. I’m pausing release on new episodes for two weeks following this one, but if you’d like to get in touch with Na’im, you can reach out via Twitter and LinkedIn.Na’im Merchant, Founder and Managing Director of Carbon Curve, is an advisor and thought partner to start-ups, policy groups, and research organizations on scaling up climate technologies to meet the monumental challenge of removing billions of tons of CO2 from the atmosphere. Every week, Na’im will release a short interview with individuals advancing bold new ideas and taking a collective action approach to scaling up carbon removal. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit carboncurve.substack.com