The Carbon Curve

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 as a leader in this rapidly growing field.In my view, well-designed and well-executed policies can have the single greatest impact on scaling up CDR. So I wanted to speak to policy experts Dr. Meron Tesfaye and Dr. Danny Broberg at the Bipartisan Policy Center - a think tank based here in Washington, DC working on carbon removal policies - about the specific carbon removal investments in the Inflation Reduction Act, as well as supportive policies that have been recently passed, and new proposals we should be watching for on the near horizon.In this episode, Na’im, Meron, and Danny discussed:* Carbon removal in The Inflation Reduction Act* The CHIPS Act’s funding for carbon removal research, development, and deployment* Government procurement of carbon removal proposed in the Federal Carbon Dioxide Removal Leadership Act (CDRLA) and the Carbon Removal and Emissions Storage Technologies (CREST) Act * The DAC Hubs Program as part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law* The Growing Climate Solutions Act, REMOVE Act, and SCALE Act* Policy priorities for carbon removal going forwardRelevant links:* Bipartisan Policy Center website* Summary of Energy and Climate Provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act (BPC)* Farm and Forest Carbon Solutions Task Force at BPC* Direct Air Capture Advisory Council at BPC* DAC Day Event Recap * Promoting Early Markets for Carbon Dioxide Removal Through Federal Procurement by Natalie Tham, Danny Broberg, and Xan FishmanDr. Meron Tesfaye is a senior policy analyst for BPC’s Energy Program. Meron has a Ph.D. in clean energy & hydrogen research and combines that state and federal-policy experience. Prior to BPC, she was a Senior Policy Fellow at Carbon180 and a Science Fellow in the California Senate Budget office. As a scientist turned policy enthusiast, Meron works on issues such as biomass-based carbon removal, hydrogen, and industrial decarbonization.Dr. Danny Broberg received his Ph.D. in Materials Science at UC Berkeley, where he researched next-generation solar and battery materials. After finishing his Ph.D., he went to Capitol Hill where he was a legislative fellow for Senator Chris Coons (D-DE). While there he helped craft and drive forward bipartisan policies relating to carbon management and clean energy commercialization. After a year and a half on the hill, he joined the Bipartisan Policy Center where he focuses primarily on carbon management policies, with a focus on technological solutions and critical mineral supply chains. He runs the BPC’s DAC Advisory Council, which includes companies like Carbon Engineering, Climeworks, Global Thermostat, and Air Liquide, as well as former members of Congress like Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R-FL), John Delaney (D-MD, former presidential candidate), and Byron Dorgan (D-ND).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 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 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. 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 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 concrete can potentially serve as a carbon sink, permanently locking away atmospheric CO2 while also reducing the amount of cement needed in the concrete mix - further reducing this essential product’s carbon footprint.I think this could be really impactful. Concrete is the second most consumed material in the world, second to water. If concrete production was a country, it would be the third largest greenhouse gas emitter on Earth, contributing to roughly 7% of global CO2 emissions. Additionally, because of chemical reactions integral to its production, concrete is really difficult to decarbonize.Thankfully, there are companies that are using CO2 to make concrete less carbon intensive. I wanted to speak to a leading company that’s working to solve this problem directly, to learn more about their technology, and find out about what businesses and governments can do to help drive greater demand for low carbon concrete.In this episode, Na’im and Rob discuss:* The carbon intensity of the concrete industry * An overview of CarbonCure’s technology* CarbonCure as a carbon removal company, and using carbon removal credits to erase low carbon concrete’s “green premium”* Policies that can support the scale-up of low carbon concrete, as well as opportunities for cities and communities to help drive demand* What Canada do to help commercialize more carbon removal companies like CarbonCure* The next six months for CarbonCureRelevant show links:* CarbonCure’s website, resources, and careers page, (Twitter and LinkedIn)* CarbonCure’s mission to reduce concrete emissions by 500 million tons per year (PDF)* Carbon180 report on federal strategies to support low carbon concrete, by Shuchi Talati, PhD, Chris Neidl, and Na’im Merchant* OpenAir Collective’s work on Low Embodied Carbon Concrete Leadership Act (LECCLA)* This Is CDR episode (YouTube) on combining DAC and concrete with Chris Neidl and Na’im Merchant* Carbon Curve post on companies at the cutting edge of carbontech (May 2022)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 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. 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 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 EarthMentioned 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 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 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. 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

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 MITBuilding 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 if any trusted third-party systems to stand behind a carbon removal project’s claims about tons removed, additionality, permanence, and a number of other factors that are important in ensuring high quality carbon removal did in fact happen.Most of the certification and verification systems that exist today are built around avoidance-based carbon offsets - which have a whole host of their own problems around quality and trust.Unsatisfied with the state of current standards, and recognizing the need to move quickly to solve this problem, Charm Industrial is charting a new path - building their own monitoring, reporting, and verification protocol with input from experts across the carbon removal sector.I wanted to speak to them to learn more about whether their approach has the potential to build trust in the broader carbon removal ecosystem.In this episode, Na’im and Peter discuss:* Charm’s carbon removal process relative to other approaches* Challenges with existing standard-setting systems in the carbon offsets world* Why Charm took a different approach to MRV, and what that looks like* If Charm’s approach is adopted by other companies, can it “abstract up” into a generally accepted, third party approach?Show links:* Charm’s website and blog post on their path to MRV* Charm’s public registry on carbon removal deliveries* Charm’s blog where more details on their protocol will be forthcoming* Na’im’s report with CarbonPlan on barriers to scaling carbon removal, including stakeholder perceptions on existing standard setting systemsIf 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 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. 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

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) to buy CDR, establishing much needed demand for this nascent industry.The model is fashioned after AMCs that were used in the global health space to scale up access to vaccines, HIV medicines, and other life saving health products in low income countries.Dai Ellis was instrumental in helping shape some of those markets back when we both worked at the Clinton Foundation (referred to as the Clinton Health Access Initiative or CHAI in this episode) well over 10 years ago. Now he’s thinking about market shaping in the context of new climate technologies. He wrote a series of four articles on his newsletter (subscribe here) sharing his lessons in global health to the early carbon removal market. Despite some key differences that Dai points out, there’s some really valuable lessons that we can apply from global health to scaling up CDR. This episode will shed some light on those lessons.Dai Ellis is an entrepreneur and executive coach to climate tech founders and CEOs. He helps companies through inflection-point moments of rapid growth, typically in the Series A to C phase, and his current clients include a range of leading climate tech companies like Arcadia, Sealed, Running Tide, and David Energy.Climate tech is Dai’s third career chapter after long stints in healthcare and education. Most recently, he co-founded a VC-backed startup in Africa called Nova Pioneer, building the first pan-African network of K-12 schools offering world-class education at affordable tuition levels.Even more relevant to what we’ll be talking about today, Dai previously led the Clinton Health Access Initiative’s (CHAI) work on creating and shaping markets for drugs, vaccines, and other health products in the developing world. During that stretch of his career he also chaired the Global Fund’s Market Dynamics Committee and served as an advisor to the Gates Foundation.In this episode, Na’im and Dai talk about:* What an advance market commitment (AMC) is, and how it was used in creating a market for vaccines and HIV medicines in low income countries* Features and challenges of these global health markets vs. the early CDR market today* Key similarities and differences between AMCs from the global health space and AMCs that have emerged to scale up CDR* Dai’s six building blocks for not just creating, but shaping a healthy, thriving CDR market and the 2 building blocks we need to stand up most urgentlyRead Dai’s excellent full series here:* Frontier and its AMC progenitor* Adventures in market shaping* Frontier as a CDR market steward* Toward a vision for the CDR marketRead my recent report with CarbonPlan on the barriers to scaling the carbon removal industry.You can connect with Dai Ellis on LinkedIn or Twitter or shoot him an email at ellisdai [at] gmail [dot] com.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 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. 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

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 help make the field more dynamic and diverse.Chris Neidl is the co-founder of OpenAir, a global volunteer collective launched in 2019 to advance carbon dioxide removal (CDR) through member-driven advocacy and research and development missions. In this role Chris has helped lead CDR focused policy advocacy campaigns at the municipal, state and national levels including the Low Embodied Carbon Concrete Leadership Act (LECCLA), the Carbon Dioxide Removal Leadership Act (CDRLA), and the Luxembourg Negative Emissions Tariff (L-NET) Chris came to DAC and CDR from a fifteen year career in solar energy, which spanned diverse research, activist and project management roles in North America, South Asia, Afghanistan and East Africa. Chris is an upstate New York native and long-time Brooklyn resident currently based in Puntarenas, Costa Rica.In this episode, Na’im and Chris talk about:* How working internationally informed their views on approaching climate change with a global perspective* The origin of OpenAir Collective and embracing “peer-production” to empower its members* Initiatives like New York State’s Carbon Dioxide Removal Leadership Act and This Is CDR* OpenAir’s role in advancing a federal Carbon Dioxide Removal Leadership Act* Zooming out on the carbon removal field more broadly - what’s working well and what’s not* How people can get involved in OpenAir 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 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. 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

Introducing The Carbon Curve Podcast with Na’im MerchantNa’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 in 2021 to start chipping away at this problem. Now he’s launching this podcast to profile the work of inspiring entrepreneurs, activists, scientists, and policy experts pushing the boundaries on what’s possible on carbon removal - with the aim of inspiring more people to get involved in the space.Every two weeks, Na’im will release a short interview with one of these impressive individuals advancing bold new ideas and taking a collective action approach to scaling up carbon removal. Jason Hochman and the Direct Air Capture CoalitionOur first episode is with Jason Hochman (Twitter, LinkedIn), Co-Founder and Senior Director of the Direct Air Capture Coalition. The DAC Coalition brings together technology companies and partners to advance deployment of DAC, with over 25 members, and 10 partners and observers to date. As the carbon removal field grows, coalitions like this will be necessary to create the ecosystem for new DAC technologies to flourish. In this episode, Na’im and Jason talk about:* The origins and mission of the DAC Coalition* DAC Coalition’s membership* The DOE’s $3.5 billion DAC Hubs Initiative* Is DAC getting too much funding/attention?* Reframing carbon removal from being a burden to an inclusive, global opportunityIf you like 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