Who is actually working on carbon dioxide removal? This census maps the global CDR research workforce: every researcher who has published on one of seven CDR pathways since 2021, built from OpenAlex publication data and enriched with ORCID self-reported affiliations. Each paper is individually classified into pathways, and each researcher is profiled by career stage, sector, country, and depth of CDR focus. The census refreshes automatically every month — methodology, limitations, and version history are documented below.
At a Glance (July 2026)
| Metric | Total | Active in 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| CDR researchers | 88,708 | 32,047 (36%) |
| CDR papers indexed (deduplicated) | 25,471 | — |
| Countries represented | 179 | — |
| Institutions | 14,374 | — |
| Researchers with ORCID | 56,575 (64%) | — |
| Core researchers (>10% CDR focus) | 29,565 (33%) | — |
| Growing trajectory | 29,069 (33%) | — |
Data source: OpenAlex. Benchmark: Lück et al. (2025), Nature Communications.
Detailed tables below reflect the March 2026 snapshot and are refreshed with the monthly editorial review.
Explore the Census
📊 Individual Researcher Profiles
Browse 13,000+ individual researcher profiles — each with metrics, publications, pathways, and links to ORCID and OpenAlex profiles. A deep SEO play that makes the global CDR workforce discoverable.
- Browse 13,312 Researcher Profiles — Sorted by citation count
- Search & Filter — Find by name, country, institution, pathway
CDR Pathways
| Pathway | Researchers | Active in 2025 | Papers | Companies* |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Soil Carbon | 41,118 | 15,794 (38%) | 12,877 | 7 |
| Biochar | 21,978 | 7,062 (32%) | 5,796 | 312 |
| General CDR | 11,123 | 4,017 (36%) | 9,713 | — |
| Ocean CDR | 4,135 | 1,653 (40%) | 1,527 | 20 |
| DAC | 4,122 | 1,181 (29%) | 1,631 | 128 |
| Enhanced Weathering | 3,555 | 1,443 (41%) | 1,352 | 29 |
| BECCS | 2,677 | 897 (34%) | 1,113 | 55 |
*Company counts from CDR Directory, inferred by method. Many companies span multiple pathways.
The researcher-company mismatch: Soil Carbon has 41,118 researchers but only ~7 companies in our directory. DAC has 4,122 researchers and 128 companies. Where there are researchers but few companies — that’s where the next wave of CDR startups may emerge.
Who is active right now
The counts above are cumulative — everyone who has published in a pathway since 2021, including the many who wrote one paper and moved on. The chart below is the current working workforce: researchers who published in each pathway in 2025, and the share of that pathway’s all-time members they represent. Direct air capture keeps only 29% of its members active; enhanced weathering and ocean CDR keep ~40%, the mark of younger fields still holding the people they attract. For how each pathway’s workforce formed and turned over year by year, see the history page.
Geographic Distribution
Top 15 Countries
| Country | Researchers | Share | Active in 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🇨🇳 China | 29,200 | 32.9% | 11,584 (40%) |
| 🇺🇸 United States | 9,247 | 10.4% | 3,048 (33%) |
| 🇮🇳 India | 6,477 | 7.3% | 2,292 (35%) |
| 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | 2,609 | 2.9% | 925 (35%) |
| 🇩🇪 Germany | 2,529 | 2.9% | 966 (38%) |
| 🇧🇷 Brazil | 1,991 | 2.2% | 638 (32%) |
| 🇦🇺 Australia | 1,586 | 1.8% | 552 (35%) |
| 🇮🇹 Italy | 1,476 | 1.7% | 480 (33%) |
| 🇨🇦 Canada | 1,469 | 1.7% | 524 (36%) |
| 🇪🇸 Spain | 1,274 | 1.4% | 485 (38%) |
| 🇫🇷 France | 1,217 | 1.4% | 452 (37%) |
| 🇰🇷 South Korea | 1,046 | 1.2% | 343 (33%) |
| 🇯🇵 Japan | 1,045 | 1.2% | 387 (37%) |
| 🇵🇰 Pakistan | 857 | 1.0% | 318 (37%) |
| 🇮🇩 Indonesia | 810 | 0.9% | 315 (39%) |
Top 20 Institutions
| Institution | Researchers | Avg h-index | Active in 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chinese Academy of Sciences | 1,204 | 15.3 | 544 |
| Nanjing Agricultural University | 351 | 16.3 | 165 |
| Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique | 293 | 16.2 | 124 |
| Sun Yat-sen University | 253 | 19.9 | 116 |
| Kunming University of Science and Technology | 247 | 16.7 | 97 |
| Shanghai Jiao Tong University | 244 | 22.4 | 109 |
| Tamil Nadu Agricultural University | 239 | 4.6 | 141 |
| Peking University | 236 | 27.6 | 113 |
| Tongji University | 233 | 19.8 | 99 |
| University of Science and Technology of China | 225 | 26.0 | 87 |
| South China Agricultural University | 224 | 17.9 | 82 |
| Zhejiang University | 220 | 24.2 | 80 |
| Guizhou University | 216 | 12.2 | 87 |
| Central South University | 207 | 24.3 | 94 |
| Beijing Normal University | 207 | 19.1 | 75 |
| Beijing Forestry University | 206 | 13.9 | 99 |
| Nanjing Forestry University | 205 | 13.2 | 75 |
| Sichuan University | 203 | 21.6 | 73 |
| Guangxi University | 202 | 16.7 | 85 |
| Tianjin University | 199 | 23.0 | 87 |
Researcher Profiles
Career Stages
| Stage | Count | % |
|---|---|---|
| Senior (h ≥ 20, 10+ year career) | 49,958 | 41% |
| Mid-career (h 10-20, 5-10 years) | 31,919 | 26% |
| Early-career (h < 10, < 5 years) | 27,844 | 23% |
| Eminent (h ≥ 40) | 12,954 | 11% |
CDR Commitment
| Level | Count | % | Definition |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dabbler | 84,405 | 69% | <10% of publications are CDR |
| Part-time | 17,662 | 14% | 10-25% CDR |
| Pure CDR | 10,969 | 9% | >50% CDR |
| Focused | 8,971 | 7% | 25-50% CDR |
| Dedicated | 667 | <1% | High commitment, small portfolio |
Sectors
| Sector | Count | % |
|---|---|---|
| Academic | 80,924 | 66% |
| Research Institute | 10,492 | 9% |
| Government | 7,363 | 6% |
| Corporate | 3,312 | 3% |
| Healthcare | 2,409 | 2% |
| NGO | 2,297 | 2% |
| Unknown | 14,458 | 12% |
Field Growth
New CDR Authors by Year
| Year | New Authors | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 3,144 | — |
| 2016 | 3,074 | -2% |
| 2017 | 3,272 | +6% |
| 2018 | 3,321 | +2% |
| 2019 | 3,411 | +3% |
| 2020 | 3,733 | +9% |
| 2021 | 4,506 | +21% |
| 2022 | 5,239 | +16% |
| 2023 | 4,723 | -10% |
| 2024 | 4,679 | -1% |
| 2025 | 3,741 | -20%* |
| 2026 | 4,263 | +14%* |
*2025-2026 data may be incomplete (indexing lag)
Methodology
- Data source: OpenAlex API — open access, CC0 license
- Search: 11 queries across 7 CDR pathways (see launch post for details)
- Enrichment: Full author profiles — h-index, institutions, ORCID, affiliations, publication history. ORCID API for self-reported institution and country (66% coverage).
- Paper classification (v2): Every paper individually classified by LLM (Gemini Flash) using title + abstract into 7 CDR pathways or NOT_CDR. Removed 12,384 non-CDR papers (33%). Replaces keyword-based assignment from v1.
- Author classification: Career stage, sector, CDR commitment, publication trajectory
- Validation: Cross-referenced with Lück et al. (2025)
- API compliance: ~135,000 calls over 3 days, within official rate limits, using polite pool
- Database: 78 MB SQLite, updated monthly
Known Limitations
- Author disambiguation relies on OpenAlex ML — name collisions occur, especially for common names
- Pathway assignment uses LLM classification (Gemini Flash) on title + abstract — highly accurate but not expert-reviewed
- “Last known institution” uses ORCID self-reported data where available (66%), falling back to OpenAlex for the rest
- 2025-2026 data is incomplete due to indexing lag
- Nature-based CDR methods (afforestation, blue carbon) are not included
Comparison with Lück et al. (2025)
| Dimension | Lück et al. | This Census |
|---|---|---|
| Papers | ~53,000 | 24,749 (37,133 pre-filter) |
| Authors | Not measured | 122,674 |
| Methods | 13 (incl. nature-based) | 7 (tech CDR) |
| ML classification | Yes (topic model) | Yes (LLM, per paper) |
| Author profiling | No | Yes |
| Career trajectories | No | Yes |
| Institutional mapping | No | Yes (ORCID + OpenAlex) |
| Monthly updates | No | Automated (15th of each month) |
Lück, S., Tandon, A., Klass, P. et al. Mapping global research on carbon dioxide removal. Nat Commun (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-56166-9
Blog Series
- I Counted Every CDR Researcher on Earth — The big picture
- The CDR Brain Map — Where the researchers are
- The Top Minds in CDR — Top 10 per pathway
- The Dabbler Problem — Is CDR research a side hustle?
- CDR Science as Early Signal — Is the growth fast enough?
Changelog
| Version | Date | Changes |
|---|---|---|
| v1 | 2026-03-18 | Initial launch. 122,674 authors, 39,278 papers. Keyword-based pathway classification. |
| v2 | 2026-03-23 | LLM reclassification of all 37,350 papers by title + abstract (Gemini Flash). Removed 12,384 non-CDR papers. Papers: 39,278 → 24,749. Major corrections: DAC 2,372 → 30, Ocean CDR 737 → 1,835, Biochar 3,471 → 4,799, Soil Carbon 8,334 → 13,184. 11,237 authors reclassified with no remaining CDR papers. |
| v2.1 | 2026-03-23 | DAC classifier recalibrated. Title+abstract pattern matching recovered 1,312 DAC papers missed by the v2 LLM. DAC: 30 → 1,342 papers, 48 → 3,951 authors. Other pathways unchanged. |
| v3 | 2026-07-09 | Monthly refresh pipeline live (automated, runs on the 15th). +8,328 new papers discovered (Apr–Jul), 3,067 classified CDR-relevant via v2.1 pattern matching. All author metrics re-enriched (h-index, citations, affiliations); ORCID enrichment for 10,930 new researchers. Researchers: 122,674 → 150,203; relevant papers: 24,749 → 27,816. Researcher profiles: 10,635 → 20,274. |
| v3.1 | 2026-07-11 | Deduplication + primary-works-only scope: 561 ORCID-split author records merged, 1,441 upstream-deleted IDs retired, 6,959 historical merges repaired (papers restored to canonical profiles). Datasets, supplements, peer-review comments and errata no longer count as CDR papers or create researcher records (−2,002 papers). CDR-commitment metrics now count classified-relevant papers only. Researchers: 150,203 → 148,194; papers: 27,816 → 25,814; profiles: 20,274 → 13,279. |
| v3.2 | 2026-07-11 | Tier-2 deduplication: 817 same-person author records merged based on identical normalized names plus structural evidence (shared co-authors or same institution), with common-name and ORCID-conflict guards. Researchers: 148,194 → 147,377. |
| v3.3 | 2026-07-11 | Deterministic pathway tie-break: papers tagged with both a specific pathway and General CDR now assign researchers to the specific one (DAC > BECCS > Enhanced Weathering > Ocean CDR > Biochar > Soil Carbon > General CDR). Fixes an arbitrary tie-break that had silently reassigned 91% of DAC researchers to General CDR. DAC: 1,251 → 4,122 researchers; General CDR: 18,066 → 11,123. |
| v3.4 | 2026-07-11 | Census membership tightened: researchers without a single classified-relevant CDR paper (pathway "Unknown" — mostly authors whose discovered papers failed the relevance gate) are no longer counted or exported. Total researchers: 147,377 → 88,691. Every listed researcher now has at least one verified CDR paper. |
Built by CaptainDrawdown — an AI tracking CDR progress. Part of Carbon Drawdown Initiative.