A Shanghai-based startup called Carbonology claims it has cracked the economics of synthetic fuel production — making petrol, diesel, jet fuel, and naphtha from atmospheric CO₂ and water at prices competitive with fossil fuels. If true, it would be one of the most significant breakthroughs in the history of carbon utilization. If not, it joins a long list of overblown e-fuel announcements. The details so far lean heavily toward the “if” side. ...

While US corporations are quietly retreating from climate commitments under political pressure, one major fashion group just went the other direction. Tapestry — the parent company of Coach, Kate Spade, and Stuart Weitzman — has signed a 10-year carbon removal partnership with Climeworks, the Swiss direct air capture company. It’s the first deal of its kind from a North American fashion company, and the length of the commitment stands out: a decade is an eternity in corporate sustainability, where most buyers sign one-year or three-year purchase agreements. ...

The Myth#“Direct air capture consumes insane amounts of energy. It’ll never work at scale — we’d need entire power grids just for DAC.” This is probably the most common objection to DAC. And unlike last week’s misconception, there’s a kernel of truth here. DAC is energy-intensive. But the conclusion — that it can never scale — doesn’t follow. Here’s why. The Energy Numbers (Real Ones)#Current DAC systems use roughly 2,000–3,000 kWh of combined thermal and electrical energy per ton of CO₂ captured. That’s a lot. For context, it’s about what two American households use in a year. ...

Bioenergy with carbon capture and storage — BECCS — is the IPCC’s workhorse. It appears in the vast majority of net-zero pathways. Climate models lean on it to close the gap between what emissions reductions can achieve and what the atmosphere actually needs. It’s supposed to be the technology that makes the math work. A new preprint from researchers at Princeton University, the University of Hong Kong, and the World Resources Institute says the math might be wrong. ...

Five stories today — ranging from a serious accounting warning for biomass credits to the EU putting rules on paper for carbon removal certification. ⚠️ Biomass Carbon Credits Face an Accounting Crisis#Biomass Carbon Credits Face Accounting Crisis Before They Even Scale 88% of all carbon removal credits sold involve biomass. A new CATF report examined 25 certification protocols for biomass-based CDR — and found nearly all have significant accounting flaws. The voluntary carbon market already crashed once from sloppy accounting in the offset era. CDR can’t afford a repeat. Getting biomass carbon accounting right now, before the market scales further, isn’t optional. ...

Carbon removal policy in Europe just got more real. The EU has published Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/2358, the technical rulebook for how carbon removal and carbon farming certification actually works under the Carbon Removals and Carbon Farming (CRCF) Regulation. Translation: the EU didn’t just say “we want certified carbon removal.” It specified exactly how you certify it, who can certify it, and what auditors must check. What the CRCF Covers#The CRCF Regulation (EU) 2024/3012 established the first EU-wide voluntary certification framework for three categories: ...

The carbon removal industry has a transparency problem. A new paper in Nature NPJ Climate Action from Georgia Tech geochemist Chris Reinhard and Yale’s Noah Planavsky argues that without a fundamental shift toward openness, CDR risks remaining a “niche, market-defined practice” when what the climate actually needs is a “trusted, scalable, and democratically governed solution.” That’s a polite way of saying: the current system is broken. The Problem With Proprietary Carbon Removal#Today’s voluntary carbon market works roughly like this: a startup claims it removed a certain amount of carbon, lists that amount for sale on a registry, and another company buys it to offset its emissions. The oversight is minimal. The data is often proprietary. The accounting methods vary wildly between providers. ...

Ocean alkalinity enhancement (OAE) is one of the most promising — and most debated — marine carbon removal strategies. The basic idea: add alkaline substances to seawater to increase its capacity to absorb and store CO₂. Proponents argue it could remove billions of tonnes of CO₂ while also counteracting ocean acidification. Skeptics worry about unintended ecological consequences. A new study published in Marine Environmental Research offers some of the strongest organism-level evidence yet that OAE might actually help marine life — at least for one important species. ...

Carbon removal is expanding into new territory — literally. Bolivian packaging and recycling company Empacar S.A. is partnering with Puro.earth, Cula, and Bioflux to build a biochar production facility in the Ascención de Guarayos region of Bolivia. Once operational, the facility expects to capture approximately 70,000 tonnes of CO₂ annually, with first carbon removal credits targeted for 2027. From Sawmill Waste to Permanent Carbon Storage#The facility will use wood waste from local sawmills — operations regulated by Bolivia’s forestry authority, the Autoridad de Fiscalización y Control Social de Bosques y Tierra (ABT). Converting this waste into biochar locks carbon into a stable solid form that persists in soil for centuries, rather than letting the wood decompose and release its carbon back into the atmosphere. ...

The voluntary carbon offset market is still recovering from a credibility crisis that started in 2022. Mounting evidence of shoddy accounting — especially in forest carbon projects — cratered buyer confidence and tanked sales. Now, a new report from the Clean Air Task Force asks an uncomfortable question: is the much-hyped biomass carbon removal market heading for the same cliff? The numbers suggest it should worry. Roughly 88% of all carbon removal credits sold to date are associated with a biomass project, according to CDR.fyi. Biomass-based methods — from biochar to bioenergy with carbon capture (BECCS) — tend to produce more plentiful and affordable credits than alternatives like direct air capture. That makes them the backbone of the entire CDR market. ...