Visiting the world’s largest DAC plant in Iceland makes carbon removal feel viscerally real. But the investment landscape tells a more complicated story.

The EU just adopted its first certification methodologies for permanent carbon removals. This government-backed label could become the quality benchmark for CDR credits globally.

A bio-DAC approach using microalgae raceways could offer a radically different — and potentially cheaper — path to direct air capture.

A German expert calls CDR a dangerous dream. His four critiques deserve a serious response — even if we think he’s wrong about the conclusion.

A blockbuster Sunday for carbon removal. Over $600 million in new CDR capital announced, a BECCS project targeting 500,000 tonnes per year, research showing we may need centuries of removal, and a materials science breakthrough that could reshape DAC economics. Plus the EU builds its first government CDR certification framework and biochar enters concrete. Today on CaptainDrawdown 🏭 A US Paper Mill Wants to Capture Half a Million Tonnes of CO₂ Per Year Svante Technologies advances a BECCS facility at a southeastern US paper mill targeting 500,000+ tonnes of biogenic CO₂ annually — more than 13× Climeworks’ Mammoth capacity. Paper mills are almost purpose-built for BECCS: biomass feedstock on-site, biogenic CO₂ in flue gas, and Svante’s solid sorbent rotary contactors could offer faster cycling and lower energy penalties than liquid solvent systems. Captured CO₂ heads to Gulf Coast geological storage. Still in feasibility, but if it reaches FID this becomes one of the largest CDR projects in the world. ...

Most direct air capture systems have an energy problem. They need heat — often a lot of it — to release captured CO₂ from their sorbents. That heat costs money and energy, and it’s a major reason DAC still runs $400-1,000+ per tonne. Moisture-swing sorbents work differently. They absorb CO₂ when dry and release it when wet. No heat required. Just water. It’s an idea that’s been around for over a decade, pioneered by Klaus Lackner at Arizona State University. But making it work efficiently requires understanding exactly what happens inside these materials at a structural level. ...

Bregal Sphere, part of Bregal Investments, just committed up to $500 million to nature restoration company Imperative’s global pipeline of ecosystem restoration projects. That brings total capital earmarked for Imperative’s work to $1.25 billion. Half a billion dollars. For planting trees, restoring mangroves, and bringing degraded landscapes back to life. In Africa, Asia, and Latin America. This is the kind of capital flow that CDR has been waiting for. The Flagship: Spekboom in South Africa Imperative’s most advanced project is Beka Emva, a large-scale restoration of the degraded subtropical thicket biome in South Africa. The star of the show: Portulacaria afra, commonly known as spekboom. ...

Octopus Energy Generation just tripled down on grasslands as a carbon removal pathway. The renewable energy investor expanded its partnership with nature-based solutions provider Cultivo from $40 million to $100 million, adding $60 million to accelerate grassland regeneration and carbon removal across the United States. The numbers so far: 650,000+ acres of US grasslands enrolled — roughly the size of Rhode Island. Target: 9 million tonnes of CO₂ removal over 30 years. Cultivo says it’s on track to surpass 2 million acres this year. ...

We wrote about this research earlier this week, but it’s worth drilling deeper into what makes these findings so consequential for the carbon removal industry. The core finding from Johannes Bednar’s team at IIASA: reaching net zero doesn’t freeze climate damage in place. Sea levels keep rising. Permafrost keeps thawing. These slow-response systems operate on timescales measured in centuries, not decades — and they don’t stop just because we stopped adding CO₂. ...

Svante Technologies just moved a planned BECCS facility at a paper mill in the southeastern United States into the feasibility study stage. The target: capturing and permanently storing more than 500,000 metric tonnes of biogenic CO₂ every year. To put that number in context — Climeworks’ entire Mammoth plant in Iceland, the world’s largest operational DAC facility, is designed for 36,000 tonnes per year. This single project would exceed that by more than 13×. ...

We covered the LOC-NESS ocean alkalinity enhancement experiment earlier this week — the first open-water OAE trial, 65,000 liters of sodium hydroxide into the Gulf of Maine, run by WHOI. The science is fascinating. But how different countries talk about it tells you a lot about where public CDR acceptance stands. The German Take FOCUS Online — one of Germany’s biggest news sites — ran a detailed article with the headline: “65.000 Liter Chemie ins Meer? So wollen Forscher CO₂ speichern” — “65,000 liters of chemicals into the ocean? How researchers want to store CO₂.” ...

Most CDR companies are building something new. Rewind Earth is repurposing something old — and toxic. The company takes sustainably sourced biomass and stores it in deep underground mine chambers where oxygen-free conditions prevent decomposition. The carbon stays locked away. And the mines themselves benefit: less acid drainage, reduced land subsidence risk, lower methane emissions. The Approach Rewind’s flagship project operates in a deep mine in Georgia (the US state, not the country). The concept is elegant: abandoned mines are environmental liabilities — they leak acidic water, release methane, and pose collapse risks. By filling them with biomass, Rewind addresses multiple problems simultaneously. ...

BECCS — bioenergy with carbon capture and storage — has always been the CDR pathway with the biggest gap between IPCC models (which assume gigatons of it) and real-world deployment (which is basically zero at scale). Norway’s Carbon Centric is trying to close that gap. Their Project Kirkenær just passed the Puro.earth Preliminary Assessment, validating that its design, monitoring approach, and lifecycle assessment meet the standard’s requirements. It’s not full certification yet — that comes later — but it’s a concrete step toward issuing permanent carbon removal credits (CORCs). ...

This is the story carbon offset critics have been warning about for years. And it just played out in Oregon. The Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs launched a forest carbon project in 2015 under California’s cap-and-trade program. It covered 22,000–24,000 acres of tribal forest east of Mount Jefferson. Over several years, it generated $25 million in carbon credit revenue — one of the Tribes’ largest income sources. Then the Lionshead Fire hit in 2020. It scorched over 200,000 acres on and around the reservation. The fire was what foresters call “stand-replacement” — so intense it kills mature trees and resets the growth cycle entirely. The carbon that credits had been sold against? Released back into the atmosphere. ...

The single biggest thing holding back carbon removal? Cost. Direct air capture runs $400–1,000 per ton. Enhanced weathering is cheaper but slower. Biochar sits in a sweet spot — and a Minnesota startup just made it sweeter. Carba, co-founded by University of Minnesota Distinguished McKnight Professor Paul Dauenhauer, has developed a proprietary process that converts plant-based waste into biochar stable enough to lock carbon underground for over 1,000 years. Their target: $100–200 per ton of CO₂ removed. ...

While Verra and Gold Standard debate methodology updates, the EU quietly did something no government has done before: it created a government-backed certification label for carbon removal credits. The Carbon Removals and Carbon Farming Regulation (CRCF) — adopted in December 2024, with first certification methodologies published in February 2026 — establishes a voluntary framework for certifying carbon removals and soil emissions reductions. What Makes This Different Every existing carbon credit certification (Verra’s VCS, ICVCM’s Core Carbon Principles, Puro.earth) is run by private organizations. The CRCF is the first where: ...

The European Commission has approved €260 million ($298M) in Belgian state aid for the Kairos@C carbon capture and storage project in Antwerp. The project, run by Air Liquide and BASF, will capture CO₂ from hydrogen, ammonia, and ethylene oxide production, then transport it for permanent geological storage beneath the North Sea. Scale and Timeline Over a projected 15-year operating period, the project is expected to prevent roughly 20 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions from entering the atmosphere. ...

Frontier — the advance market commitment (AMC) backed by Stripe, Alphabet, Shopify, Meta, and McKinsey Sustainability — has opened applications for its 2026 Innovation program. The program sits within Frontier’s broader commitment to purchase more than $1 billion worth of permanent carbon removal between 2022 and 2030. What’s on Offer Two tracks: Prepurchases ($250K–$1.5M): Upfront funding to help early-stage projects move from lab to field deployment R&D grants ($250K–$750K): Support for research tackling critical technical challenges Applications are rolling, with selections expected twice during 2026. ...

Concrete is responsible for roughly 8% of global CO₂ emissions. Now a UK partnership has shown it can be carbon-negative. Holcim UK and Canary Wharf Group (CWG) have produced what they’re calling the UK’s first net-zero concrete, using biochar derived from spent coffee grounds collected from Canary Wharf coffee shops and coppiced hardwood. The Numbers The initial trial pours in April 2025 achieved an 80% reduction in net Global Warming Potential (GWP A1–A3) compared to traditional CEM I concrete — landing at 69 kgCO₂e/m³. ...

Friday the 13th turned out to be a big day for carbon removal science. Two major ERW publications, a municipal biochar first, and corporate buyers continuing to stack their portfolios. Here’s everything we covered — and what else moved. Today on CaptainDrawdown 🧪 CDR Misconception #1: “Carbon Removal Is Just an Excuse to Keep Polluting” We launched a new Friday series tackling the most common CDR objections head-on. The data tells a clear story: the biggest CDR buyers — Microsoft ($1B+), Stripe ($15M/yr), Swiss Re, Shopify — are also the companies that have already made the deepest emission cuts. IPCC AR6 says 1.5°C pathways need 6–16 Gt CO₂/yr of removal by 2050. This isn’t optional. ...