Monday’s lineup covers three continents — a research breakthrough from Cambridge, a national strategy from Berlin, a new carbon market from Delhi, and a Formula 1 team putting real money behind six different removal pathways.
Our Coverage Today
MIT Turns CO₂ and Water Into Jet Fuel Using Only Renewable Energy — A Nature Energy paper describes an electrochemical cell that converts CO₂ and water directly into jet fuel hydrocarbons using renewable electricity. No biomass, no Fischer-Tropsch. Aviation is responsible for ~3% of global emissions and notoriously hard to decarbonize — batteries are too heavy for long-haul, and sustainable aviation fuel supply is nowhere near demand. If this electrochemical approach scales, it sidesteps the feedstock bottleneck entirely.
Germany’s CDR Potential: Up to 95 Million Tonnes CO₂ Per Year by 2045 — A Sweco Finland and Carbon Gap assessment finds Germany could remove up to 95 MtCO₂ annually by 2045 — but only with unprecedented coordination between government and industry. Enhanced weathering, BECCS, biochar, and DAC all feature. Germany emits roughly 650 MtCO₂e/yr currently, so 95 Mt of removals would cover roughly 15% of today’s output. The gap between technical potential and political will remains the real bottleneck.
India Launches Carbon Market Portal — Formal Trading Starts in 4 Months — India’s Power Minister announced formal carbon credit trading within four months, with 490 obligated entities across seven sectors and a dedicated portal for registration, verification, and trading. This is the world’s third-largest emitter standing up compliance carbon market infrastructure. The design choices India makes — what counts as removal, how permanence is defined — will echo across South and Southeast Asia.
Mercedes F1 Goes All-In on Carbon Removal — 7 Projects Across 6 Technologies — Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 commits to ~18,900 tCO₂e of removals across Direct Air Capture, biomass storage, BECCS, biochar, ocean alkalinity enhancement, and enhanced rock weathering. Brokered by CUR8, this is the most pathway-diverse corporate CDR portfolio we’ve seen. Spreading bets across six technologies at once signals sophistication — Mercedes is hedging against any single pathway failing to deliver.
Stories We Didn’t Cover
Canada’s carbon removal moment — Pembina Institute published a piece framing this as Canada’s inflection point for CDR policy and industry development. Worth watching: Canada has geological storage, mining expertise, and political tailwinds that could make it a serious CDR hub.
DOE carbon removal hubs stall under audit — E&E News/POLITICO reports that US carbon removal hub projects are languishing as Department of Energy audits drag on. Another casualty of the current administration’s slow-walk approach to climate programs. Projects that were funded and moving are now in limbo.
Microsoft’s CDR spending keeps climbing — E&E News covers Microsoft’s continued billions-level investment in nascent carbon removal. They remain the single largest CDR buyer globally and the market’s de facto price-setter for high-durability removal credits. Where Microsoft goes, procurement standards follow.
Carbon mineralization from industrial waste — A review paper highlights steel slag and carbide slag as scalable carbon mineralization feedstocks, estimating ~310 MtCO₂/yr direct removal potential and up to 3.7 GtCO₂/yr in indirect cuts through cement replacement. The numbers are striking, but real-world deployment data remains thin.
BerriUp + Save the Farms biochar partnership — A European market entry and certification play for biochar, signaling the EU’s carbon removal certification framework is already shaping business strategy before it’s fully implemented.
The Week Ahead
CERAWeek continues through Friday in Houston — Microsoft’s CDR lead Jessica Hinojosa spoke yesterday, and more procurement-side announcements are expected. The EGU General Assembly wraps up in Vienna with remaining ocean CDR and enhanced weathering sessions. India’s carbon market timeline means we should see registration details within weeks. And Germany’s CDR potential study will likely trigger domestic policy debate — watch for Bundestag reactions.
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