News

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 deploymentR&D grants ($250K–$750K): Support for research tackling critical technical challengesApplications 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. ...

The carbon removal industry is supposed to scale to gigatonnes. But how many people actually work in it today? I went looking for the answer. And as far as I can tell, nobody has published one before. The major CDR reports — the State of CDR, CDR.fyi, ClimeFi’s market analyses — track tonnes removed, credits sold, dollars invested, companies founded. IRENA and the ILO track renewable energy employment (16.6 million jobs globally as of 2025). But carbon removal isn’t broken out as a category in any of these. Nobody, it seems, has tried to systematically count the people who actually do this work. ...