News

One of the persistent questions about biochar as a carbon removal pathway is permanence. Spread charred biomass on a field — does it actually stay there? A new study published in Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems provides some of the longest field data yet: a single biochar application in 2013 still shows significant soil carbon and pH benefits ten years later. The Study#Researchers tracked biochar applied once at rates of 11.2, 22.4, and 44.8 tonnes per hectare on dryland wheat fields in eastern Oregon. No reapplication over the entire decade. They measured soil organic carbon (SOC), pH, labile carbon, cation exchange capacity, and nutrient dynamics. ...

Materials science just produced one of those results that makes you do a double take. Researchers at Japan’s Gifu University created a rubber — technically a “CO₂-curable elastomer” — that absorbs carbon dioxide from its surroundings and transforms into a rigid, acrylic-like plastic. Published in Nature Communications. How It Works#The material combines polyethyleneimine (PEI), which reacts with CO₂, with polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), a silicone polymer that CO₂ passes through easily. On its own, PEI absorbs ~1mg of CO₂ per gram. Bonded with PDMS, it absorbs 220mg per gram — the PDMS creates internal “passageways” that let CO₂ reach PEI deep inside the material. ...

A new study from Cornell’s Chuan Liao and colleagues, published in Nature Communications Sustainability, models what enhanced rock weathering (ERW) could actually achieve under realistic adoption scenarios. The headline: 700 million to 1.1 billion tonnes of CO₂ per year by 2100. That’s less than half the theoretical ceiling of 5 Gt/yr that earlier studies floated. But it’s still enormous — roughly 2–3% of current global emissions, achieved by spreading crushed basalt on existing farmland. ...

The European Commission dropped a big policy package yesterday: the Industrial Accelerator Act (IAA), a regulation aimed at rebuilding European industrial capacity while decarbonizing strategic sectors. The headlines focus on “Made in EU” procurement quotas (25% for low-carbon steel and aluminum, 5% for concrete). But buried in the details are signals that matter for the CDR industry — both positive and concerning. What’s in It for Carbon Removal?#The IAA creates a framework for: ...

Microsoft Bought 93% of All Carbon Removal Credits Last Year#New data from BloombergNEF and the Business Council for Sustainable Energy confirms what many suspected: Microsoft is essentially the carbon removal market. The tech giant purchased 93% of all global CDR credits in 2025, driven by its pledge to remove every tonne of CO₂ the company has emitted since 1975. That kind of anchor buying — paying $500+ per tonne for high-quality DAC and engineered removal — is keeping startups like Climeworks and Heirloom alive and scaling. But one buyer propping up an entire sector isn’t a strategy. It’s a lifeline. Governments need to step up as procurement partners if this market is going to mature beyond Microsoft’s goodwill. (Latitude Media) ...

A new paper in Nature Reviews Earth & Environment has mapped out the uncertainties that still plague enhanced rock weathering (ERW) as a carbon dioxide removal strategy. Meanwhile, Germany’s Thünen Institute — a federal agricultural research body — has gone further, calling ERW “not yet a reliable climate protection measure.” This is getting attention, and it should. But let’s read past the headlines. What the Paper Actually Says#The Nature paper doesn’t claim ERW doesn’t work. It catalogs the variables that make precise quantification difficult: soil type, mineral grain size, local climate, microbial activity, and leaching dynamics all influence how fast basalt dissolves and how much CO₂ is actually captured and stored. ...

While most CDR headlines focus on North America and Europe, Asia is quietly building serious carbon removal capacity. The latest example: Japan’s Green Carbon Inc. has partnered with Ahmedabad-based Excellent Enfab to deploy industrial-scale biochar production in India. The Deal#Two new pyrolysis plants will be built in Gujarat and West Bengal. Feedstock comes from locally sourced agricultural residues — peanut shells, flower stems, bamboo — the kind of waste that would otherwise decompose and release CO₂ back into the atmosphere. ...

Here’s a climate feedback loop that doesn’t get enough attention: the hotter it gets, the more we cool ourselves, and the more we cool ourselves, the hotter it gets. A new study in Nature Communications by Hongzhi Zhang, Yuli Shan (University of Birmingham), and colleagues has quantified this problem with uncomfortable precision. The Numbers#Under a mid-range emissions scenario (SSP2-4.5), cumulative AC-related emissions from 2010 to 2050 could reach 113.3 billion tonnes of CO₂ equivalents. In the worst case, annual emissions from air conditioning alone could hit 8.5 billion tonnes by 2050 — significantly more than the current total US emissions of 5.9 Gt/year. ...

Climeworks, one of the Carbon Drawdown Initiative’s portfolio companies, has established new headquarters in Calgary, Alberta. Why Calgary#Alberta offers something few other jurisdictions can match: deep expertise in carbon management, established subsurface storage infrastructure, and a supportive regulatory environment for carbon capture projects. Calgary’s Energy Transition Centre (ETC) — where Climeworks is setting up — brings startups, researchers, investors, and industry leaders under one roof. ...

The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) has released preliminary findings from the first U.S. Environmental Protection Agency–permitted ocean alkalinity enhancement (OAE) field trial. The results, presented at the biennial Ocean Sciences Meeting in Glasgow, represent a significant step forward for marine carbon dioxide removal. What Happened#In August 2025, the LOC-NESS (Locking Ocean Carbon in the Northeast Shelf and Slope) team conducted a six-hour dispersal of 65,000 liters of highly purified sodium hydroxide — a common water treatment chemical — into the surface waters of the Wilkinson Basin in the Gulf of Maine. A red tracer dye (Rhodamine Water Tracer) was released alongside it to track the alkalinity patch. ...