A new effort to standardize carbon-removal contracting debuted 19 November 2025, aiming to cut transaction times and make deals easier for businesses entering the nascent market for carbon-dioxide removal.
. . . Read more
When it comes to CDR development in China, biologic methods such as and post-harvest soil turning are widely used CDR methods, while geologic methods such as direct air capture with underground storage and enhanced rock weathering are only . . . Read more
Storing captured CO2 as a semi-liquid in the tiny pore spaces of sedimentary rock underground is widely considered to be one strategy for reducing global warming. CO2 would be captured from industrial emissions (carbon capture and storage, CCS) and industrial direct air capture plants (direct air capture with pore space storage, DACPS).
Rock layers in sedimentary basins throughout the world have been widely estimated to have enough pore space to ultimately store a total of gigatonnes. This far exceeds the 2,000 GtCO2 that has been widely viewed as requiring storage by the year 2100 — suggesting there should be no concern about adequate future storage capacity.
But a new modelling study . . . Read more
Climate tech company Terradot will conduct one of the most extensive scientific monitoring programs yet for enhanced rock weathering (ERW), following an agreement with Microsoft to purchase 12,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) credits between 2026 and 2029. The project is centered on Terradot’s operations in Brazil, where the company is scaling ERW deployment.
The announcement of the deal explains Microsoft's funding will enable Terradot to expand research well beyond current . . . Read more
The East African Rift Valley in Kenya is fast emerging as a new frontier for direct air capture with carbon mineralization storage (DACCM), thanks to its unique combination of geothermal energy and favorable geology. Two DACCM pilot projects are already operational, and three more are being planned, as companies look to tap into the region’s abundant low-emission energy and thick layers of basalt rock, ideal for underground carbon storage.
Kenya’s recently enacted Climate Change Act of 2024 provides a legal framework for carbon project implementation and carbon credit sales, building on the country’s push toward renewable energy under its Energy Act of 2019. Today, 91% of Kenya’s electricity comes from low-emission sources: 47% geothermal, 24% hydropower . . . Read more
Ocean alkalinity enhancement (OAE) is the least developed of the geologic methods of carbon dioxide removal (CDR), having been tested only in computer models and small-scale experiments in the lab and ocean.
Other geologic methods of CDR such as ERW and DACPS have either been implemented at large scale or are on the verge of doing so. But OAE remains in only the experimental stage, having not yet been tested at a large scale in the ocean.
Big questions remain about how much CO2 OAE can remove from the atmosphere and how spreading large amounts of rock dust in the ocean will impact marine life.
Progress is being made toward answering those big questions, however. Recently, technical guidelines were published for how to effectively conduct research on OAE. And, new government funding in the U.S. for developing verifying carbon removal methods will add further incentive to OAE development. Also, new businesses are being created that are testing the waters of OAE by proposing pilot projects at several locations in the ocean.
These new developments in OAE are located mainly in Europe, North America, and Australia, with little attention paid to OAE in Africa and Asia as found . . . Read more
A direct air capture (DAC) plant uses a lot of heat energy to separate CO2 from air. And a nuclear power plant throws off a lot of excess heat while generating electricity.
So, why not marry the two, and have a nuclear power plant send its waste heat to a DAC plant?
That is what the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) considered in a feasibility study that was completed in 2024.
The nuclear power plant in the study is Southern Company’s Joseph M. Farley nuclear power plant located about 300 km southwest of Atlanta, Georgia near Dothan, Alabama in the southeastern United States. The Farley nuclear plant produces 2,775 megawatts of thermal energy to generate 1,776 megawatts of electricity — enough electricity to supply about 450,000 homes.
The feasibility study included storing the captured CO2 . . . Read more
EnEarth, a subsidiary of the London-based oil and gas company, Energean, recently that direct air capture (DAC) will supply some of the CO2 that will be stored underground in the company's Prinos carbon capture and storage (CCS) project planned in Greece, in the northern Aegean Sea. Prinos is a oil field.
The project initially will store 1 million tonnes of CO2 per year that will be captured from the exhausts of industrial plants in the region, as well as CO2 captured from open air by the DAC plant. The relative proportions of CO2 from DAC and industrial plants were not specified in the announcement. The €500 million first phase of the project is expected . . . Read more
Two incidents at prominent carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects — in Norway’s Sleipner gas field and at Archer Daniels Midland’s (ADM) Decatur corn-ethanol plant in Illinois (USA) — have highlighted challenges in accurately accounting for and securing stored CO2. Both incidents involved equipment malfunctions. Together, they underscore the need for transparent monitoring, rigorous measurement protocols, and regulatory oversight as CCS, DACPS, and DACCM projects scale up for industries' climate mitigation efforts.
At Norway's Sleipner gas field, operated by Equinor and in operation since 1996, the company reported in 2021 that a malfunctioning flow transmitter led to the company's over-reporting of CO2 injection volumes during the period 2017 through 2021. The amount of CO2 that was over-reported was more than . . . Read more
Planetary Technologies has been on a roll since 2022 when it first obtained funding for testing its ocean alkalinity enhancement (OAE) strategy. The process involves adding magnesium hydroxide (Mg(OH)2) to coastal ocean water to make the ocean more alkaline (less acidic), thus enabling the ocean to absorb more CO2 from the atmosphere. The company is . . . Read more
Limenet, an Italian climate tech start-up focused on ocean alkalinity enhancement (OAE), recently announced in a LinkedIn post that it has become a member of the Carbon Business Council — a nonprofit trade association uniting companies working to restore the climate.
This membership is the latest milestone in Limenet’s push to establish itself as a leader in ocean-based carbon removal using its patented process. In September 2024, the company launched its first modular carbon dioxide removal facility in Augusta, Sicily, a major step toward scaling up ocean carbon storage. The plant converts atmospheric CO2 into stable calcium bicarbonate (Ca(HCO3)2) dissolved in seawater and is designed to process up to 100 kilograms of CO2 per hour.
Adding to its credentials, Limenet recently secured ISO 14064-2 certification from RINA, an international standards body, for its carbon removal methodology. This recognition places the company among a small group of firms globally whose processes meet rigorous verification standards . . . . Read more
CarbonCapture Inc., a Los Angeles-based developer of direct air capture (DAC) systems, announced in February 2025 a major strategic pivot, moving away from its planned high-profile project in the western U.S. state of Wyoming and concentrating future efforts in the southeastern state of Louisiana.
The company had originally planned to build Project Bison in Wyoming, a facility intended to become the world’s largest DAC plant, capturing up to 5 million metric tons of carbon dioxide per year through solid sorbent technology. That design relied on . . . . . . Read more
A new direct air carbon capture and storage plant, with pore space storage (DACPS) is under construction in Ector County, Texas that is designed to capture more CO2 from the atmosphere than any other DAC plant in the world . . . Read more
Planning for carbon dioxide removal (CDR) isn’t just a matter of picking the right technology—it’s about navigating a maze of unknowns. A new study published in April 2025 in "Environmental Research Letters" by Quirina Rodriguez Mendez and colleagues offers perhaps the clearest framework yet for how to think about . . . Read more
Enhanced rock weathering remains a nascent method of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) and is currently practiced commercially in only a few locations worldwide. However, its adoption is accelerating, driven by support from philanthropic organizations, government grants, and carbon credit sales.
One geographic area seeing increasing use of enhanced weathering is in the central Indian states of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, and Jharkhand where in the last three years Mati Carbon has enabled more than smallholder farmers to spread more than 80,000 of crushed on their farms which average less than 4 hectares . . . Read more
As some of the first large-scale ERW projects on cropland have gotten underway, significant improvements have been made in the of measuring how much CO2 a project removes from the atmosphere. A commercial ERW project requires accurate accounting of carbon removal to provide enough . . . Read more
| Date | Event | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Nov 17 & 18, 2025 | Enhanced weathering with agriculture for atmospheric carbon dioxide removal | London, England |
| Dec 3, 2025 | Global Carbon Markets | Barcelona, Spain |
| Dec 8, 2025 | CO2 Forward 2025 | New Delhi, India |
| Dec 15-19, 2025 | AGU25 | New Orleans, LA (USA) |
| Jan 22 & 23, 2026 | Carbon Unbound West Coast 2026 | Vancouver, BC, Canada |
| April 13-15, 2026 | 2026 4th Shanghai International Carbon Offset Technology Expo | Shanghai, China |
| April 17-19, 2026 | 2026 Int'l Conference on Climate Change and Carbon Neutrality | Xi'an, China |
| Past | Events | |
| Oct 7-9, 2025 | Carbon Forward Expo London 2025 | London, England |
| Sept 10 & 11, 2025 | Mexico Carbon Forum | Tampico, Tamaulipas |
| 19-Sep-25 | Navigating Marine Carbon Dioxide Removal: From Science to Regulation | New York City, NY (USA) |
| Announcement date / Delivery date | Buyer / seller | Project/type/ location |
CO2 tonnes |
Price USD/tonne |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7/16/25 / over 5 years | 1PointFive / Palo Alto Networks | DACPS / Texas, USA | 10,000 | NR |
| 7/14/25 / NR | Frontier / Limenet | OAE (using calcium bicarbonate) / Sicily, Italy | 330 | NR |
| 6/24/25 / over 10 years | JPMorganChase / 1PointFive | DACPS / Texas, USA | 50,000 | NR |
| 6/17/25 / Through 2034 | SAP / Climeworks | DACCM, ERW, biochar / Iceland (DACCM), NR (ERW, biochar) |
37,000 | NR |
| 6/16/25 / 6/16/25 | Planetary / Stripe, Shopify, British Airways | OAE (using magnesium hydroxide) / Nova Scotia, Canada | 626 | NR |
| 3/25/25 / 2027 - 2030 | Frontier / Eion | ERW / U.S. south and midwest | 78,707 | $419 |
| 2/27/25 / 2027 - 2030 | Frontier / Phlair | DACPS / Alberta, Canada | 47,000 | $651 |
| 1/6/25 / 1/6/25 | Adyen / InPlanet | ERW / Brazil | 236 | NR |
| 10-24-24 / Through 2037 | Morgan Stanley / Climeworks | DACPS / Louisiana, USA (Cypress Hub) |
40,000 | NR |
| 9-24-24/ over next 5 years | Microsoft / Eion | ERW (using olivine)/ Mid-Atlantic region of US | 8,000 | $300 - $400 |
| 9-23-24 / NR | British Airways / Climeworks (DAC), Carbfix (storage) | DACCM / Iceland | NR | NR |
| 9-18-24/ NR | Frontier/ Flux | ERW / Kenya | 1,142 | $438 |
| 9-18-24 / NR | Frontier / Alt Carbon | ERW / Himalyan foothills, India | 1,851 | $243 |
| 9-18-24 / NR | Frontier/ Silica | ERW , Mexico sugar cane farms |
1,266 | $355 |
| 9-10-24 / early 2030s |
Google / Holocene | DACPS or DACCM / NR | 100,000 | $100 |
| 7-16-24 / NR |
Zurcher Kantonalbank / Climeworks(DAC), Carbfix (storage) | DACCM / Iceland | 1,750 | NR |
| 7-11-24 Through 2030 |
Frontier/ 280Earth | DACCM / The Dalles, Oregon, USA | >60,000 | <$667 |
| 7-9-24 / over 6 years |
Microsoft / 1PointFive (Oxy) | DACPS / Ector County, TX USA (STRATOS) |
500,000 | NR |
| 4/24 / mid-2025 | KlimaDAO / Limenet | OAE (using calcium bicarbonate) / Sicily, Italy | 1,000 | NR | 3-29-24 / 3/24 | Frontier / Mati | ERW / Chhattisgarh, India | 50 | NR |
| 1-16-24 / By 2030 | Trafigura / 1PointFive | DACPS / Ector County, TX USA (STRATOS) |
50,000 | NR |
Emissions reduction is widely recognized as the highest priority for limiting global warming, while (CDR) is emerging as an additional pathway to limiting warming.
Most methods of performing CDR can be grouped into one of two broad categories, either biologic or geologic.
Biologic methods of CDR use plant material in the CDR process, either growing live plants or using processed plant material such as biochar.
Geologic methods of CDR involve rock materials in the CDR process — whether it's injecting liquid-like CO2 into rock underground or spreading finely crushed rock on cropland or in the ocean.
There are four major geologic methods of CDR.
ERW and OAE each comprise a complete CDR system because they capture and store CO2. In contrast, a direct air capture method becomes part of a complete CDR system only when coupled with durable storage such as underground injection (DACPS or DACCM).
The following table summarizes key aspects of the geologic methods of CDR, including their technical readiness levels. Biologic methods of CDR are included for comparison.
— More about CDR —
The estimates emissions reductions alone will not be enough to prevent global warming from reaching 2oC by the year 2100 — and, consequently, it will be necessary to remove CO2 from the atmosphere to meet that goal.
Many believe CDR is needed in the near term for offsetting emissions from industries that are hard to decarbonize (e.g., airlines and cement). And, eventually, CDR will be needed for removing " " from the atmosphere.
ERW, OAE, and DACCM are categorized as "novel" methods of CDR because they have not had long-term testing. One publication indicated the novel methods of CDR (which also includes some of the biologic methods) need to be ramped up from the current removal rate of
— a factor of 1,300.
CDR is distinguished from more widely developed CCS (carbon capture and storage or sequestration).
CCS involves direct capture of emissions from industrial plants such as natural gas and corn ethanol plants, commonly with storage underground like in DACPS and DACCM. CCS, however, does not remove existing CO2 directly from the atmosphere — and, consequently, does not meet the definition of CDR.
The distinction between CDR and CCS is important for understanding motivations of a carbon removal project (e.g., CCS substituting for the reduction of ongoing fossil fuel emissions, versus CDR removing legacy emissions). The distinction can influence climate policy-making in government.
CDR methods are emerging that do not clearly fit into either the biologic or geologic categories (for example electrochemical methods and soil carbon mineralization). And, there are CDR methods that use captured CO2 in products or processes, although these methods are expected to create very limited negative emissions (i.e., they will not avoid much more emissions than they produce).