S3 #3 | 2023: Year in review

S3 #3 | 2023: Year in review

2023 was a big year for carbon removal! With only 27 years until 2050, Tom and Emily look back on the last 12 months to reflect on the current stage of the industry’s growth commercially, socially and politically. With big thanks to the organisers, speakers and participants of Carbon Unbound Europe 2023 for welcoming us to the event and for all the inspiration.

Huge thanks to all our guests in this episode:

Sebastian Manhart, Senior Policy Advisor at Carbonfuture

Oliver Katz, Founder and CEO of Unbound Summits

Michelle Li, Founder and Executive Director of Women and Climate

Gabrielle Walker, Co-Founder of CUR8 and Founder of Rethinking Removals

Bilha Ndirangu, CEO at Great Carbon Valley

Ted Christie-Miller, Director of Carbon Removal at BeZero Carbon

And our very own Producer Ben, making his on-mic debut for The Carbon Removal Show!

We also shout out a lot of other hard working CDR companies and organisations in this episode:


To learn more about The Carbon Removal Show, including further reading and all our sources, head to thecarbonremovalshow.com.

And thanks to Cofruition for consulting on and producing the show.


Resources and further reading

Climeworks and Great Carbon Valley chart path to large-scale direct air capture and storage deployment in Kenya: https://climeworks.com/news/climeworks-and-great-carbon-valley-chart-path-to-large-scale-dac 

Mission Zero turns on UK’s first direct air capture plant to enable jet fuel made from air: https://www.missionzero.tech/news/uk-first-direct-air-capture-plant 

Suck carbon from the air? US facility launches novel climate solution: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/nov/19/carbon-dioxide-direct-air-capture 

On the durability of biochar carbon storage: https://biochar.systems/durability-statement/

Assessing biochar's permanence: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0166516223002276?via%3Dihub 

Frontier Makes Largest Carbon Removal Purchase From Lithos Carbon: https://carbonherald.com/frontier-makes-largest-carbon-removal-purchase-from-lithos-carbon/

Carbonfuture, Exomad Green, and Microsoft Sign One of the Largest Biochar Carbon Removal Deals To-Date: https://www.carbonfuture.com/project-showcase/carbonfuture-announces-innovative-offtake-collaboration-with-exomad-green-and-microsoft-for-large-scale-biochar-carbon-removal 

COP28 — Mixed Results on Removals, Markets and Carbon Capture: https://evetamme.com/2023/12/14/cop28-on-carbon-removal-ccs-and-markets/ 

Why Carbon Removals Are Center Stage At COP28: https://www.forbes.com/sites/phildeluna/2023/12/07/why-carbon-removals-are-center-stage-at-cop28/?sh=26a7e1e82c68 

Climeworks Direct Air Capture Summit 2023 Highlights: https://www.google.com/url?q=https://climeworkscom.cdn.prismic.io/climeworkscom/9493f4d4-676f-47cc-a1f8-8959bc84abee_DAC%2BSummit%2Bhighlights%2B2023%2B%25282%2529.pdf&sa=D&source=docs&ust=1704643167135658&usg=AOvVaw1O0rP7eNt04mSMiYQB3UKo

Paying for Quality: State of the Voluntary Carbon Markets 2023: https://3298623.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/3298623/SOVCM%202023/2023-EcoMarketplace_SOVCM-Nov28_FINALrev-1.pdf

The State of Carbon Dioxide Removal Report: https://www.stateofcdr.org/

Fossil-fuel industry embrace raises alarm bells over direct air capture: https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/climate-energy/fossil-fuel-industry-embrace-raises-alarm-bells-over-direct-air-capture-2023-10-10/

Biden picks two DAC hubs for federal funding: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/cen-10127-buscon1