Thread by @TheCarbonSink

My annual carbon removal look back thread for 2019!

tl;dr: 2019 saw lots of encouraging, but incremental advances across a portfolio of carbon removal strategies. 2020 will be an important year for leaders across sectors to up their ambition on carbon removal to put global economy on track for Bton/year scale CO2 removal by 2030.

Research: Having had the opportunity to work w/ academic experts like @CarbonWrangler @RogerAines @jwilceclab @ThoughtEnergy @Dan_L_Sanchez @phil_renforth @klaus_lackner, I think lack of funding is the immediate obstacle holding carbon removal researchers back today.

This funding announcement from @SloanFoundation is a great start... sloan.org/storage/app/me…

...but we will need A LOT more support from philanthropy, government, and business alike: via @theNASEM nas-sites.org/dels/studies/c…

Some of my favorite academic publications from 2019 in carbon removal included:

Forest restoration: science.sciencemag.org/content/365/64…

CO2 use: science.sciencemag.org/content/364/64… & pnas.org/content/116/23…

DAC v. BECCS: pubs.rsc.org/en/content/art…

(please share your 2019 favorites in the replies!)

The area in carbon removal where I saw the biggest advances in 2019 was on the innovation funding front.

A $35M @TEDTalks @TheAudaciousPrj prize was awarded to @salkinstitute for developing and commercializing crops that are better at sequestering carbon in soils plants. theguardian.com/environment/20…

Several @ARPAE funding announcements were made, including:

$1.5M for DAC @ASU_CNCE asunow.asu.edu/20190222-asu-n…

$20M for soil carbon via SMARTFARM arpa-e.energy.gov/?q=news-item/a…

>$40M for flexible CCS via FLECCS arpa-e.energy.gov/?q=arpa-e-prog…

I'm particularly looking forward to momentum building in this are next year: @erinmburns & team @carbon_180 were instrumental in unlocking ~$60M in additional federal $ for carbon removal + use in 2020:

https://twitter.com/erinmburns/status/1206724866910674945?s=20

Internationally, the UK @beisgovuk announced $10Ms in additional funding for "greenhouse gas removal" innovation gov.uk/government/pub…, but few other national or state governments have announced related funding commitments

And philanthropically, a new carbon removal @xprize is also in the works for 2020: community.xprize.org/categories/car…

But speaking of policy development, 2019 saw the mainstream US climate conversation begin to feature carbon removal in a much more prominent way.

Nearly all of the Democratic presidential candidates included (mostly natural) carbon removal in their climate policy plans:

insideclimatenews.org/news/19072019/…

& @BetoORourke @PeteButtigieg elevated the opportunity for win-win rural carbon removal solutions on stage at the early debates

The climate-focused candidate @JayInslee also has carbon removal in his climate plans: jayinslee.com/issues/evergre…, but the lack of details is a telling sign that the activist wing of the climate policy community is still grappling w/ how to include removal effectively

The #GreenNewDeal resolution congress.gov/bill/116th-con… also highlights the tension among climate policy activists historically opposed to carbon capture and storage tech (& offsets) developing plans to achieve highly ambitious climate goals

https://twitter.com/TheCarbonSink/status/1093553698318344193

On the tactical front, 2019 saw progress with incremental carbon bills introduced & advanced like:

USEIT Act congress.gov/bill/116th-con…

EFFECT Act carboncapturecoalition.org/carbon-capture…

Climate Stewardship Act booker.senate.gov/?p=press_relea… from @CoryBooker

US states are beginning to take some action on natural carbon removal solutions (see @soil_institute soilhealthinstitute.org/resources/cata…

but no major developments on the state tech policy side have emerged since @AirResources included DAC in the Low Carbon Fuel Standard last year, though CA is gearing up for additional efforts in 2020 and beyond

Internationally, the disappointing #COP25 meetings had very little explicit conversation on carbon removal, though the "Koronivia joint work on agriculture" continued to move forward unfccc.int/topics/land-us…

These policy advances are due in no small part to a broader non-profit community that worked hard in 2019 to catalyze much greater ambition on carbon removal policy

The @rhodium_group published a detailed report outlining direct air capture policy priorities: bipartisanpolicy.org/direct-air-cap…

Which was supported by @BPC_Bipartisan launching a "Direct air capture advisory council" bipartisanpolicy.org/direct-air-cap… (and hiring the great @SashaMackler to lead their climate work!)

The @EFIForTheFuture added to the conversation w/ their "Clearing the Air" report to help policymakers translate @theNASEM report recommendations into administrative budget and legislative appropriations action energyfuturesinitiative.org/efi-reports

And @WorldResources continues to advance policy thought leadership related to carbon removal wri.org/our-work/proje…

It's also very encouraging to see traditional environmental NGOs like @EnvDefenseFund increase their support for carbon removal: foreignaffairs.com/articles/2019-…

@EnvDefenseFund NGOs also played a big role in efforts like this one from the National Petroleum Council to advance the full portfolio of carbon capture technologies:

https://twitter.com/TheCarbonSink/status/1206296202733481986?s=20

None of this NGO work would have been possible w/out support from philanthropy leaders like @janvmaz @ClimateWorks, @DrJaneFlegal, @MattBakerEnergy @Hewlett_Found, @ReidWalt @PackardFdn, @nestmatt @incitedotorg, and broader carbon management coalitions like @CCSTechFacts

The business side of carbon removal also made a number of advances in 2019

Big announcements from @CarbonEngineer to build a full-scale pilot w/ @WeAreOxy in TX via @AkshatRathi qz.com/1638096/the-st…

and @Climeworks selling direct to consumer direct air capture offsets climeworks.com

On the soil carbon side, @GeneralMills announced a 1M acre regenerative ag commitment sustainablebrands.com/read/supply-ch…

and @Indigoag announced their Terraton Initiative terraton.indigoag.com

A number of companies also partnered w/ @USDA's conservation innovation grant program to advance soil carbon storage: nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrc…

Startup accelerators also got into the carbon removal game:

@ycombinator supported @PachamaInc & @PrometheusFuels

@nori participated in the @techstars sustainability accelerator

As did tech startups like @stripe @Shopify committing to buy carbon removal as part of their climate action plans

https://twitter.com/TheCarbonSink/status/1162180843265118208?s=20

much of which came together for the first ever VERGE Carbon event @GreenBiz event in Oakland greenbiz.com/events/verge-c…

We also saw some high profile media coverage of all this activity, including:
@nathanielpopper nytimes.com/2019/05/07/bus…

@justcalma theverge.com/2019/8/19/2081…

@jtemple technologyreview.com/s/612928/one-m…

@AmyAHarder axios.com/capturing-carb…

@drvox vox.com/energy-and-env…

Want even more? My 2018 year in carbon removal recap is here: vox.com/energy-and-env…

And I've missed a lot in this thread (actually...), so please leave replies w/ other developments in carbon removal from 2019 that you are particularly excited about!

Sorry, here's my 2018 recap:

https://twitter.com/TheCarbonSink/status/1075230811148828672?s=20