Global Climate News

Brazil-based InPlanet and Isometric announced the world’s first delivery of verified Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW) carbon removal credits. The credits, corresponding to InPlanet’s Serra da Mantiqueira project in São Paulo, were verified by Isometric and delivered to Adyen, facilitated by ClimeFi. This milestone introduces a new, high-quality, permanent carbon removal credit format to the voluntary carbon market.

UK-based Teesside University and Scott Bros have partnered to develop an innovative soil mixture for carbon sequestration using an enhanced rock weathering (ERW) technique. The project, funded by Innovate UK, integrates AI and IoT technologies for enhanced monitoring and reporting of carbon captured in the soil. This aims to revolutionize carbon sequestration, particularly in urban and industrial areas, and create new opportunities in the carbon credit market.

Researchers from Imperial College London, the Spanish National Research Council (IDAEA-CSIC), and the Mediterranean Institute for Advanced Studies (IMEDEA) combined laboratory experiments and numerical simulations to improve understanding of reactive flow in limestone during geological CO2 storage. They used a digital rock approach based on X-ray micro-computed tomography (µCT) to model CO2-saturated water and HCl solution injections, successfully reproducing changes in effluent chemistry, porosity, and permeability.

US-based Bezos Earth Fund, in partnership with Experiment Foundation, announced the winners and finalists of its $1M Greenhouse Gas Removal Ideation Prize. The prize, structured in two phases, awarded funding to projects focusing on diverse greenhouse gas removal technologies, aiming to significantly contribute towards removing gigatonnes of greenhouse gases annually by 2050.

The Bezos Earth Fund, in collaboration with RMI, published a roadmap outlining a path to achieve ambitious scaled deployment of removal technologies by 2050. The roadmap sets decadal deployment goals, aiming to remove 10 gigatons of carbon dioxide per year by 2050. This follows a major workshop with the U.S. Department of Energy and Stanford University involving 500+ experts.

US-based Boston Consulting Group (BCG) has purchased 50,250 tonnes of certified carbon dioxide removals through ClimeFi, bringing their total durable CDR purchases to nearly 200,000 tonnes. The portfolio includes diverse carbon removal technologies including biochar (from Exomad Green and Euthenia Energy), enhanced rock weathering (Lithos Carbon), microbial carbon mineralization (Andes), concrete mineralization (O.C.O Technologies), and subsurface biomass storage (Graphyte). The purchase supports BCG's commitment to neutralize 100% of its emissions through carbon removal credits by 2030.

Brazil-based Terradot signed a $27 million deal with Frontier buyers to scale enhanced rock weathering, aiming to remove 90,000 tons of CO₂ between 2025 and 2029. Terradot sources basalt from quarries in southern Brazil, spreading it on farmland to absorb CO₂, and collaborates with EMBRAPA for scaling operations. Google committed to an additional 200,000-ton purchase from Terradot for delivery by the early 2030s.

Professor Marco Mazzotti of ETH Zurich, who has focused on crystallisation and carbon capture storage (CCS) research, will be conferred emeritus status in January 2025. He has led the DemoUpCARMA project demonstrating practical CCS implementation and remains a scientific advisor at Neustark, an ETH spin-off commercializing carbon mineralization technology.

Researchers studied how carbonate affects potassium ion interactions in calcareous soil, finding that carbonate weakens potassium adsorption through electrostatic interaction reduction and competitive binding.

Frontier Climate has announced a challenge offering a $5,000 award for the 10 best submissions that identify geological sites with sizeable deposits of fast-weathering minerals, such as brucite, for carbon removal. The challenge focuses on sites with at least 10Gt of the mineral at >30% grade, within a relatively compact geography (<500 km2).