S4 #4 | CDR Policy Deep Dive - Part 3: The Road Ahead
In this final instalment of our three-part policy miniseries, Tom and Emily look to the future of carbon removal policy: who’s shaping it, what’s getting in the way, and what else can Emily see in her crystal ball?
In this episode:
🏗️ Building the Future Without a Manual: We meet a company navigating what it means to innovate when the rulebook hasn’t been written yet (and may be printed in two jurisdictions at once).
🎯 How CDR Is Getting Heard: Industry lobbying isn’t just for big corporates - our startup ecosystem can also get involved. But we learn than misperceptions around CDR (it’s not CCS!) are still widespread among policymakers.
💡 Voluntary Policy Is Still Policy: We explore the de facto power of the Science-Based Targets initiative (SBTi), which influences climate action across thousands of the world's biggest companies - despite being entirely voluntary. But will its guidance on removals give the sector the boost it needs?
🌍 Watch Out for the Global South: We all know that the future of CDR isn’t just in Europe and North America. But how can policy help build benefit-sharing frameworks, bring legal clarity, and drive investment confidence around the world?
🏙️ Think Global, Act Local: While attention is often on the big-hitters, are local initiatives quietly shaping the next wave of CDR? Bonus: you too can be a policy influencer without wearing a tie.
🧵 Now It’s Your Turn: After 15+ hours of interviews and more acronyms than we can legally fit on this page, we reflect on the biggest takeaways from this miniseries - complexity, possibility, and the role each of us has to play in shaping what comes next.
👥 Featuring:
Guest insights from
Oliver Grogono (Standard Gas Technologies)Nikolaus Wohlgemuth (Carbonfuture)Chris Sherwood, Elisabeth Harding and Lambrini Margariti (Negative Emissions Platform)Robert Höglund (Milkywire)Shilpika Gautam (Opna)Omoloro Meshack (CAP-A)Christopher Neidl (OpenAir Collective)Christoph Beuttler (Carbon Gap)
Hosts Emily Swaddle and Tom PreviteProducer Ben Weaver-Hincks
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1:03:15
S4 #3 | CDR Policy Deep Dive - Part 2: The Landscape Today
In the second of our three-part deep dive, we plunge into the murky, acronym-rich depths of carbon removal policy across the UN, the EU, the US and beyond - and we promise to come up for air, eventually.
In this episode:
🧠 Acronyms and Initialisms Aplenty: Consider yourselves warned. This episode contains more letters than a game of Scrabble. Don't worry, it'll be quacking... sorry, cracking.
🌐 The UN – Going Global: We finally (finally!) get to grips with Article 6 of the Paris Agreement - the big hope for creating a global, compliance-grade carbon market. So, does it deserve its place as the darling of the CDR community?
🧱 The EU – Slow and Steady Wins The Race: We dissect Europe’s tripartite climate framework, learn what the CRCF stands for, and ponder the possibility of removals entering the ETS by 2031 (yes, we said 2031… pace yourselves.)
💵 The US – Land of the Free… Tax Credits: While the EU leans into regulation, the US has chosen financial incentives to scale engineered CDR… for now. (Content advisory: information likely to be outdated within minutes.)
🌏 Zooming Out: Switzerland is quietly blazing a trail. Japan is scaling up a national carbon market. India is laying the foundations. There’s a lot going on out there, if you’re willing to look.
🧩 Policy vs Reality: We explore how the right policy for the right place might be the secret to scaling CDR globally - and why no single blueprint might work for everyone.
👥 Featuring:
Guest insights from
Sebastian Manhart (Carbonfuture)Eve Tamme (Climate Principles)Elisabeth Harding (Negative Emissions Platform)Varsha Ramesh Walsh (Offstream)Shilpika Gautam (Opna)Sylvain Delerce (Carbon Gap)
Hosts Emily Swaddle and Tom PreviteProducer Ben Weaver-Hincks
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58:29
S4 #2 | CDR Policy Deep Dive - Part 1: From Kyoto to Carbon Removal
Welcome to the first in a Carbon Removal Show three-part policy miniseries! We’re diving into the bureaucratic spaghetti of CDR policy - what it is, why we need it, and why pretending it doesn’t exist is no longer an option. It’ll be fun – we promise.
In this episode:
📜 Policy 101: What do we mean when we talk about carbon removal policy? Tom, Emily and their guests unpack the layers - from global frameworks to national targets, and the many policies themselves that can (hopefully) keep this show on the road.
🏛️ A Brief History of Climate Governance: We rewind all the way to the UNFCCC, the Kyoto Protocol, and the Paris Agreement, to understand the context in which CDR policy is emerging. Turns out, carbon removal has technically been part of the discussion for some time - but it took a while to step out of the LULUCF shadows and into the limelight.
🛠️ The Goals of CDR Policy: Whether it’s support for scaling the industry or regulation for doing it right, we explore the many roles that policy can play in ensuring CDR does what it’s supposed to. Who should pay for it? How can we avoid unintended consequences? And is it too late to bribe policymakers with Emily’s banana bread?
🌍 It’s All Connected: We learn that CDR doesn’t happen in a vacuum – and that means CDR policy can’t either. It's entangled with everything from energy to land use to ocean governance. And yes, ocean-based CDR is complicated when 40% of the sea has no nation.
🍖 The Bony Meat Pie Metaphor™: How do NDCs, interim targets and policies work together to meet(/meat?) our climate goals? It’s all very clever, but not especially appetising.
🧪 Avoiding Déjà Vu: We ask what we can learn from previous climate and environmental policies – so we don’t spend the next decade reinventing the wheel, crashing it into a forest, and accidentally calling it carbon neutral.
👥 Featuring:
Guest insights from
Sebastian Manhart (Carbonfuture)Eve Tamme (Climate Principles)Christoph Beuttler (Carbon Gap)Wil Burns (Institute for Responsible Carbon Removal)Robert Höglund (Milkywire)Bojana Bajzelj (BeZero)Christopher Neidl (OpenAir Collective)
Hosts Emily Swaddle and Tom PreviteProducer Ben Weaver-Hincks
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1:01:27
S4 #1 | Where are we in the CDR story and where are we going?
Welcome back to The Carbon Removal Show! We’re kicking off Season 4 with a view from the top - checking in on the state of the carbon removal industry here in the dizzying heights of 2025.
In this episode:
🌍 Where are we now? Durable CDR purchases hit 8 million tonnes in 2024 (a 78% bump from 2023), but 64% of that was Microsoft flexing. Deliveries? Still catching up – and most of it’s biochar.
📉 Caveats, ahoy: Sales are booming, but actual removals are still lagging. The buyer pool is basically a tech giant party.
🚨 Bubble watch: Are we living in a beautifully optimistic carbon bubble? Is it about to pop? Will Tom’s optimism hat survive the bubble bath? We explore industry hype vs. hard truths, including the risks of undelivered credits and startup casualties.
📊 The vibe check: Emily’s on an emotional rollercoaster. Tom is backing the CDR horse. Ben’s beard is greyer. Collectively, we’re cautiously hopeful.
🛠️ What needs to happen?: Scaling isn’t just tech - it’s finance, policy, public understanding, and clear comms. We need to get the message out of the bubble and into the next layer of the onion. (Just… not into Emily’s bubble bath. Please.)
🚗 A history lesson you didn’t know you needed: Did you know the best-selling car in 1897 was electric? We could’ve been 100 years ahead… but markets are messy.
👥 Featuring:
Guest insights from Robert Höglund and Sebastian ManhartHosts Emily Swaddle and Tom PreviteProducer Ben Weaver-Hincks
🔗 Links & Resources:
CDR.fyi – The go-to source for up-to-date data on carbon removal purchases, deliveries, and market trends.CDRjobs – A live job board dedicated to carbon removal opportunities."Public perception of carbon dioxide removal technologies in the United States and the United Kingdom" – Emily Cox, Elspeth Spence and Nick Pidgeon, Nature Climate Change, 2020This episode of Freakonomics Radio, all about the history of electric vehicles.
🎧 Featured Podcasts & Voices
Grounded: A Climate Startup Journey – Hosted by Tom Previte - a climate startup podcast for fans of this show.CDR Policy Scoop – Hosted by Sebastian Manhart & Eve Tamme - deep dives into CDR policy.Milkywire – Robert Höglund's organization supporting impactful climate and CDR initiatives.
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41:04
Exciting news from The Carbon Removal Show
The Carbon Removal Show team are dusting off our mics, and we have some exciting news!
The biggest of welcomes and ‘thank you’s to our coalition partners: BeZero, Carbon Engineering, Carbonfuture, Carbon Gap, CarbonX, Klarna, MASH Makes, Milkywire, the Negative Emissions Platform, Opna, Patch, Pinwheel, Planboo, ReCarber, Standard Gas Technologies and Supercritical; and to our individual supporters: Sebastian Manhart and Eve Tamme.
To learn more about The Carbon Removal Show, including how to support our mission, head to thecarbonremovalshow.com.
The Carbon Removal Show is the world's leading in-depth podcast on carbon removal.
We combine hours of research and interviews with the world’s leading experts to explore the latest developments in carbon removal technology and policy in an easy to digest and engaging podcast format.
Our narrative driven, story-focused episodes are enjoyed by both experts in the field and climate-curious individuals wanting to learn more about this increasingly widespread topic. The problem of carbon emissions is clear - the solution, however, is not. Our succinct, level-headed and impartial approach to carbon removal gives our listeners the facts and the tools they need to make sense of, and take action on, how we as humanity can sustainably remove carbon from the atmosphere.
To find out more, head to https://thecarbonremovalshow.com/
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