Carbon180

Last updated

Carbon180
Formation2015
FounderNoah Deich and Giana Amador
Founded at Berkeley, California
Legal status501(c)(3) organization
HeadquartersWashington, D.C.
President
Noah Deich
Website https://carbon180.org/

Carbon180 is a nonprofit environmental organization headquartered in Washington, D.C. [1] In 2015, Giana Amador and Noah Deich co-founded the organization at the University of California, Berkeley. [1] [2] Carbon180 advocates for carbon dioxide removal solutions, including, but not limited to, direct air capture (DAC), forest carbon removal, and agricultural soil carbon. [3] [4] [5] Carbon180 engages with lawmakers, academic and science-based institutions, and businesses to fund and deploy carbon removal technologies and methods. [1] [6]

Contents

History

Launched in 2015 at the University of California, Berkeley, Carbon180 was formerly known as the Center for Carbon Removal until 2018. [1] [7] In 2017, the Center created the New Carbon Economy Consortium with research universities and national labs to conduct research, share knowledge, and build out pathways to deploy and scale carbon removal solutions. [8] [9] [10] Also in 2017, the Center helped advocate for amendments to the Section 45Q tax credit, specifically to include projects that involve DAC. [11] [12] The tax credit passed in the 2018 Bipartisan Budget Act. [13] In 2018, Carbon180 retained Cassidy and Associates for a short time and in 2020, retained the Coefficient Group to lobby and engage with congressional offices on climate legislation. [5]

Carbon180 has received the attention of celebrities as Grimes, Halsey, and Odesza have all pledged to donate a percentage of their NFT proceeds to the organization. [14] [15] Grimes has pledged a portion of her proceeds from physical artwork as well. [14]

Activities

Carbon180's main activities pertain to federal policy advocacy, the New Carbon Economy Consortium, and the Leading with Soil Initiative. [1] The organization also provides fact sheets and deep dives describing various approaches to carbon removal. [16] [17]

Federal policy advocacy

The nonprofit supports legislation related to carbon dioxide removal, such as H.R.7434 – Federal Carbon Dioxide Removal Leadership Act of 2022, and is advocating for carbon removal solutions (e.g., soil carbon) as the U.S. Congress considers the 2023 Farm Bill. [18] [19] [20] [21] Carbon180 recently shared its outlook for DAC implementation with the U.S. Department of Energy as the agency moves forward with the Regional Direct Air Capture Hubs program. [22]

New Carbon Economy Consortium

Launched in 2017, the Consortium includes representatives from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Arizona State University, University of Wyoming, Colorado State University, Columbia University, Cornell University, Howard University, Purdue University, University of British Columbia, University of California, Berkeley, University of Wyoming, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Global CO2 Initiative, and Carbon180. [23] The Consortium has hosted workshops to outline and develop a multi-disciplinary research agenda to understand the human, environmental, and economic implications of a new carbon economy. [8] [24] [10]

Leading with Soil Initiative

Carbon180 views soil carbon sequestration as a viable climate solution and has published a report entitled, Soil Carbon Moonshot: Grounding Carbon Storage in Science, which proposes a $2.3 billion interagency effort to research and scale soil carbon practices. [20] [25] [26] [27]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carbon sink</span> Reservoir absorbing more carbon from, than emitting to, the air

A carbon sink is a natural or artificial carbon sequestration process that "removes a greenhouse gas, an aerosol or a precursor of a greenhouse gas from the atmosphere". These sinks form an important part of the natural carbon cycle. An overarching term is carbon pool, which is all the places where carbon on Earth can be, i.e. the atmosphere, oceans, soil, florae, fossil fuel reservoirs and so forth. A carbon sink is a type of carbon pool that has the capability to take up more carbon from the atmosphere than it releases.

Climate engineering is an umbrella term for both carbon dioxide removal and solar radiation modification, when applied at a planetary scale. However, these two processes have very different characteristics. For this reason, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change no longer uses this overarching term. Carbon dioxide removal approaches are part of climate change mitigation. Solar radiation modification is reflecting some sunlight back to space. Some publications place passive radiative cooling into the climate engineering category. This technology increases the Earth's thermal emittance. The media tends to use climate engineering also for other technologies such as glacier stabilization, ocean liming, and iron fertilization of oceans. The latter would modify carbon sequestration processes that take place in oceans.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Climate change mitigation</span> Actions to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions to limit climate change

Climate change mitigation (or decarbonisation) is action to limit the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere that cause climate change. Climate change mitigation actions include conserving energy and replacing fossil fuels with clean energy sources. Secondary mitigation strategies include changes to land use and removing carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere. Current climate change mitigation policies are insufficient as they would still result in global warming of about 2.7 °C by 2100, significantly above the 2015 Paris Agreement's goal of limiting global warming to below 2 °C.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carbon capture and storage</span> Collecting carbon dioxide from industrial emissions

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is a process in which a relatively pure stream of carbon dioxide (CO2) from industrial sources is separated, treated and transported to a long-term storage location. In CCS, the CO2 is captured from a large point source, such as a chemical plant, coal power plant, cement kiln, or bioenergy plant, and typically is stored in a suitable geological formation.

Enhanced oil recovery, also called tertiary recovery, is the extraction of crude oil from an oil field that cannot be extracted otherwise. Although the primary and secondary recovery techniques rely on the pressure differential between the surface and the underground well, enhanced oil recovery functions by altering the chemical composition of the oil itself in order to make it easier to extract. EOR can extract 30% to 60% or more of a reservoir's oil, compared to 20% to 40% using primary and secondary recovery. According to the US Department of Energy, carbon dioxide and water are injected along with one of three EOR techniques: thermal injection, gas injection, and chemical injection. More advanced, speculative EOR techniques are sometimes called quaternary recovery.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carbon sequestration</span> Storing carbon in a carbon pool

Carbon sequestration is the process of storing carbon in a carbon pool. It plays a crucial role in limiting climate change by reducing the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. There are two main types of carbon sequestration: biologic and geologic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Virgin Earth Challenge</span> Competition for permanent removal of greenhouse gases

The Virgin Earth Challenge was a competition offering a $25 million prize for whoever could demonstrate a commercially viable design which results in the permanent removal of greenhouse gases out of the Earth's atmosphere to contribute materially in global warming avoidance. The prize was conceived by Richard Branson, and was announced in London on 9 February 2007 by Branson and former US Vice President Al Gore.

The milestones for carbon capture and storage show the lack of commercial scale development and implementation of CCS over the years since the first carbon tax was imposed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carbon dioxide removal</span> Removal of atmospheric carbon dioxide through human activity

Carbon dioxide removal (CDR) is a process in which carbon dioxide is removed from the atmosphere by deliberate human activities and durably stored in geological, terrestrial, or ocean reservoirs, or in products. This process is also known as carbon removal, greenhouse gas removal or negative emissions. CDR is more and more often integrated into climate policy, as an element of climate change mitigation strategies. Achieving net zero emissions will require first and foremost deep and sustained cuts in emissions, and then—in addition—the use of CDR. In the future, CDR may be able to counterbalance emissions that are technically difficult to eliminate, such as some agricultural and industrial emissions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bioenergy with carbon capture and storage</span>

Bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) is the process of extracting bioenergy from biomass and capturing and storing the carbon, thereby removing it from the atmosphere. BECCS can theoretically be a "negative emissions technology" (NET), although its deployment at the scale considered by many governments and industries can "also pose major economic, technological, and social feasibility challenges; threaten food security and human rights; and risk overstepping multiple planetary boundaries, with potentially irreversible consequences". The carbon in the biomass comes from the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) which is extracted from the atmosphere by the biomass when it grows. Energy ("bioenergy") is extracted in useful forms (electricity, heat, biofuels, etc.) as the biomass is utilized through combustion, fermentation, pyrolysis or other conversion methods.

Enhanced weathering, also termed ocean alkalinity enhancement when proposed for carbon credit systems, is a process that aims to accelerate the natural weathering by spreading finely ground silicate rock, such as basalt, onto surfaces which speeds up chemical reactions between rocks, water, and air. It also removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, permanently storing it in solid carbonate minerals or ocean alkalinity. The latter also slows ocean acidification.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blue carbon</span> Carbon stored in coastal and marine ecosystems

Blue carbon is a concept within climate change mitigation that refers to "biologically driven carbon fluxes and storage in marine systems that are amenable to management". Most commonly, it refers to the role that tidal marshes, mangroves and seagrass meadows can play in carbon sequestration. These ecosystems can play an important role for climate change mitigation and ecosystem-based adaptation. However, when blue carbon ecosystems are degraded or lost, they release carbon back to the atmosphere, thereby adding to greenhouse gas emissions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carbon Engineering</span> Canadian energy company

Carbon Engineering Ltd. is a Canadian-based clean energy company focusing on the commercialization of direct air capture (DAC) technology that captures carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Climate change in Oklahoma</span> Climate change in the US state of Oklahoma

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Direct deep-sea carbon dioxide injection was a (now abandoned) technology proposal with the aim to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by direct injection into the deep ocean to store it there for centuries. At the ocean bottom, the pressures would be great enough for CO2 to be in its liquid phase. The idea behind ocean injection was to have stable, stationary pools of CO2 at the ocean floor. The ocean could potentially hold over a thousand billion tons of CO2. However, the interest in this avenue of carbon storage has much reduced since about 2001 because of concerns about the unknown impacts on marine life, high costs and concerns about its stability or permanence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Direct air capture</span> Method of carbon capture from carbon dioxide in air

Direct air capture (DAC) is the use of chemical or physical processes to extract carbon dioxide directly from the ambient air. If the extracted CO2 is then sequestered in safe long-term storage, the overall process will achieve carbon dioxide removal and be a "negative emissions technology" (NET).

Climeworks AG is a Swiss company specializing in direct air capture (DAC) technology. The company filters CO2 directly from the ambient air through an adsorption-desorption process. At its first commercial direct air capture and storage plant, Orca, in Hellisheidi, Iceland, the air-captured CO2 is handed over to storage partner Carbfix, who injects it deep underground where it mineralizes and turns into stone. Climeworks's machines are powered by renewable energy or energy-from-waste, with a carbon dioxide re-emission rate of less than 10%.

Nori Inc. is a technology startup based in Seattle, Washington. The company is building financial infrastructures to allow carbon removal projects to measure and get economic revenues from their activity. By doing so, Nori aims to establish a universal market-driven commodity price on carbon removal. Nori is focused on soil-carbon sequestration and pays farmers who adopt regenerative agriculture practices which may contribute to carbon sequestration.

The Carbon Connect Delta Program is a proposed carbon sequestration program to aid Belgium and the Netherlands in achieving carbon neutrality by 2030. It aims to capture, transport, and store 6.5 million tones of CO2 by 2030 using carbon capture and storage (CCS) in the transboundary area of the North Sea Port area of the Scheldt-Delta region connecting Belgium and the Netherlands.

Biochar carbon removal (BCR) is a negative emissions technology. It involves the production of biochar through pyrolysis of residual biomass and the subsequent application of the biochar in soils or durable materials. The carbon dioxide sequestered by the plants used for the biochar production is therewith stored for several hundreds of years, which creates carbon sinks.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "Carbon180". Carbon180. Retrieved April 12, 2022.
  2. ↑ "Can Carbon-Dioxide Removal Save the World?". The New Yorker. November 13, 2017. Retrieved April 19, 2022.
  3. ↑ "Deep Dives". Carbon180. Retrieved April 12, 2022.
  4. ↑ Meyer, Robinson (March 23, 2021). "Why Celebrities Are Agog Over This Tiny Climate Think Tank". The Atlantic. Retrieved April 12, 2022.
  5. 1 2 Geman, Ben (July 7, 2020). "Nonprofit Carbon180 brings on The Coefficient Group for new carbon removal lobbying". Axios. Retrieved April 12, 2022.
  6. ↑ Schulz, Benjamin (January 27, 2022). "Interview With Carbon180 Co-Founder Noah Deich". CleanTechnica. Retrieved April 13, 2022.
  7. ↑ Harder, Amy (September 12, 2018). "Carbon removal group rebrands as tech gains steam". Axios. Retrieved April 17, 2022.
  8. 1 2 "New Carbon Economy Consortium: Building research programs to support 21st Century economic opportunity". Global Institute of Sustainability and Innovation. Retrieved April 17, 2022.
  9. ↑ Lucci, Felicia R.; Deich, Noah; Aines, Roger D. (February 7, 2019). "New Carbon Economy Corporate Roundtable: Carbon Conversion to Valuable Products". Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI). doi:10.2172/1499966. OSTI   1499966. S2CID   169212834.{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  10. 1 2 "New Carbon Economy Consortium". Carbon180. Retrieved April 17, 2022.
  11. ↑ "26 U.S. Code § 45Q – Credit for carbon oxide sequestration". LII / Legal Information Institute. Retrieved April 17, 2022.
  12. ↑ Center for Carbon Removal. "2017 Annual Report" (PDF). carbon180.org. Retrieved April 17, 2022.
  13. ↑ Larson, John B. (February 9, 2018). "Text – H.R.1892 – 115th Congress (2017–2018): Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018". www.congress.gov. Retrieved April 17, 2022.
  14. 1 2 Meyer, Robinson (March 23, 2021). "Why Celebrities Are Agog Over This Tiny Climate Think Tank". The Atlantic. Retrieved April 21, 2022.
  15. ↑ Kastrenakes, Jacob (March 1, 2021). "Grimes sold $6 million worth of digital art as NFTs". The Verge. Retrieved April 21, 2022.
  16. ↑ "Resources". Carbon180. Retrieved April 21, 2022.
  17. ↑ "Carbon Removal Advocates Face Opportunity and Challenge: Public Support, if Not Understanding". Morning Consult. December 3, 2020. Retrieved April 21, 2022.
  18. ↑ Tonko, Paul (April 7, 2022). "Text – H.R.7434 – 117th Congress (2021–2022): Federal Carbon Dioxide Removal Leadership Act of 2022". www.congress.gov. Retrieved April 23, 2022.
  19. ↑ "Rep. Peters Answers Urgent Call Made by UN Climate Report, Introduces Carbon Dioxide Removal Legislation". Congressman Scott Peters. April 8, 2022. Retrieved April 23, 2022.
  20. 1 2 "Soil 'Moonshot' Boosters Target Farm Bill to Aid Climate Fight". Bloomberg Government. March 3, 2022. Retrieved April 23, 2022.
  21. ↑ "Federal Policy". Carbon180. Retrieved April 23, 2022.
  22. ↑ Freedman, Andrew (May 3, 2022). "Influential nonprofit works to shape federal funding for direct air capture hubs". Axios. Retrieved July 21, 2022.
  23. ↑ "New Carbon Economy Consortium". newcarboneconomy.org. Retrieved April 23, 2022.
  24. ↑ "D.C. workshop explores dimensions of new carbon economy". Cornell Chronicle. Retrieved April 24, 2022.
  25. ↑ "Carbon storage gets dirty: The movement to sequester CO2 in soils". Canary Media. April 8, 2022. Retrieved April 23, 2022.
  26. ↑ Zoebisch, Cristel (March 2022). "Soil Carbon Moonshot: Grounding Carbon Storage in Science" (PDF). carbon180.org. Retrieved April 23, 2022.
  27. ↑ "Leading with Soil". Carbon180. Retrieved April 23, 2022.
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