CDR library

🤔 Are you paying or being paid fairly? What jobs are particularly in demand? How big are regional differences? 📄 At CDRjobs, we just published the second edition of our annual compensation report and it is packed with insights! 📊 For 2025, we almost tripled the amount of job data we analysed to over 4,000 jobs in carbon removal! Some highlights: 🌍 The global median annual salary dropped 12% to $100k 💶 Without the U.S., the median is $70 (also 12% below 2024) 📍 The U.S.

🔥 The topic that keeps giving… how permanent is biochar? 📄 A paper recently appeared challenging that soil-applied biochar can be permanent for 1,000s of years. It generated lively discussions and several folks asked me for my take. 🧪 First things first: I am not a scientist, and this is a matter that needs to be settled 100% by science. However, the latest paper is explicitly a policy commentary. So allow me to weigh in. My main observations: ⚖️ The debate is not on wheth

🏛️ This is my core takeaway from Harry Smith PhD’s (University of East Anglia) excellent doctoral thesis analysing 41 government Long-Term Low Emissions Development Strategies (LT-LEDS) submitted to the UNFCCC. 🌍 As a reminder: LT-LEDS represent countries’ highest-level long-term climate strategies and therefore provide a clear window into current and future national climate policy. 📄 So what did the thesis find? First, a huge over-reliance on nature based removals vis-a-v

😎 The Oxford Institute for Energy Studies today published a paper I co-authored with Raphaël Cario. (And yes: this is different from last week’s Oxford University paper on Global South CDR industrialisation - I know, we are on a roll!). The core message? 📣 Biochar carbon removal (BCR) is the most deployment-ready, lowest-risk durable CDR option available today and should be among the first options integrated into the EU and UK ETS. 🇪🇺 As a reminder: the European Commissi

👎 Let’s start with the bad news: Multilateral climate policy is failing us. 🪵 Yet again, a COP has been unable to deliver what we need most: a clear commitment to phase out of fossil fuels. To add insult to injury, a COP hosted in the Amazon also failed to propose a deforestation roadmap. ⚠️ This is inexcusable. It’s not aligned with science. And the world deserves better. 🏃 Yesterday, as I went on my angry post-COP run, I listened to (the very appropriately titled) Outrag

🤷 Yesterday, I asked you whether we should have a COP at all. Is all this massive effort - and the associated emissions - even worth it? The community seems split, which isn’t surprising. 🎯 I personally believe that COPs have an important role to play, and that it will take years of hard work to position CDR where it needs to be: as a horizontal, essential building block across climate targets and initiatives at large. 🤩 So did we make any progress on this front during COP

📈 Over the past few weeks, we’ve seen job seeker traffic across all the CDRjobs channels more than double: from 300-400 individuals to almost 800 per week, hitting an all time high since we started tracking. So why are we seeing this trend and why now? Couple of hypothesis: ✅ Carbon removal is becoming better known - see some of my recent posts for proof ✅ People are increasingly looking to switch careers into more meaningful, climate work ✅ The CDR job market stays strong a

👀 I had to rub my eyes to believe it. The Guardian, not necessarily the most pro-CDR media outlet, highlights the need for carbon removal scale up as its top global news item. 🌐 Yesterday, I shared Johan Rockström’s excellent pre-COP30 article that we need 600Gt of CDR this century. He was now joined by more leading climate scientists in this Guardian piece. 📣 Their message is clear: to avoid climate tipping points and reverse overshoot, we will need hundreds of gigatons o

😬 For years, the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) has been the gold standard for corporate climate targets. But SBTi has struggled: governance issues, inconsistent guidance, and growing pushback from companies frustrated by its rigidity and lack of clarity. ⭐ Into that gap now steps the ISO Net Zero standard, developed with input from over 170 countries and promising global legitimacy and harmonisation. It will officially launch with a big splash at COP30. 🏢 And, let

🚌 60 passionate individuals, 2 days, 300 kilometres, 5 CDR projects, 1 bus. What a blast! 😍 Hands down my favourite CDR event ever. See it to believe it. 👀 To be repeated by Deutscher Verband für negative Emissionen e.V. (DVNE) in 2026!

💡 I had never thought about this as an either / or question and always assumed we can only stop global warming IF we get rid of fossil fuels. ✈️ In the latest CDR Policy Scoop, Robert Höglund and I got to go deep on the role of carbon removal in aviation and shipping. 🤔 One of the key arguments Robert makes is that our best shot at net-zero could be to focus on whatever solution has the lowest cost, e.g. CDR + regular jet fuel vs eSAF. Loved recording this one - go check it

🌍 Carbon dioxide removal is not a future phantasy. It is here today. There are hundreds of companies all around the world removing CO2 from the atmosphere day in, day out. 🇩🇪 This Thursday and Friday, I will be joining 60+ German politicians, corporate leaders, entrepreneurs, and scientists as part of Deutscher Verband für negative Emissionen e.V. (DVNE)'s CDR Experience Tour 2025. 💚 Travelling together by bus through the West of Germany, we will be visiting CDR projects

😵‍💫 There are 29 paradoxes to be precise, and they lie at the heart of why carbon markets are struggling to scale, leading to circular conversations with no end. My favourites: 🌲BASELINE PARADOX: you get money for growing but not for protecting trees (unless someone explicitly says they will cut them down…) 🤑 ADDITIONALITY PARADOX: the more financially successful your project, the less likely it will qualify for credit revenue. 🤩 NOVELTY PARADOX: we tend to prioritise an

📊 Lots has been written about this topic lately. Personally, I like to look at the data–not the gossip. That’s why I was so excited when I saw @cdr.fyi’s incredibly timely “Direct Air Capture Market Snapshot H1 2025” come out yesterday. 😬 On the surface, it doesn’t look good: of 167 DAC companies (as per @grant faber’s latest list - see comments), only 31 have made a sale, and only 2 (!) have delivered any CDR. 🤏 Almost 2.5Mt of DAC credits have been sold to date - of whic

🫶 You know who you are. 📈 The 2025 Global Biochar Survey is now live. It’s our chance to understand how biochar is being produced, used, and scaled worldwide. The 2023 report highlighted: ◾Revenues from biochar exceeded $600M USD in 2023 (CAGR of 97% from 2021-2023) ◾ Revenues projected to grow further to nearly $3.3 Billion by 2025 ◾ The CDR markets for biochar carbon credits are thriving, the majority of biochar producers do not generate Biochar Carbon Removal (BCR) credi

🤓 I’ve always appreciated when smart people take the time to structure and share their thoughts. Increasingly, I am finding that Substack is where I find this content, particularly long-reads. 🗞️ So if you want to get beyond the TL;DR level news - for which LinkedIn is unbeatable IMO - I cannot recommend these enough: 🎩 Robert Höglund needs no introduction in this space - we have all come to know and love him through his work at CDR.fyi and Milkywire. His Marginal Carbon A

🥊 Remember that time when I went head-to-head with Martin Freimüller - aka DACman - in the CDR Policy Scoop’s inaugural SHOWDOWN debate: Biochar vs DAC? ⭐ It was such a personal highlight for me to engage with something I feel particularly passionate about - in a new, exciting format. Check it out: https://lnkd.in/dG8Wkph9 😍 Sure, this debate ruffled some feathers at first. But, it clearly resonated with a lot of people too. We had over 1,000 registrations to the Linkedin l

💬 If we want to take carbon removal mainstream, we need to move hearts, not just minds. Data and reports can only go so far. Stories move people. 🔥 That’s why The Biochar Effect - a new documentary by Mathew Schmid and Leila Conners - matters. It captures the power and promise of biochar carbon removal like nothing else. How we turn waste into hope and science into storytelling. 🪨 The film explores how biochar transforms everything it touches: from agriculture to concrete,

🔥 Biochar is about to ignite 🌲 That is my resounding takeaway from a long-needed catch-up with Hannes Junginger jungiger cycling through the gorgeous autumnal Black Forest. 📈 What has changed? Years of consistent growth and deliveries seemed to have finally turned skeptics around. And newcomers to the market - buyers and investors alike - are seeing biochar carbon removal (BCR) for what it is: the most shovel-ready, reliable, mature durable CDR technology available today.

📗 Then you don’t want to miss this book launch of The Carbon Paradox, authored by the one-and-only Renat Heuberger on Monday, September 22nd from 5-8PM at Quick Eternity in Lower Manhattan. 🌍 Grab yourself a copy and join the characters on a climate fight journey covering the entire controversy from carbon credits to climate finance (link in comments). 🎙️ Eve Tamme and I will be delving into some of our favourite paradoxes from this “fiction-based on-facts” novel next mont