The carbon removal community met last week to talk shop in the climate tech and venture capital hub of San Francisco. At a two-day summit hosted by London-based convener Carbon Unbound, over 300 inventors, investors, market analysts, and policy experts dissected the current state of CDR affairs. However, a single theme dominated the meetings and after-hours barroom chat: the shortage of buyers to fund this crucial piece of the climate solution.
Carbon removal startups are racing to reach a 10GT per year scale by 2050 to align with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) goals. The good news is that CO2 purchases have increased tenfold in the past two years, according to Kevin Niparko, co-founder of CDR.fyi.