Carbon Drawdown Initiative

“𝘏𝘰𝘸 𝘮𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 $𝘟 𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘰𝘧 $𝘠 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘧𝘶𝘳𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘧𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳?” I started asking this question when I talked to founders of climate companies I thought had high potential. It is a good test of their ambition, their trust in themselves. Sometimes founders design their initial funding round around a not-too-crazy amount they think they can raise to get started, instead of whatever moonshot they could actually be targeting if they think big. Maybe because they don’t believe potential investors would share their crazy beliefs? Our mission is to speed up negative emissions. We want to move results from the future a little bit more into the present with our impact investments. We want ambitious founders. That is why we would rather be interested in an X-investment than an Y-investment. Scaling CDR technologies requires more than clever experiments and well-intentioned founders. We also need speed. Sometimes one of the simplest levers to go faster is to invest more capital. Not for all projects of course, sometimes a smaller bet will generate plenty of learnings already. So when I talk to founders with big ideas, that’s the bottom line—will our investment make the project or experiment or technology progress further than currently possible and on an accelerated timeline? If yes, then it is something for us. When people ask why Carbon Drawdown Initiative invests in unproven technologies and risky science, I offer a simple answer: the purpose of our investment is to spark and fuel the next big idea. If an investment can give that crazy idea better traction, it’s money well spent.

What a start for enhanced weathering as a climate solution in 2025: Our portfolio company, InPlanet, is now the first climate tech company to develop and deliver certified carbon credits using Enhanced Rock Weathering! Carbon dioxide removal credits were supplied by InPlanet, verified by Isometric, delivered to Adyen, and facilitated by ClimeFi. This milestone marks a significant step forward for the voluntary carbon market, opening a pathway to new, high-quality, permanent carbon removal pathways. InPlanet’s goal is to build a scalable solution for Carbon Removal through Enhanced Rock Weathering in the tropics and to become the leading company in doing so. We are proud to invest in a company and ecosystem of partners that is making history. For more information, read the article at: https://lnkd.in/dczc4rji 

„Wir können und sollten in großem Stil eine planetare Müllabfuhr schaffen, um den Mist aus der Atmosphäre zu holen, den wir hineingekippt haben.“ (PIK-Direktor Ottmar Edenhofer) aus: https://lnkd.in/dFgZSEwV

I‘ve been working on the build-up of the CDR industry pretty much for the same time as Robert Höglund (since 2019) and I can relate such much to some quotes of his New Years post: „Being part of the birth and formative years of this industry and ecosystem has been the most rewarding and interesting thing I have ever done.“ 😎 „It is a Klondike for someone who loves solving novel problems. And the people in this sector are amazing — purpose-driven, entrepreneurial, energetic, and hopeful.“ ❤️ „I have little doubt that CDR eventually will become a hundreds-of-billion-dollar industry, but the journey is slow. My advice to CDR startups is to focus on survival.“ 🦺 Read the full piece here: https://lnkd.in/dMcEkP6N Thanks Robert, your exceptional work continues to be important for CDR, keep pushing!

Do you need a last-minute gift? Do you want to make the world a little bit better? Your purchase of Legion 44 directly supports carbon removal by partnering with some of the exciting companies featured in the film. Director Leila Conners highlights some of the people rising to meet the challenge presented by climate change and introduces Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) as an emerging industry. Starting at just $24 USD, you can be inspired by the work being done from the comfort of your home! People all around the world are transforming science to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and remove CO₂ from the atmosphere. From capturing the carbon in the air to trapping it in ground water to using algae to clean the air, there’s never been a more exciting time to combat the climate crisis. There are new sciences and technologies making real progress! And it is all driven by people who commit their lives to fight the climate crisis. To give the gift that makes the world a little bit better, visit: https://lnkd.in/g2VJ4VSM

As Carbon Drawdown Initiative posted earlier this week, the world is going to need a lot more people working on #CDR in the future. But what does a job in #negativeemissions mean? It definitely means not despairing, but standing up and working with many others for a better future. What can this work look like? It can range from field work with the CTO (Ralf Steffens), to a European premiere of a CDR film (Legion 44), to scientific exchange at conferences #AGU2024 (Thanks for all the nice and interesting conversations we had here! InPlanet, Silicate, Tropicarbon, Flux, Everest Carbon, UNDO, ZeroEx, Lithos Carbon, Mati Carbon and many more researchers from universities and institutes). No matter how bad the news about #climatechange is, if we don't start, it won't get better! So the more people working and talking about CDR, the better the future can be!

We are proud to be listed as „PHASE I FINALISTS“ by the „Bezos Earth Fund $1M Greenhouse Gas Removal Ideation Prize“. Congratulations to the winners! (14 winners, 64 finalists from over 700 submissions) Our entry was titled: „Monitoring of Carbon Fluxes in Rock-Treated Soils to Enable Trustworthy CDR Reporting for Enhanced Weathering“ https://lnkd.in/gNcUH3w7

👏 Could this be the most exciting job opportunity in carbon dioxide removal? 👏 COP30 in Brazil will be huge and will set the stage for decades to come. Building on the great progress for carbon removals (CDR) at COP29, the CDR industry is now starting to mobilise to make COP30 📈 the breakout COP for CDR. 📈 🫵 And we need you. Specifically, we are looking for someone who will lead the industry’s efforts to prepare, set-up, and run the first ever CDR Pavilion at a COP. What you need to bring to the table: ♾️ You are based in, or regularly travel to, Brazil ♾️ You speak Portuguese ♾️ You are familiar with the CDR ecosystem You can spend a significant amount of time on this (minimum 2 days a week in H1; full-time in H2) for the next 12 months Sounds exciting? Look no further. Express you interest here:  🌐 https://lnkd.in/ehvUe-wi 🤝 Vamos nessa - não temos tempo a perder.

We need 5 million people globally to commit to a new industry by 2050 to stop warming! Experts project the necessary people-power to accomplish the projected goals of carbon removals by 2050 will require an industry the size of the current airline industry. BCG estimates a required workforce of 480.000 in Europe, which up-scaled to the globe is in the range of 5 million new jobs. When we started our work on negative emissions back in 2019, there were only a few hundred people on the entire planet working on carbon removal also known as negative emissions. Five years later, just the 25 companies we’ve invested in already employ 700+ people. With an estimated 300+ similar companies worldwide, work on negative emissions and CDR has increased by an order of magnitude in the past five years. This is great news—and still a poignant reminder that we need to retain a 25% growth rate until 2050 to meet our goal of removing 10 gigatons of CO₂ by 2050. If you want to join this growing group of passionate world-changers, visit https://lnkd.in/ddHeKj87 or https://www.cdrjobs.earth to get connected.

Our new friends from Flux, Vincent Clementi, Ph.D. and Fatima Haque were so nice to shoot a photo of Jens Steffen Hammes and me