Carbon180

Carbon180 designs and champions science-based, equitable policies that can remove carbon from the atmosphere at the gigaton scale. We envision a world free of legacy carbon emissions - a livable climate in which current and future generations can thrive.

We're working to reverse two centuries of carbon emissions - the right way. This means being clear-eyed about what the growing carbon removal industry needs to thrive. At this stage, it needs research and development, regulatory frameworks, strategic investment, and oversight. Without these elements, we risk doing carbon removal "poorly" - resulting in a number of potential issues including, for example, that a ton of carbon claimed to have been removed might actually be less across different measurement standards; that carbon removal projects might marginalize and harm communities hosting and implementing them; that the duration of the carbon storage might be insufficient to reach climate goals; and that carbon removal might not scale quickly enough to keep the planet at a livable climate.

These very big issues require large-scale solutions, which is why we are focused on policy (primarily at the federal level, but also increasingly and intentionally at the regional and state levels as well). To work for the long-term, successful carbon removal policy requires the latest science and innovation, in addition to the perspectives of the communities who will be hosting and implementing these policies, which is why our work focuses on these three pillars:

Policy: The government is a powerful engine for change, we put it to work on carbon removal's biggest obstacles, helping policymakers fill in research gaps, drive down costs, and unlock private capital.

Environmental Justice (EJ): As carbon removal scales, we see the opportunity to not only scale it with the support of community stakeholders but to also create opportunity for communities themselves to benefit from projects environmentally and economically. We see this as not only the right thing to do, but also the key to building durable political coalitions with the most effective possible champions for future waves of carbon removal policies - constituents. In sum, everyone can win.

Science & Innovation: We work directly with scientists and startups, grounding our work in the latest research, partnering with entrepreneurs to incubate early ideas, and supporting innovation in emerging markets - all with the goal of creating tangible, lasting impact.

Along the way, we are also building the carbon removal field. We know that for carbon removal to succeed at scale, we need more people with diverse skills working on the complex and unprecedented set of issues that scaling carbon removal requires. We do this by working collaboratively with policymakers, community members, entrepreneurs, and scientists to bring big ideas to bear in this fast-moving space, including through our Entrepreneur-in-Residence program and our EJ regranting program. More people working on building an equitable, carbon-removing future means that we’ll get there faster.

Our team includes veterans in US government advocacy as well as climate scientists.

All of our impact is measured as contribution not attribution (as we focus on policy change). In FY2022, Congress appropriated approximately $172.6 million for carbon removal.

Our advocacy in 2021 and 2022 included the following highlights:
Worked with key Senate offices and Finance Committee staff to advocate for important provisions within the 45Q credit for DAC; Successfully continued work with Congressional offices and committee staff to ensure carbon management (SCALE Act, Regional DAC Hubs, Class VI funding) provisions drafted by the Senate remain in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal; Began to work with partners to advise DOE on how to best implement provisions authorized through IIJA, particularly DAC hubs in coordination with other carbon management programs; Continued to refine our policy position on enhanced oil recovery (which ultimately resulted in a public position of no EOR in DAC hubs).

Last, we continue to publish a variety of tools & resources for thinking and learning about carbon removal. These include fact sheets, graphics, a newsletter, a blog, and reports. Search our tools & resources here: https://carbon180.org/search.