Climate Fix: California Looks to Remove Massive Amounts of Carbon from Atmosphere to Meet Climate Goals

KQED's Forum

California has laid out ambitious goals of becoming carbon neutral by 2045. That means not just limiting emissions, but also removing about 100 million tons of carbon dioxide already in the atmosphere. It’s not easy to extract and contain carbon once it’s emitted, but a small crop of Bay Area startups are working on technologies to do just that. Some companies use giant machines to pull carbon out of the air while others sequester it into a liquid that can be buried deep beneath the earth’s surface. There are many approaches to carbon removal, but also many questions: who will pay for it, how will the carbon be stored, how can companies scale up? For this next installment of Climate Fix, our monthly series on climate change solutions, we’ll talk about the promises – and challenges – of the burgeoning carbon removal industry.

Guests:

Josh Santos, co-founder/CEO, Noya. Noya focuses on direct air capture to pull excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere

Dan Ress, staff attorney, Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment. CRPE is a national environmental justice organization providing legal, organizing, and technical assistance to grassroots groups in low-income communities and communities of color.

Danny Cullenward, climate economist and lawyer focused on the design and implementation of scientifically grounded climate policy

Laura Klivans, news and science reporter, KQED

Noah McQueen, co-founder and head of research, Heirloom. Heirloom is a carbon capture technology company