🇺🇸🌤 Introducing a new weekly series, US state carbon management spotlight: California 🇺🇸🌤

I’ve had a lot of positive feedback on my EU country spotlight series. In light of Carbonfuture’s recent US carbon dioxide removal (#CDR) data release, I’m excited to introduce a similar series – US state spotlights, beginning with US leader in CDR policy, #California.

Over the last years, California has passed a range of promising decarbonisation legislation. Largely led by California Air Resources Board, the state has the most ambitious climate action of any jurisdiction in the world for #carbonneutrality.

What are the climate policy frameworks in California?

🎯 California has passed ambitious state-level policies to achieve #netzero, including aims to cut greenhouse gases (#GHG) by 85% by 2045. The state continues to explore new targets for decarbonisation which include utilizing CDR.

💥 Under Governor Gavin Newsom, the state’s final draft plan proposes 15% of all the targeted GHG cuts will come from CDR, amounting to 75MMtCO2/year by 2045, with an intermediary target of 20MMtCO2/year by 2030.

💵 State senator Josh Becker introduced #SB308, the CDR Market Development Act, which mandates emitters purchase “negative emissions credits” for their hard to abate emissions starting at 1% of the source’s emissions in 2030 and ramping up to 100% of residual emissions by 2045.

What CDR technologies is California looking at?

🏞 The above CDR targets may be achieved via storage in the Central Valley, whose rock formations have a storage capacity of at least 17 billion tons.

💡 The state strategy mentions that "mechanical CDR" is needed for carbon neutrality, which includes DAC and enhanced weathering (#EW). There is also potential for biochar carbon removal (#BCR) to decarbonize cement manufacturing.

California, which has the fourth largest economy in the world, has a history of adopting environmental requirements that are imitated across the US; I’m hopeful that the state will set a strong example for other states and the nation on integrating CDR into a #netzero plan for the future.

🗣 Unsurprisingly, there is a plethora of incredible CDR startups and people in California, particularly in the Bay Area. LinkedIn won't allow me to do all of them justice, but here are a few highlights:

Companies: Blue Forest, XPRIZE, Lithos Carbon, Ebb Carbon, Mote, ClimateWorks Foundation, Noya, Heirloom, Arbor, Tau Carbon, Twelve, CarbonCapture Inc., Sitos Group, Capture6, Pachama, Watershed, Foundation for Climate Restoration, Living Carbon, Charm Industrial, Aircapture, AirMyne, Pacific Biochar, Corigin Solutions, Inc., Mast Reforestation.

I also want to shout out the individuals driving CDR forward in California. LinkedIn only lets me include a limited number of tags, so I’ll tag all of these people in the comments 👇

Who else would you shout out in the CA climate space? What do you think about California’s plans?