The Power of Rock Weathering

The IPCC has stated that by 2050, we must remove 10 to 17 billion tonnes of CO₂ every year to stay on track with climate goals. Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW) has the potential to contribute a significant share toward that target — and 2050 isn’t far away.

In this episode, we invited XinRan Liu from UNDO — one of the four global winners of the $5 million XPRIZE Carbon Removal competition — to help us explore how Enhanced Rock Weathering works. ERW is a natural process where rainwater interacts with silicate rocks, locking away CO₂ permanently over geological timescales.

Enhanced Rock Weathering taps into these natural mechanisms, but boosts their efficiency. XinRan explains how existing global industries, like construction aggregates, already crush massive amounts of silicate rock — making it more energy- and cost-efficient to repurpose these byproducts for scalable carbon removal.

In this conversation, we’ll answer key questions:
🔹 How did UNDO prove Enhanced Rock Weathering actually works?
🔹 How are unintended negative consequences monitored?
🔹 What incentives are there for farmers to participate?
🔹 What are the biggest barriers to adoption?
🔹 How can governments support the growth of Enhanced Weathering?

Host: Chantal Kerr-Sheppard

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