Episode 64 is with Dr. Julio Friedmann, Chief Scientist at Carbon Direct In this episode, Na’im speaks with Dr. Julio Friedmann about Carbon Direct’s recent publication “ 5 Pillars of Successful Project Deployment and Delivery ” on what the carbon dioxide removal industry needs to de-risk projects in order to attract new buyers and to stand up infrastructure-scale carbon removal projects.In this episode, Na’im and Julio discuss: * How CDR 1.0 built markets * What buyers today really want * Overv...
Apr 30, 2026•45 min
Episode 63 is with Jack Andreasen Cavanaugh Last week, Heatmap reported that Microsoft — the single largest buyer of durable carbon dioxide removal in the world, accounting for 80–90% of all purchases ever made — is pausing new CDR purchases. Jack Andreasen Cavanaugh , Director of the Carbon Management Program at Columbia’s Center on Global Energy Policy, published a piece over the weekend arguing this isn’t really a Microsoft story. The real story is that Microsoft was ever alone in the first p...
Apr 16, 2026•41 min
Episode 62 is with Robert Höglund (Head of Climate Strategy and CDR, Milky Wire; Co-Founder, CDR FYI; CEO, Marginal Carbon). In this episode, host Na’im Merchant catches up with Robert Höglund to discuss his latest thinking on the carbon removal sector’s trajectory. Robert makes the case that CDR needs a narrative shift away from speed and scale, toward prove and learn. They explore why aviation and shipping are largely ignoring carbon removal in their decarbonization plans, why voluntary demand...
Mar 25, 2026•49 min
Episode 61 is with Giana Amador (Executive Director, Carbon Removal Alliance), Erin Burns (Executive Director, Carbon180), and Peter Minor (CEO, Absolute Climate). In this inaugural Removers Roundtable episode, host Na’im Merchant sits down with three leaders in the carbon removal space: Giana Amador (Executive Director, Carbon Removal Alliance ), Erin Burns (Executive Director, Carbon180 ), and Peter Minor (CEO, Absolute Climate ). They discuss the current state of US carbon removal policy, ind...
Feb 26, 2026•46 min
Episode 60 is a special ask me anything style episode with Na’im Merchant and Rahima Dosani In this annual “flip the script” episode of The Carbon Curve, Na’im is back in the hot seat as his wife Rahima Dosani interviews him AMA-style to reflect on the past year in carbon removal and life outside of work. The conversation starts with personal (and intentionally uncomfortable) questions—turning 40, parenting two young kids, and hard-earned life lessons—before zooming out to the state of carbon re...
Jan 08, 2026•55 min
Episode 59 is with Rory Brown, Co-Founder & CEO at Airhive In this episode, Na’im speaks with Rory about his journey into carbon removal technology with a focus on direct air capture (DAC). Other major themes include the importance of financing, the policy landscape for carbon removal in different regions, and the need for transparency about DAC costs. In this episode, Na’im and Rory discuss: * Rory’s transition to climate and DAC * The founding and growth of Airhive, including their technol...
Dec 10, 2025•30 min
Episode 58 is with Marc Roston (Stanford’s Precourt Institute for Energy) and Peter Minor (Absolute Climate) This episode features Marc Roston , senior research scholar at Stanford’s Precourt Institute for Energy, and Peter Minor , co-founder of Absolute Climate. They explore fundamental flaws undermining voluntary carbon markets, focusing on how carbon credits are accounted and valued. Mark explains challenges like the “original sin” of credit retirement, custody issues, and fungibility differe...
Oct 23, 2025•1 hr 10 min
Episode 57 is with Adam Fraser, CEO of Terraset. In this episode, Na’im speaks with Adam Frase r about Terraset , an innovative nonprofit dedicated to removing greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. They discuss Adam's background in sports journalism and his transition to climate action. They highlight the unique approaches Terraset uses to fund carbon removal, including a recently launched revolving fund which pre-purchases carbon removal and reinvests proceeds to create a sustainable funding mo...
Sep 18, 2025•39 min
Episode 56 is with Jonathan Rhone and Natalie Khtikian, co-founders of CO280. In this episode, Na’im speaks with Jonathan and Natalie about their groundbreaking work in large-scale carbon dioxide removal (CDR) projects, specifically in partnership with pulp and paper companies. They discuss their innovative approach to carbon removal by partnering with pulp and paper companies. They highlight the importance of leveraging existing industrial frameworks to scale effectively. The episode delves int...
Sep 02, 2025•38 min
Episode 55 is with Will Kain, Founder & CEO of Avnos In this episode, Na’im speaks with Will Kain about the advancement and commercialization of hybrid direct air capture (HDAC) technology at Avnos . The conversation also covers Will’s journey into the climate tech space, the unique hybrid DAC approach and the resource-efficient and cost-effective benefits of HDAC, as well as the challenges of scaling DAC technologies and the role of supportive policy regimes. In this episode, Na’im and Will...
Aug 13, 2025•39 min
Episode 54 is with Shantanu Agrawal, Founder and CEO of Mati Carbon and Nikki Batchelor, Executive Director for the $100M Carbon Removal XPRIZE. In this episode, Na’im delves into the groundbreaking achievements in carbon removal led by Mati Carbon and the XPRIZE Carbon Dioxide Removal Competition . Shantanu Aggarwal, CEO of Mati Carbon, discusses winning the $50 million grand prize of the XPRIZE competition. Nikki Bachelor from XPRIZE highlights the competition’s impact in catalyzing the carbon...
Jul 10, 2025•43 min
Episode 53 is a Special Episode with Ed Whittingham of Advance Climate Solutions and Grégoire Baillargeon , President of BMO Québec and Vice Chair of BMO Capital Markets. In this special live episode of The Carbon Curve, Na’im is joined by Ed Whittingham of Advance Climate Solutions and host of the Energy vs. Climate podcast and Grégoire Baillargeon , President of BMO Quebec, Vice Chair of BMO Capital Markets , and Board Member of Carbon Removal Canada . Recorded at the Climate Solutions Prize F...
Jun 26, 2025•39 min
Episode 52 is a special joint episode with Plan Sea host Anna Madlener and Lennart Bach, Associate Professor and ocean alkalinity enhancement (OAE) scientist at the University of Tasmania . In this episode, Na’im joins Anna Madlener for a special co-hosted episode between Plan Sea and The Carbon Curve, recorded live at the Carbon to Sea 2025 Annual Convening . Anna and Na’im speak with Lennart Bach , to share insights and key takeaways from this year’s convening. Last month, Carbon to Sea hosted...
Jun 05, 2025•34 min
Episode 51 is with Erin Burns, Executive Director of Carbon180. This episode highlights the critical need for long-term strategies and adaptability in carbon removal policies amidst changing political landscapes. Key takeaways include the importance of making carbon removal efforts tangible and real for policymakers by emphasizing measurable impacts and local benefits, the necessity of building broad coalitions and engaging various stakeholders to sustain and expand carbon removal initiatives, a...
May 29, 2025•47 min
Episode 50 is a special AMA style episode with Na’im Merchant and Rahima Dosani In this special “ask me anything” episode of the Carbon Curve podcast, the tables are turned and Na’im is interviewed by his wife, Rahima Dosani, to discuss the past year's accomplishments and challenges, as well as future plans for 2025 in the carbon removal space. With Na’im leading Carbon Removal Canada, he shares insights on policy achievements, the growth of the sector, and the balancing act of managing an organ...
Jan 30, 2025•37 min
Episode 49 is with Peter Minor (Absolute Climate) and Travis Caddy (Evident) Despite all of the recent progress to integrate carbon removal in carbon markets globally, a significant problem remains. Existing market mechanisms continue to commoditize carbon removal credits that we haven’t effectively standardized yet. Carbon credits are sold as interchangeable units despite differences in how project quality is evaluated. Absolute Climate thinks it has solved this problem with the Absolute Carbon...
Jan 09, 2025•43 min
Episode 48 is with Senator Colin Deacon, Senate of Canada Independent Senator Colin Deacon was appointed to represent Nova Scotia in the Senate of Canada in June 2018. Senator Deacon shares his vision on how government policy can empower entrepreneurs and encourage investment in carbon removal technologies, and that regulator agility is critical to adapting to the fast evolving needs of carbon removal and climate solutions more generally. We dive deep on what regulatory agility could look like, ...
Dec 17, 2024•43 min
Episode 47 is with Giana Amador, Executive Director at Carbon Removal Alliance Monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) is critical to ensuring carbon removal quality, but what is the role of public policy to enable MRV to deliver on this promise? Giana Amador, Executive Director at Carbon Removal Alliance , describes the catalytic role government can play in supporting MRV standards, fostering transparency, and promoting community benefits for long-term carbon removal industry growth. We a...
Dec 04, 2024•40 min
Episode 46 is with Josh Albert, Associate Partner with KONU You’ll often hear people say climate is a systems problem, but we in the carbon removal field don’t have a useful framework for driving systems change. In this episode, we explore the complexities of climate change, going beyond single solutions and acknowledging the diverse stakeholders and shifting systems involved. Our guest introduces the Adaptive Leadership Framework, a unique approach to driving systems change. We'll discuss its p...
Nov 27, 2024•53 min
Episode 45 is with Eli Mitchell-Larson, Co-founder and Chief Scientist at Carbon Gap, and Robert Höglund, Co-founder of CDR.fyi and Fund Manager at Milkywire. Today Na’im speaks with Eli and Robert about their latest publication titled “ All excess emissions must be removed ” , which argues for the central role of carbon removal (CDR) to address the global carbon debt, especially among historically high emitters, not only the “residual emissions” remaining at the year of net zero - and how this ...
Nov 04, 2024•49 min
Episode 44 is with Jim Mann, Founder and CEO of UNDO A few weeks ago, Microsoft inked a new 15,000 ton carbon removal deal with UNDO and similar deals with other enhanced rock weathering (ERW) companies. Na’im speaks with Jim Mann, Founder and CEO of UNDO , about the company’s efforts in scaling carbon removal through ERW both in the U.K. and in Canada. In this episode, Na’im and Jim discuss: * The origin of UNDO and the reasons for exploring ERW as the key CDR method; * The operational processe...
Oct 09, 2024•32 min
Episode 43 is with Luke Connell and Shannon Sterling As we wrap up Climate Week NYC today, I wanted to share a special episode with the CarbonRun leadership team on their exciting $25M offtake agreement with Frontier Climate - probably the biggest carbon removal news of Climate Week. It even hit the front page of the New York Times . We talk about what they’ve been up to leading to this announcement, and what this major milestone means for their company and the communities they work with. In thi...
Sep 27, 2024•44 min
Episode 42 is with Sebastian Manhart, Senior Policy Advisor at Carbonfuture Sebastian Manhart discusses recent carbon dioxide removal (CDR) policies in Europe and the U.S. He points out key policy achievements, compares the EU's and U.S.'s different CDR approaches, and emphasizes the importance as well as the challenges of integrating CDR into compliance markets. He also mentions his own projects aimed at advancing the CDR industry. In this episode, Na’im and Sebastian discuss: * recent developm...
Sep 18, 2024•43 min
Episode 41 is with Noah Deich, Senior Advisor for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management Today Na’im speaks with Noah Deich about how the US Department of Energy (DOE) is contributing to the carbon removal landscape through innovative programs and policies aimed at decarbonizing the energy sector and advancing carbon removal technologies. In this episode, Na’im and Noah discuss: * Noah's journey into the carbon removal space; * The role of DOE’s Office of F...
Sep 10, 2024•49 min
Episode 40 is with Anu Khan, Founder and Executive Director at Carbon Removal Standards Initiative Anu founded the Carbon Removal Standards Initiative or CRSI in early 2024 while an Entrepreneur in Residence at Carbon180. She previously led the Science & Innovation team at Carbon180 where her work focused on measurement, reporting, and verification (or MRV) as a crucial level for building a just, equitable, and highly accountable carbon removal (or CDR) sector. Prior to Carbon180, Anu worked...
Aug 21, 2024•39 min
Episode 39 is with Mark Cyffka, Co-Founder and COO of AirMyne. Today Na’im speaks with Mark Cyffka about common barriers to scaling the different approaches of direct air capture technologies, how AirMyne is looking to bypass those barriers with its technology, what the cost trajectory of DAC will be between now and 2050, and how to think about the modularity versus large-system approaches of developing DAC technologies. In this episode, Na’im and Mark discuss: * AirMyne’s progress since the com...
May 28, 2024•43 min
Episode 38 is with Dai Ellis (Co-founder and CEO) and Vilas Rao (Co-founder) of Cascade Climate. Today Na’im speaks with Dai Ellis and Vilas Rao about how Cascade Climate is working to address key challenges in open-system carbon dioxide removal (CDR), particularly around quantification of enhanced rock weathering (ERW), why a community-built quantification standard is key to increase consistency in MRV practices across the ERW market, and how to encourage industry adoption and data sharing to a...
May 14, 2024•39 min
Episode 37 is with Lukas May, Head of Policy and Expansion at Isometric The traditional carbon offset market is riddled with problems. We've seen reporting on this from The Guardian, Bloomberg, and other media outlets. Researchers at CarbonPlan have also done some excellent work exposing just how broken some of these systems really are. As we build a new carbon removal industry, we now have an opportunity to build trust in a high integrity carbon removal market. One company, Isometric, is workin...
Apr 25, 2024•46 min
Episode 36 is with Nikki Batchelor of XPRIZE and Ben Rubin of Carbon Business Council. Carbon removal can be a force for good - not just in creating lasting climate benefits - but in delivering social, economic, and ecological benefits as well. Indeed, the future of carbon removal depends on that promise playing out. But it isn’t a foregone conclusion that large scale carbon removal is uncompromisingly and unequivocally good for people and planet. As we build this new industry - an intentional a...
Mar 21, 2024•38 min
Episode 35 is with Anastasia Pavlovic, CEO of Eion and Elliot Chang, Co-founder and CSO of Eion. Today Na’im speaks with Anastasia Pavlovic, CEO of Eion and Elliot Chang, CSO of Eion. Enhanced rock weathering (ERW) is an area of carbon removal that I’ve been really intrigued by. When I think about ERW, I think about high potential for scale, benefits to farmers, and potentially challenging MRV. So 35 episodes into this podcast, I’m finally doing an episode on ERW. Today I’ll be speaking with Eio...
Feb 27, 2024•39 min
