This Week in Carbon

Welcome to This Week in Carbon, your go-to podcast for all things related to the dynamic world of carbon markets. Join moderator Edward Smith and his weekly guests as they delve into the latest news, emerging trends, and evolving regulations shaping the carbon landscape.

This Week in Carbon is a news podcast hosted by Unknown Host, with 61 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

Unknown Host hosts This Week in Carbon, a news show with 61 episodes published.

Our AI reads these to draft pitches. Use them as grounding for a pitch that cites a real guest and a specific topic.

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  Episode #62

  The Chicken-and-Egg Problem in the Carbon Markets and How Symbiosis Is Solving It - Julia Strong

  Sep 29, 202647 min

  In this episode of This Week in Carbon, host Rene Velasquez sits down with Julia Strong, Executive Director of the Symbiosis Coalition, the advanced market commitment platform that has already aggregated more than 20 million tons of nature-based carbon removal commitments by 2030, backed by members including Google, Meta, Microsoft, McKinsey, Salesforce, Bain, and REI Co-op.Julia founded Symbiosis in 2024 with a clear diagnosis: carbon markets haven't scaled not because of a lack of supply, a lack of capital, or a lack of good projects — but because of the absence of long-term demand certainty. Without buyers committing upfront, developers can't get financed. Without financing, projects can't scale. Without proof that projects deliver, buyers won't commit. Symbiosis is the mechanism designed to break that cycle — applying the same logic that unlocked the renewable energy boom through power purchase agreements to nature-based carbon.Key topics covered:- The chicken-and-egg deadlock at the heart of carbon market failure: investors won't finance without offtakes, and buyers won't sign offtakes without proof of financing- The PPA analogy: how long-term power purchase agreements unlocked wind and solar and why the same model can do the same for nature- Living Carbon's $500 million financing from Octopus Energy Generation, secured weeks after signing a long-term offtake agreement with Symbiosis members- What "offtake ready" actually means: the project sweet spot between too early to commit and advanced enough to lock in price, volume, and delivery confidence- Symbiosis' quality criteria: conservative carbon accounting, durability, community benefits, ecological integrity, and transparency, informed by a technical advisory board including scientists from the Nature Conservancy, Cambridge, Yale, and UC Davis- How the standardized RFP and template contract infrastructure works and where individual buyer preferences and commercial negotiations begin- A closer look at the three anchor projects: Mombak in the Brazilian Amazon, Living Carbon in the US, and Thrive Earth in Sulawesi, Indonesia- The cross-pollination between Symbiosis and the newly launched ARC coalition and how a hard-won playbook can be shared rather than rebuilt from scratch- Why long-term offtakes are especially critical for reforestation and restoration: the high upfront costs and long carbon payback periods mean financing can't flow without demand certainty- Flipping the dynamic: making the risk of participating in carbon markets lower than the risk of doing nothingA genuinely important conversation about the market formation infrastructure that nature-based carbon has been missing — and the early proof points that suggest it is starting to work. Listen now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and more.

  ListenShow Notes
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  Episode #61

  Why the World's Most Scalable Carbon Removal Comes in a Bag of Fungal Powder — Loam Bio

  Sep 8, 20261h 2m

  In this episode of This Week in Carbon, host Rene Velasquez sits down with Robbie Oppenheimer and Josh Shaeffer from Loam Bio, the Australian ag-biotech company that has developed the world's first commercial fungi-based soil carbon inoculant, and is now bringing its first Gold Standard-certified mycosequestration project to market in the United States.Robbie comes from the science side, a soil carbon researcher with deep roots in the peer-reviewed work out of Sydney University that underpins Loam Bio's approach. Josh brings the commercial lens, having worked across both project origination and carbon commercialization. Together, they make the case that mycosequestration, the role fungi play in moving captured carbon into stable, mineral-bound forms deep in the soil, represents one of the most scalable, durable, and frictionless CDR pathways available today.Key topics covered:- What mycosequestration actually is: how dark septate endophytic fungi intercept soil carbon during decomposition and convert it into mineral-associated organic carbon with turnover times of 127 to 2,000 years- Why soil is so important: 123 gigatons of CO2 enter terrestrial ecosystems globally each year — and the opportunity to intercept even a fraction of the 120 gigatons that cycle back to the atmosphere- The inoculant: a dry fungal powder applied to seed at sowing — no new equipment, no change to existing farm processes, seamless integration into current practice- Loam Bio's first issuance: 5,000 Australian Carbon Credit Units on ~900 hectares under the ACU compliance scheme — and a market that immediately gobbled up the credits- The Gold Standard project: a US Midwest commodity crops project currently approaching validation and verification, targeting issuance by end of year- Pre-issuance Silvera A rating — reportedly the highest rating ever earned by a cropland carbon project globally- The scale potential: 4 billion acres of cropland on earth, hundreds of millions in commodity crops like corn, soy, and wheat — and a pathway that is designed to reach it- Co-benefits that matter to farmers: 80% more water infiltration below 10cm, improved nitrogen retention, reduced fertilizer dependency — a direct financial resilience case for family farms- The food security argument: why soil health is not just a carbon story but an existential one for farming communities facing increasing drought severity and climate variability- Data centers and the Midwest: how hyperscalers expanding into agricultural heartlands have a ready-made local insetting opportunity on their doorstep- The insetting frontier: Brazil field trials, global commodity supply chains, and how companies like Nestlé, Unilever, and Kellanova could use Loam Bio's pathway to decarbonize their agricultural scope 3- Why the removal vs. avoidance, engineered vs. nature binary is a false one — and what a portfolio approach actually looks like in practiceA genuinely exciting conversation about a new CDR pathway that is grounded in ancient biology, backed by peer-reviewed science, and ready to scale. Listen now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and more.

  ListenShow Notes
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  Episode #60

  Why Carbon Credits Don't Legally Change Hands, and what GCMU has Built to Fix that — Chris Canavan

  Aug 25, 202655 min

  In this episode of This Week in Carbon, host Rene Velasquez sits down with Chris Canavan, CEO of the Global Carbon Market Utility (GCMU) — a financial markets veteran from Goldman Sachs, international project finance, and emerging markets who came to carbon as an outsider and immediately spotted something insiders had learned to live with: the market has been running without the foundational infrastructure every other financial market takes for granted.Chris has spent his career in commodity markets, derivatives, securities markets, and project finance. Now he's directing that experience toward building what he calls the missing layer — a utility-governed registry of title that allows carbon credits to be legally owned, enforced, collateralized, and financed like any other asset class.Key topics covered:Why carbon markets, despite three decades of activity, remain "adolescent" — and what happens to adolescents who age without ever maturingThe single most effective way to accelerate market development: "plagiarize" from markets that have already solved these problems over decades and centuriesThe DTC, Swift, and Chicago Board of Trade origin stories — how every major financial market infrastructure was born from crisis, not foresight or planningWhy the "integrity precedes scale" narrative gets the causation backwards — and what the history of financial markets actually shows about how scale and integrity interactThe shocking reality: no one can confirm, hand on heart, that the transfer of a carbon credit is a legally enforceable true sale of ownershipWhat a registry of title actually means — and why the analogy is Kenya issuing a sovereign bond registered in EuroclearWhy commercial actors — exchanges, registries, data providers — are structurally disincentivised from building foundational market infrastructureThe free rider problem: why collective action is the only path — and why the market still hasn't had its epiphany momentGCMU's utility model: governed by a 501c3 with a fiduciary obligation to scale the market, not fatten marginsThe grain warehouse receipts story: how fungibility and standardization turned the Chicago Board of Trade from a sleepy trade association (that had to offer free drinks just to get attendance) into the global epicenter of commodities marketsWhy carbon doesn't need to become crude oil — it needs to become the aircraft equipment market, governed by the Cape Town ConventionWhat the market looks like in five years if the foundational layer is built: less friction, institutional confidence, and credits that can be financed and collateralized like any other asset classA genuinely different perspective on why the carbon market is stuck — and a rigorous, historically grounded blueprint for what it would take to get it unstuck. Listen now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and more.

  ListenShow Notes
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  Episode #59

  Inside the Integrity Crisis: What Nature-Based Carbon Markets Still Need — Toby Janson-Smith

  Aug 20, 202649 min

  In this episode of This Week in Carbon, hosts Edward Smith and Rene Velasquez sit down with Toby Janson-Smith, CEO and Co-founder of Credegra, and former Chief Innovation and Program Development Officer at Verra, someone who has spent twenty-five years quite literally building the infrastructure that makes nature-based carbon markets possible.From co-designing the Climate Community and Biodiversity Standards at Conservation International, to architecting the VCS AFOLU framework that became the dominant standard for REDD+, Toby has been at the centre of every major turning point in this market. Now, with Credegra, he's tackling what he sees as the final bottleneck: making the certification process fast, rigorous, and transparent enough to support the scale the market needs.Key topics covered:- Why nature was effectively shut out of both the Kyoto Protocol and the early voluntary carbon market and what it took to change that- The buffer pool approach to permanence: how Verra pioneered the mechanism that made forest carbon fungible with energy and industrial credits- What actually caused the 2023 integrity crisis: not one single failure, but a perfect storm of methodology design gaps, assurance capacity limits, data limitations, and rapid growth converging at once- The baseline problem at the heart of the REDD+ scandal and the specific example of a government change that invalidated an entire project's crediting trajectory years after launch- Dynamic baselines: how reassessing the baseline at every verification cycle transforms the integrity of emission reduction credits- The jurisdictional approach to REDD+: top-down national baselines allocated by risk maps to individual projects and why this aligns with Paris Agreement accounting- Why corporate buyers pivoting away from nature entirely may be one of the biggest strategic mistakes in climate finance- The bathtub analogy: why we can't just "bail out the water" with removals, we have to turn off the spigot too- The equity case for nature-based solutions: why communities in the global south must participate in — and benefit from — carbon markets, not simply bear the costs of climate change- Credegra: how AI is being deployed to help project developers navigate hundreds of complex methodology requirements and dramatically reduce the certification bottleneck at standard-setters- The compliance market bridge: how what the VCM has built can and must be brought into regulated markets to reach meaningful scale- Why the next five years are the most critical window this market has ever had and why this is not the time for timid stepsA landmark conversation with one of the true architects of this market, and a clear-eyed view of what it still needs to become. Listen now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and more.

  ListenShow Notes
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  Episode #58

  The Super-pollutant Hiding in Your Nylon, Your Car & Your Fertiliser — Bill Flederbach (ClimeCo)

  Aug 11, 202646 min

  In this episode of This Week in Carbon, host Rene Velasquez sits down with Bill Flederbach, Founder, President and CEO of ClimeCo, one of the most established and mission-driven environmental project developers in North America. ClimeCo has spent over fifteen years building the foundational infrastructure for industrial N2O abatement: developing the protocols, financing the technology, creating the markets, and now expanding into China and India. The result is a portfolio that is abating 30 million tons of CO2 equivalent annually in China alone, with first issuances expected imminently.This episode is a deep dive into nitrous oxide: a super-pollutant 273 times more potent than CO2, that lingers in the atmosphere for over a century, damages the ozone layer, and remains almost entirely absent from mainstream climate conversations.Key topics covered:- What N2O is, where it comes from (nitric acid plants, adipic acid production, ammonia nitrate fertilizer) and why it's invisible in so many climate discussions despite its extraordinary potency- How ClimeCo destroys N2O using catalyst technology and why, unlike forest carbon, it carries zero reversal risk: once destroyed, it's gone permanently- The years of zero-revenue protocol development that underpinned ClimeCo's first projects and what it takes to build a credible methodology from scratch with a registry- The China expansion: 30 million tons under abatement, a 90% baseline mandate that means the first 90% of reductions aren't even credited, and why ClimeCo is pushing for regulatory backstops to prevent the CDM repeat of projects shutting off when incentives disappear- "Follow the molecule" — how ClimeCo maps the supply chains of nylon 6,6 and ammonia nitrate to identify and engage the companies that should care about N2O in their scope 3 footprint- Digital carbon solutions: how ClimeCo is embedding carbon certificates into product serial numbers; retiring credits against individual Lenovo laptops overnight, at scale, automatically- Insetting vs. offsetting: how the REI partnership and automotive supply chain work illustrate scope 3 science-based target reductions through book-and-claim certification- Why the voluntary market is the only revenue stream keeping these abatement projects alive and why regulatory backstops in China and India are essential to prevent history repeating- Portfolio harmony: why Bill believes avoidance, removals, and insetting must all be pursued simultaneously rather than treated as competing approaches- The five-to-ten year vision: a carbon nutritional label on products, as standard as calorie counts on foodAn episode that makes the case that some of the highest-impact, most permanent carbon abatement happening in the world right now is in industrial chemistry facilities and almost no one is talking about it. Listen now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and more.

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