Seizing Canada’s carbon removal potential

TECH

Seizing Canada’s carbon removal potential

Canada is ready to lead on carbon removal. 

That was the message delivered at this year’s Carbon Removal Day hosted by Carbon Removal Canada, an independent policy initiative focused on scaling up Canada’s carbon removal industry. The event brought together startups, government, researchers and policy advocates to discuss current solutions and pathways to scaling up the industry. 

Talks focused on Canada’s potential to step into a leadership role, the need for more buyers, and building trust while moving fast.

💸 Putting up the money

Two big announcements punctuated the day. First, the Government of Canada introduced a Request for Information (RFI) to kick off its $10M carbon removal procurement program. 

• The program will launch with a $3 million pilot phase, a portfolio approach to support various CDR pathways, and offer a 500 tonne commitment per supplier. 

The B.C. Centre for Innovation and Clean Energy also announced a $3M non-dilutive funding stream for early-stage, hard-tech CDR companies. 

• Non-dilutive funding is critical for early stage ventures to build out their technology without sacrificing ownership. It also signals the company’s ability to hit milestones to investors. 

🤝 Building trust

Trust was a central theme throughout the day, from measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) protocols, to investor confidence and community engagement.

• Engaging with Indigenous communities is a key to success, but communities have repeatedly seen promises broken in the past. To build strong relationships, Michael Maracle-Polak, Chief Administrative Officer at Glooscap First Nation, says project developers need to demonstrate their trustworthiness and correct for that history.  

• Enhanced rock weathering startup UNDO integrates trust across the value chain, making sure suppliers, quarries, haulers, and communities understand what they’re trying to accomplish. 

📈 Economic opportunity 

Carbon removal is in it’s early days, and several speakers underscored how getting in on the ground floor will have huge upside. 

• According to research by Carbon Removal Canada, CDR could create over 300,000 jobs and add $143 billion to Canada's GDP by 2050. 

• Lucy Hargreaves, VP of Corporate Affairs at Patch, says policymakers need to hear that message. Founders should be talking to policymakers at all levels, tying CDR to economic imperatives and prosperity. 

• Policymakers also need to realize we’re competing globally. That means not just keeping pace with other countries, but being bold and becoming the best place to set up shop.

🏦 Bringing in buyers

While Canada excels on the technology side, more work is needed to bring in buyers. 

• Jane Kearns from Evok Innovations emphasized that Canada is solid on the tech side but is missing buyers. Corporate buyers don’t have to make huge purchases, but do need to dip their toes in and start to understand the market.

• While many CDR technologies resemble infrastructure investments, the sector hasn't yet reached infrastructure-style investment patterns, said Gregoire Baillargeon of BMO Capital Markets.

• The voluntary carbon market probably won’t get us to the scale needed according to Noah Deich, a former advisor in the Biden admin. Different policy tools will need to fill the gap like procurement, incorporating into remediation rules, etc.

🇨🇦 Ready to lead

Canada has the right ingredients to lead in this space: strong technical abilities (a quarter of XPRIZE finalists are Canadian), the right talent, and abundant forests, land, coastlines and mineral deposits for carbon removal to thrive. 

Rather than taking our foot off the gas because the U.S. is slowing down, said Carbon Removal Canada’s Daniel Kelter, it’s time to go faster and press our advantage.

Key takeaways:

1. There’s a deep tension between certainty and speed. We need gigatonnes of removals, but confidence we’re actually moving the needle on the climate. Governments want to catalyze an industry, but also to minimize risk. We’ll move faster if we can find ways to up our risk tolerance without sacrificing long-term credibility.

2. CDR is moving fast. In 10 years the conversation went from “Do we need carbon removal?” to bankers on the panel saying “This is the obvious, no regrets option”. 

3. Canada is ready to lead on carbon removal, but political will needs to be developed to seize the moment. It won’t just happen on its own, and the economic story needs to be told.

Thanks to the Carbon Removal Canada team for inviting me as an official media sponsor for Carbon Removal Day.

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CLIMATE CAPITAL

🧼 Dispersa (Laval, QC) $5.8 million in seed funding from a group of Canadian investors led by Nàdarra Ventures. Dispersa transforms food waste into sustainable chemicals that are used in cleaners, detergents and soaps. The company will use the fresh funding to commercialize its first product.

🧪 Aeon Blue (Sydney, NS) raised $195K in equity funding from Cape Breton Capital Group for its carbon capture and sustainable fuel tech. Aeon produces sustainable fuels using wind energy and seawater while capturing carbon. Aeon plans to establish its first facility in 2027.

🍣 Konscious Foods (Richmond, BC) received a $5 million investment from the federal government to scale up manufacturing and export of its plant-based sushi and seafood. 

🌊 The Ocean Frontier Institute announced funding for 28 new ocean-related projects as part of its Seed Fund program. Projects include on-ship carbon removal, offshore platforms for renewable energy, sustainable fisheries, and more.

MILESTONES & PRODUCT

🌊 Ocean-based carbon removal startup Planetary Technologies successfully removed 1,000 tonnes of CO2 through its ocean alkalinity enhancement process, a critical milestone in scaling up.

⛽️ Biofuel company Hydron is expanding into carbon removal, using its technology that captures CO2 and methane to produce renewable natural gas.

🤖 Promise Robotics will open a new, 60,000 sqft facility for its AI-driven robotic homebuilding platform. 

🧑‍⚖️ Shareholders of EV maker Lion Electric filed a class-action lawsuit alleging the company misrepresented its financial health.

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IN THE NEWS

⛔️ Tariffs return: The U.S. will introduce tariffs on Canadian goods after delaying them in February. A 25% tariff will apply to all imports while a 10% tariff will apply to energy. BC is proposing streamlined energy regulations with Alberta to help boost competitiveness and weather the tariffs, while others say expanding renewables could boost energy security.

⛽️ Boosting biofuels: B.C. is upping the renewable fuel content requirements for gasoline and diesel, and requiring that they come from Canadian-made products. The changes are intended to support Canada’s biofuel industry against U.S. subsidies.

⛏️ Exploration extension: Canada will extend a tax credit on mineral exploration for two years. The 15% tax credit will support the mining sector and reduce the sector’s dependency on China for capital.

⚡️ Margin for error: Gaps in electric utilities’ planning could lead to higher costs and slow progress on Canada’s net-zero targets according to a new report from Efficiency Canada. Limited coordination with gas utilities, underestimating load growth, and undervaluing demand response programs are bogging down the system when it needs to move faster than ever.

💰️ Renewables on sale: Renewable energy developer Innergexwill be acquired by Quebec pension fund CDPQ at a $10 billion valuation. Renewable energy stocks are down over the past month from investor backlash against environmental considerations in the U.S. CDPQ is aiming to join others like Brookfield who see a long-term future for renewables.

BIG PICTURE

The EU is overhauling its energy transition strategy

Nations reached a deal on biodiversity funding at COP16, mobilizing $200B a year

Microgrids are saving lives in Ukraine

Southwest backs out of clean fuel while United bets on carbon removal

Mercedes is testing a solid-state battery with a >1,000 km range.

Researchers found a highly-scalable solution for carbon sequestration

Archer Aviatation’s electric aircraft flight school gets FAA approval

The world’s first fusion power plant concept

Microsoft pulls back on its data centre expansion plans

COMMUNITY

🚀 Call for Carbon Dioxide Removal Innovation: CICE has launched Canada’s first CDR funding opportunity, with $3 million in non-dilutive investment available to Canadian-based innovators driving early-stage, hard-tech carbon dioxide removal solutions to decarbonize B.C. and Canada. Apply by April 30th.

🗓️ Ocean Visions: Global and local scientists, policymakers, innovators, funders, and others will converge to explore solutions and strengthen partnerships that can help restore our ocean and stabilize the climate. March 25-27, Vancouver.

➡️ Discover more climate events.

💻️ Planetary Technologies is hiring an Operations Manager to own on site operations at their trial site and enabling Planetary’s Ocean Carbon Platform (OCP) to reliably and safely remove carbon from the atmosphere.

➡️ Find more open roles.