Climate Change, Carbon Removal, and Careers

Grant Faber

Founder and President, Carbon-Based Consulting LLC

grant@carbonbasedconsulting.com

December 21^st, 2023

Here’s our agenda for the day

1. Introducing myself and learning what you know
2. Setting context related to climate change
3. Discussing the role of “climate tech”
4. Talking about climate careers and majors
5. Walking through carbon dioxide removal (CDR)
6. Discussing!

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It’s great to meet you!

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What do you know about climate change and potential solutions to it?

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Greenhouse gas emissions are rising…

(All sources in slide notes)

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This will have many horrible consequences.

• 1 to 3 billion people could be left outside of humanity’s historically beneficial climate niche.
• An extra 153 million premature deaths could occur if associated air pollution is not avoided.
• Even at just 1.5°C of warming, up to 1 in 7 of all species could go extinct.
• Trillions of dollars in global economic activity could be lost—each year!
• Etc.

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This is a tough situation. But it also means that we have an opportunity to save millions of lives and trillions of dollars while building a better world in the process!

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Note the uncommon categories, like rice cultivation, metal refining, and pipelines.

Emissions from EVERY category must be addressed.

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The Kaya identity can reveal core issues.

This is just one theoretical breakdown, but it shows key levers that can reduce emissions: population, consumption, efficiency, and emissions intensity.

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However, most agree that we can’t control population, so…

Solutions are often focused on efficiency and emissions intensity reduction. Below are the most important.

• Energy efficiency (e.g., LEDs, insulation)
• Low-carbon energy (e.g., solar, wind, nuclear)
• Electrification of transport and industry (e.g., EVs)
• Replacing meat/dairy (e.g., soy products, cultivated meat)
• Better agricultural and land use practices (e.g., regen ag)
• Point-source carbon capture (e.g., on a natural gas plant)

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Five key transformation mechanisms can help us think through solution pathways.

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Markets

Proper financing and business cases are required to reshape our economy.

Policy

Government regulation is a needed forcing agent for change.

Technology

Many new technologies are required for full decarbonization.

Behavior

Human behavior at all social levels can help support the transition.

Design

We must redesign everyday things from appliances to cities to address climate.

I’ll challenge you to come up with examples later!

Interactions between the mechanisms will be key to driving progress.

• Policy x Tech: government funding of early R&D can lead to key technological developments.
• Behavior x Design: newly designed systems can induce needed changes in human behavior.
• Markets x Tech: if clean energy technologies can reach cost parity, they’ll scale naturally.
• And so on! I’ll challenge you to come up with examples later.

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You have the incredible opportunity to be involved in scaling climate tech!

• There is no shortage of opportunities to work directly on climate change or to integrate climate change into your desired career.
• It is early enough in your life that any path is open: you could become anything from a chemical engineer or a climate-conscious artist—or both!
• Even if your professional journey leads you down a unique path, climate touches everything.

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Some college majors are more directly relevant for climate work.

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Engineering

Business and Economics

Environmental Science

Architecture and Urban Planning

Political Science and Public Policy

Chemistry

Earth Science/Geology

Education

Agricultural Science

Here are some general college tips!

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80,000 hours

Research

Course guides

Push yourself

Networking

Carbon dioxide removal (CDR) is an emerging climate technology.

Note that CDR is different from point-source carbon capture, where fossil emissions are captured and stored.

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“Different mitigation strategies can achieve the net emissions reductions that would be required to follow a pathway that limits global warming to 1.5°C with no or limited overshoot. All pathways use Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR).”

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Global Warming of 1.5°C (2018), IPCC

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We will likely need gigatons of removal.

(That’s a lot!)

Negative Emissions Technologies and Reliable Sequestration: A Research Agenda (2019), National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine

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CDR is likely necessary for a few reasons.

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Hard-to-Abate Emissions

We might not be able to reduce emissions from all sectors and geographies by 100%, necessitating separate removal.

Future Climate Restoration

In the long run, we might be able to restore atmospheric CO₂ levels to pre-industrial levels with CDR.

Job, Talent, and Co-Product Creation

Scaling carbon removal processes can create jobs, develop talent, and create valuable co-products.

There are many types of carbon removal.

How do you think these remove carbon?

This diagram does not include direct ocean capture (DOC), artificial up/downwelling, ocean fertilization, deep sea storage, algal cultivation, storage in long-lived products, dried biomass storage, and so on!

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Climeworks Orca direct air capture plant in Iceland.

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Pacific Biochar biochar pile for burial.

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Alkali Earth carbonated slag gravel.

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Actual CDR deliveries are currently limited.

This chart does not include forestry-based removal offsets, which are often viewed as lower quality. Hundreds of millions of such credits are already traded each year.

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The industry is growing rapidly, however.

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Ok, let’s revisit the transformation mechanisms and potential interactions we discussed before.

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Can you think of more examples?

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Thanks!

ANY QUESTIONS?

You can find me at:

grant@carbonbasedconsulting.com�https://www.linkedin.com/in/grfaber

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