California has just set some of the most ambitious targets in the world for natural carbon removal. The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change tells us that, in addition to rapidly cutting emissions, we must remove about a trillion tons of carbon from the atmosphere by the end of the century to stay below 2 degrees Celsius of warming. Strategies for carbon removal range from wetland restoration and climate-beneficial farming to technological approaches like Direct Air Capture, which uses chemical or physical processes to extract carbon dioxide directly from the ambient air and store it.
Join Baani Behniwal of The Climate Center and Vikrum Aiyer of Heirloom Carbon, a company that is pioneering Direct Air Capture in California, to discuss why and how California is employing Carbon Dioxide Removal.
This event is open to members of The Climate Center’s Business Network and invited guests. For more information on how to join the Business Network, please contact us at info@theclimatecenter.org.
Speakers
Baani joined The Climate Center in June of 2022 as the Natural Sequestration Initiative Manager. In this role, she leads the organization’s work on advancing nature-based carbon sequestration solutions to fight the climate crisis while protecting our natural lands and delivering a multitude of co-benefits for both the environment and affected communities. She also leads the organization’s efforts in policies addressing the emergent mechanical carbon dioxide removal market. Prior to The Climate Center, Baani worked as a consultant with the Community Alliance with Family Farmers where she assisted small and mid-scale farmers with funding opportunities to remain operational during emergencies like drought, wildfire, and the pandemic.
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Vikrum Aiyer is Head of Global Public Policy at Heirloom Carbon, where his team works to align climate policy, legislative strategies, and community benefits agreements to accelerate carbon mineralization sciences that can remove greenhouse gasses from the air, in support of our UN climate goals and our State’s net-zero energy future. He previously held roles in the Obama Administration including as senior policy advisor in the White House National Economic Council, and as Chief of Staff to the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property. Aiyer also served as the global vice president of the startup-up Postmates, where he oversaw the public policy and communications team, led a multimillion-dollar effort to reform California’s safety net, and led negotiations with labor unions and the Newsom Administration.
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