Rethinking Removals is a collaborative programme that acts as an integrator, accelerator and initiator to ensure that high-quality carbon removals reach the scale required to have impact by 2030.
The programme is led by Valence Solutions, in partnership with Carbon Gap, Climate Action Platform – Africa, Cur8 and OpenAir and supported by many others.
We want to amplify the efforts of the amazing people working to make carbon removals a reality. Get in touch – we love to talk!
We need a pipeline of high-quality carbon removal projects and sufficient human capital in place in multiple locations in the global North and South to enable the exponential growth required to reach the UNFCCC target of 100 Mt per year removal capacity by 2030 and to mature to continue exponential growth to 2050.
We need interested governments in both the global South and global North to “learn by doing” how to identify and implement policies, incentives, regulations and targets to get high-quality removals started, demonstrating their reality to others, while working through issues around both accountability and benefits.
Rethinking Removals is a neutral platform, funded by philanthropy and supported by pro bono contributions from Valence Solutions, Cur8, Carbon Gap, Climate Action Platform – Africa and OpenAir Collective.
Gabrielle has been working on climate for almost 30 years. She founded Rethinking Removals when she realised that the topic was not on the mainstream climate agenda, despite a growing body of science that shows it is necessary. Gabrielle gives keynote addresses on climate to corporate audiences around the world, moderates high-level debates and works as an advisor at boardroom level. She has presented dozens of TV and radio programs for the BBC, was Climate Change editor at Nature and Features Editor at New Scientist. Gabrielle has a PhD from Cambridge University and is the author of four books.
Twitter: @GabrielleWalk3r
LinkedIn: gabriellewalk3r/
Chris Neidl joined the Rethinking Removals team as Director of Initiatives in April 2023. He brings to this role two decades of career experience in the renewable energy and carbon removal fields, serving in diverse high impact roles as a policy analyst and advocate, business development specialist and project manager in North America, South Asia, East Africa and Central America. In 2019 Chris co-founded OpenAir, a global volunteer collective launched in 2019 to advance carbon dioxide removal (CDR) through member-driven advocacy. Chris has also served as a consultant, advocate and subject expert advisor for Carbon180, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Boulder County Office of Climate Action, Sustainability and Resilience, the Carbon XPRIZE, and the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management. He is a founding board member of the Direct Air Capture Coalition, and the 4 Corners Carbon Coalition. Chris is an upstate New York native and long-time Brooklyn resident, who currently divides his year between Austin, Texas and Monteverde, Costa Rica.
LinkedIn: christopher-neidl
Delia is the co-founder of Rethinking Removals. She focuses on our content, bringing clarity and fresh thinking to complex problems. She worked at The Economist Group for 20 years, launched a magazine on Eastern Europe, and led an emerging markets peer group for senior executives at global companies. She has worked on narratives and strategy with many global organisations, including the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative, Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Northern Lights.
Twitter: @DeliaMeth_Cohn
LinkedIn: deliamethcohn
Glenn Morley is CEO at Carbon Gap and is leading the scale up phase of its mission to help Europe become a leader in deploying safe, effective and socially responsible carbon dioxide removal.
He sees his career, which spans finance, consulting, impact and early climate solution startups, as a three-decade-long apprenticeship for the challenge of accelerating carbon removal in Europe. Glenn’s previous work as a co-founder and an advisor to NGOs, corporate sustainability pioneers and climate startups created a determination to address the three challenges of speed, scale and quality, through agile cross-system collaboration.
LinkedIn: glennmorley
Ewa has close to 20 years’ experience working in large corporates in the energy and automotive industries, across four continents in various commercial, strategy and sustainability roles. She is an economist by training and holds an MBA. She spent the last decade designing and leading global sustainability programs (energy, transport, water and waste, resilient cities) and assessing impacts of climate change and energy transitions on the oil & gas business for Royal Dutch Shell. She is currently working with the Sustainable Markets Initiative to stimulate demand for low carbon products.
LinkedIn: ewa-merchel
Sharon’s itchy feet and love of learning have led her down a non-linear path. She has been a graphic designer, English teacher, translator, researcher and a Shiatsu therapist. She has produced research instruments specifically for use with children in Mexico and the UK, and translated psychotherapy books and numerous academic articles on tourism and development. As a result of her wandering, Sharon has gained a wide range of creative, organisational and communications skills. She she can design a logo, arrange a diary, proofread articles, update a website and help ease your backache all in the same day, all with a unique combination of professionalism and humour.
Twitter: @Shafarle
LinkedIn: sharonfarley
Dominique has 15 years of experience across commercial and impact-focused roles across mission-driven startups, non-profits, and corporates. She is passionate about scaling organisations that deliver sustainable social and environmental impact by blending evidence-based and market-based approaches. She is currently Client Partnerships Director at the Carbon Removal specialist Cur8, Trustee at Climate Ed and Co-Founder of a soil carbon removal start-up. She has previously led commercial functions for two other mission-driven startups, B2B Market Strategy for Procter & Gamble and has worked in various leadership and fundraising roles in non-profits raising tens of millions of pounds of public and private financing.
Twitter: @Dominique24
LinkedIn: dominique-airey
Alex leads on technology and innovation for the UNFCCC Climate Champions – working under Nigel Topping, the UN High Level Champion for Climate Action. His work covers topics such as venture investing, commodity and carbon markets, cryptocurrencies, and novel carbon removal solutions. He was previously Chief of Staff for a rapidly growing AI business, and spent 5 years at McKinsey & Company, leading projects across the public, tech, and private equity sectors.
Twitter: @alexanderjoss
LinkedIn: alexanderjoss
Carlijn Nouwen is a co-founders of Climate Action Platform – Africa, a novel platform that works to help unlock Africa’s potential as a global hub for climate action that underpins a new climate smart model of economic growth and inclusive livelihoods. The platform’s work is informed by the realisation that Africa’s demographics, growth trajectory and natural resource endowments, coupled with its extremely low levels of current carbon emissions, allow the continent to aspire to not just net-zero but a substantial net-negative carbon footprint sooner than any other part of the world. Carlijn has focused on CAP-A full-time since October 2021, leading its data and analytics work and shaping both CAP-A’s strategy and its various programmes.
Carlijn’s work focuses on competitiveness, inclusive industrialisation and inclusive business and investment in Africa. Prior to founding CAP-A, she spent nearly a decade as a partner with Dalberg Advisors in Africa, leading Dalberg’s inclusive business work. In this role, she developed and pioneered Dalberg’s toolkit on competitiveness assessment and investment prioritisation, leading tens of projects in this space across sectors and countries for public, private and social sector clients. Prior to Dalberg, Carlijn spent 7 years at McKinsey and Company in the Netherlands and worked for the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She holds a master’s degree in Industrial Engineering and Management Science (cum laude) from the Eindhoven University of Technology.
LinkedIn: carlijn-nouwen
Dylan is a climate investment specialist at South Pole, a global sustainability consultancy. Working on climate innovation, impact funds and action platforms, his focus is currently on establishing carbon removals as a credible instrument in the voluntary climate market and beyond. Previously, he was developing climate change adaptation and mitigation projects for funding by the GCF and GEF. Dylan has an MSc in Climate Change, Development and Policy from the Institute of Development Studies.
LinkedIn: marks-dylan
Christiaan has over 10 years experience working on climate issues. He currently works as Senior Manager for Carbon Removal Platforms at South Pole, a global sustainability consultancy. He delivers high-quality consultancy mandates related to engineered carbon dioxide removal methods and conventional carbon capture and storage, with a focus on managing multi-stakeholder action platforms. Christiaan has a public affairs background in EU energy and climate policy and industrial decarbonisation issues in the Benelux region.
LinkedIn: christiaan-gevers-deynoot
Eli Mitchell-Larson leads the team at Carbon Gap, a new independent and philanthropically-funded carbon removal advocacy NGO in Europe. At Oxford Net Zero, he develops policies and frameworks to deliver enduring net zero emissions. Recent work includes the Oxford Offsetting Principles and advising Fortune 500 companies on carbon removal procurement at Carbon Direct. Previously, he worked as an impact investor (New Island Capital) and off-grid solar entrepreneur (SunFarmer).
Twitter: @EliMLarson
LinkedIn: eli-mitchell-larson
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