Carbon180 (formerly known as the Center for Carbon Removal) is a left-of-center climate activist think tank founded in 2015 at the University of California, Berkeley by Noah Deich and Gina Amador. ¹ Carbon180 advocates for “carbon neutral” or “net-zero” initiatives ² and promotes racial preferences for “environmental justice” in its policy recommendations. ³

Net-Zero Carbon Initiatives

Carbon180 promotes direct air capture hubs (DAC hubs) that may remove carbon dioxide (CO₂) “out of the air,” which can “then be stored permanently underground in rocks or in products like concrete.”  ⁴

Carbon180 advocates for policies that would require farmers and ranchers to ascertain the amount of carbon used on their land. ⁵ Carbon180 suggests that carbon emission removal should be treated as a public work project. ⁶ The Carbon180 federal procurement plan recommends that the federal government enact regulations “for measuring, reporting, and verifying carbon removal.” Carbon180 cites BuyClean, a Biden administration policy that “requires federal agencies to purchase concrete, steel, and other industrial materials that meet carbon emission and labor standards when awarding contracts for public works projects.” ⁶ Carbon180 believes that this program is “proof that these policies can mobilize the market” for promoting net-zero policies. ⁶

Carbon180 opposes enhanced oil recovery (EOR) because “the process of pumping CO₂ into oil reservoirs could theoretically drive down DAC costs, but it’s a process designed to produce more oil — exactly the opposite of what we need to be doing.” ⁴

“Environmental Justice” Policy

Carbon180’s policies use racial preferences by claiming that previous environmentalist policies have “sidelined BIPOC and low-income communities.” ³ Carbon180’s 2021 report, “Removing Forward,” recommends the codification of the Environmental Protection Agency’s “equity screen” known as the EJSCREEN. ⁷

EJSCREEN is designed “to build profiles of underserved communities and their burdens, expand its database to include nationally consistent data on environmental pollution and demographic information relating to race, ethnicity, and income, and add the capability to generate reports by geographic area.” ⁷ The recommendation features as Carbon180’s solution to create “transformative justice,” stating that “carbon removal can and should spur change in society’s current systems, revolutionizing sectors to address structural power imbalances and historic harms.” ³

Cabon180’s “environmental justice” policy seeks to institute federal funding for climate organizations that would be allocated by racial preferences. Carbon180 believes that Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) communities “feel the effects of climate change the most, [and] BIPOC-led organizations get a much smaller share of federal and private funding.” ³ Carbon180 also states that their “regranting efforts are designed to address this barrier by rerouting funding back to local communities.” ³ The Carbon180 “environmental justice” goal is “to integrate equity and justice so deeply in the carbon removal field that one is no longer distinguishable or separable from the other.” ³

Funding

In 2022, Carbon180 received in donations: $2,485,225 from the Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund, $1,333,333 from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative Foundation, and $1,304,625 from the National Philanthropic Trust. ⁸

Grantmaking

In 2022, Carbon180 gave $220,000 to BlueGreen Alliance Foundation, $200,000 to Black Millennials 4 Flint, and $200,000 to Data for Social Good Foundation. ⁸

People

As of April 2024, Carbon180’s staff included Erin Burns as its director. ⁹ Burns previously served as Carbon180’s director of policy from November 2018 to January 2021, and as senior policy advisor at Third Way Institute. ¹⁰

Cristel Zoebisch Bernaldo de Quiroz is the director of policy, land and agriculture who leads Carbon180’s advocacy for “carbon removal in agriculture and forestry.” ⁹ Zoebisch Bernaldo de Quiroz previously worked with the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition as a conservation and climate policy specialist. ¹¹

1. “About.” Carbon180. Accessed April 21, 2024. https://carbon180.org/about/.
2. “Our Approach.” Carbon180. Accessed April 21, 2024. https://carbon180.org/our-approach/.
3.  “Environmental Justice.” Carbon180. Accessed April 21, 2024. https://carbon180.org/initiative/environmental-justice/.
4. “Dac Hubs.” Carbon180. Accessed April 21, 2024. https://carbon180.org/initiative/regional-dac-hubs-program/.
5. “Farm Bill.” Carbon180. Accessed April 21, 2024. https://carbon180.org/initiative/farm-bill/.
6. “Federal Procurement.” Carbon180. Accessed April 21, 2024. https://carbon180.org/initiative/federal-procurement/.
7. Kosar, Ugbaad, and Vanessa Suarez. “Removing Forward Centering Equity and Justice in a Carbon-Removing Future.” Carbon180 Reports, August 2021. https://carbon180.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Carbon180-RemovingForward.pdf.
8. “Carbon180.” Carbon180 | Washington, DC | Cause IQ. Accessed April 21, 2024. https://www.causeiq.com/organizations/carbon180,812560407/.
9. “Team.” Carbon180. Accessed April 21, 2024. https://carbon180.org/team/.
10. “Erin Burns – Carbon180.” LinkedIn . Accessed April 21, 2024. https://www.linkedin.com/in/erinburns.
11. “Cristel Zoebisch Bernaldo de Quiroz – LinkedIn.” LinkedIn. Accessed April 21, 2024. https://www.linkedin.com/in/cristel-zoebisch.