What Could It Mean for B.C. and the Pacific Northwest?

Google and Terradot’s carbon removal agreement is an important milestone for enhanced rock weathering (ERW) based on its size alone. It’s also a signal that the carbon removal market is beginning to think seriously about how ERW can move from promising science to deployment at meaningful scale.

Google calls the agreement its largest carbon removal purchase to date. Terradot plans to work across more than 200,000 hectares of rice farms in southern Brazil, combining methane-reducing agricultural practices with enhanced rock weathering. Under the agreement, Google will purchase 1 million metric tons CO2e of methane elimination by 2030 and 1 million metric tons of permanent carbon dioxide removal by 2040.

Congratulations to both Google and Terradot. For the broader carbon dioxide removal industry, the significance extends beyond the size of the agreement.

ERW needs the right combination of conditions

Enhanced rock weathering accelerates a natural geochemical process. Suitable crushed silicate rock is spread over land, where reactions involving water and carbon dioxide ultimately remove CO2 from the atmosphere and store it in durable forms.

But having the right rock is only one part of the equation.

To scale efficiently, ERW benefits from a combination of suitable geology, favorable weathering conditions, agricultural land, logistics and buyers willing to support high-integrity carbon removal.

Google points to several of those factors in southern Brazil: a warm, wet climate, extensive agricultural acreage and suitable rock sources located relatively close to farmland.

That combination is one reason the announcement caught our attention at Reposit Carbon.

Why Reposit Carbon sees opportunity in B.C. and the Pacific Northwest

We believe Southwestern Canada and the Pacific Northwest of the United States have many of the ingredients required to develop a significant enhanced rock weathering market of its own.

The region combines a climate conducive to weathering with a substantial agricultural footprint. Reposit Carbon also has access to a significant olivine resource within practical proximity of potential deployment areas.

The geography and agricultural systems are different from Brazil, and every ERW project must be evaluated on its own science, economics and environmental performance. But the underlying question is similar:

Can we bring together the right rock, the right land, the right climate and the right carbon-removal market to deploy ERW responsibly at scale?

We believe B.C. and the Pacific Northwest warrants serious consideration.

From individual projects to regional ERW markets

The Google-Terradot agreement matters because scaling carbon removal will require more than successful individual projects. It will require regions where supply chains, measurement systems, agricultural relationships, geology and buyer demand can reinforce one another.

Southern Brazil is emerging as one such region.

British Columbia and the U.S. Pacific Northwest have the natural assets to support durable carbon dioxide removal at meaningful scale; the opportunity now is to turn those advantages into a model that can grow.

The growth of enhanced rock weathering will not happen in one geography alone. Deals like this one help demonstrate what is possible and make the case for identifying the next regions capable of contributing.

 We believe B.C. and the Pacific Northwest can be one of them.