Podcast•Apr 16, 2026•0 min
Seven Buyers in a Trench Coat
In this episode of The Carbon Curve, host Naim Merchant talks with Jack Andreessen‑Kavanaugh, director of the Carbon Management Program at Columbia’s Center on Global Energy Policy, about Microsoft’s pause on new carbon‑dioxide‑removal (CDR) purchases and what it reveals about the market. Jack argues that the reliance on voluntary corporate buying—exemplified by Microsoft accounting for 80‑90% of durable CDR deals—was never sufficient to reach gigaton‑scale removals; instead, robust government policy must drive scaling, much like it did for solar and wind. They discuss the limited impact of the U.S. 45Q tax credit, the potential role of oil‑and‑gas companies as partners, and the policy levers Jack would enact today to create a stable, diversified demand base for CDR technologies.
