Carbon Removal Glossary: 20 Essential Carbon Removal Terminologies
Photo by Chris LeBoutillier on Unsplash
Let’s play a game. How many of these have you heard in the last month?
“We need BECCS to hit net zero.”
“Enhanced weathering could reverse ocean acidification.”
“Carbon removal is just greenwashing!”
If you’re nodding along but secretly thinking, Wait, what’s BECCS?—you’re not alone. Carbon removal has exploded into climate debates, boardrooms, and even TikTok, but the jargon leaves most of us scrambling.
Here’s your easy to digest guide to 20 terms shaping the future of carbon removal that you should be familiar with.
1. Carbon Removal
Think of carbon removal as a giant vacuum cleaner for the atmosphere. It’s any process that sucks CO₂ out of the air and locks it away for hundreds to thousands of years.
The IPCC says even if we magically stopped all emissions tomorrow, we’d still need to remove 5 - 16 billion tons of CO₂ yearly by 2050 to avoid blowing past 1.5°C. For instance, In Iceland, Climeworks’ Orca plant captures CO₂ and injects it underground, where it reacts with basalt rock and turns to stone. No leaks, no fires—just rocks. Also, in Cornwall, UK, Restord is producing biochar to permanently lock carbon away in the ground through the black gold.
2. CDR
This means Carbon Dioxide Removal and it’s basically the same as carbon removal above. We can all agree carbon dioxide removal is a mouthful so people just typically call it carbon removal, or CDR.
3. Carbon Sequestration
Usually, this is where the captured CO₂ goes. Forests, oceans, soil - these are nature’s storage lockers. But we’re also building industrial ones, like underground caverns or mineralised rock formations. Carbon sequestration is also used sometimes as an alternative for carbon removal and CDR.
4. Carbon Sink
A carbon sink is anything that absorbs more CO₂ than it emits. Oceans, forests, even your backyard compost pile can be a sink.
The good news is that Oceans have absorbed 30% of human-caused emissions since the Industrial Revolution. The bad news, however, is that warm waters can’t hold as much CO₂. Worse, the Amazon, once the world’s lungs, now emits more CO₂ than it absorbs due to deforestation and fires.
5. Negative Emissions
Another term that is similar to carbon removal or CDR…
6. Direct Air Capture (DAC)
Imagine a skyscraper-sized Brita filter for the atmosphere. DAC machines use chemical reactions to suck CO₂ molecules from the air.
How it works:
Liquid DAC: Air blows through a solvent solution that traps CO₂.
Solid DAC: Fans push air over a sorbent material e.g. filters coated with amines, which bind to CO₂. Heat then releases the gas for storage.
7. Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS)
Burn plants for energy → capture the CO₂ → bury it. In theory, this is “carbon-negative”—you’re removing CO₂ because the plants sucked it up while growing.
The IPCC calls BECCS a “keystone” for 1.5°C pathways. Drax, a UK power plant, is retrofitting turbines to capture up to 8 million tons of CO₂ yearly by 2030.
8. Enhanced Weathering
This involves speeding up Earth’s natural CO₂ absorption process by spreading crushed rocks on fields or beaches. When rain hits silicate rocks like basalt, a chemical reaction binds CO₂ into bicarbonate ions, which eventually wash into the ocean and form limestone. For instance, UNDo is on a mission to remove 1 million tonnes of CO2 permanently through enhanced weathering.
The catch: Mining and grinding rocks is energy-heavy. But using renewable energy makes this a non-issue.
9. Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement
Dump minerals like olivine or limestone into the ocean to make seawater absorb more CO₂. This could reverse ocean acidification, which is dissolving shellfish shells and killing coral reefs. US based company, Vesta, is currently exploring this solution.
10. Carbon Offsetting
Paying a project to reduce or remove CO₂ to “offset” your emissions. Fly to Bali? Buy offsets to plant mangroves. High-quality offsets fund projects like protecting Congo peatlands or installing solar farms in India.
11. Net Zero Emissions
Removing as much CO₂ as you emit. Balance the scales.
12. Carbon Credits
The definition based on who is defining - the person buying or selling. But generally, carbon credits are verifiable emission reductions or removals from certified climate action projects which can then be sold as some kind of “emission permission slips”. A carbon credit = 1 ton of CO₂ removed or avoided.
Companies can buy them to use in an offsetting capacity to say, “Look, we canceled out our pollution”
The market:
Compliance credits: Government-regulated, like the EU’s Emissions Trading System.
Voluntary credits: Companies buy these to demonstrate environmental responsibility in a purely voluntary capacity
13. Afforestation/Reforestation
The basics: Planting trees—either new forests (afforestation) or replacing lost ones (reforestation).
Trees are the original carbon removal tech. The Trillion Trees Initiative wants to restore, save, and protect one trillion trees by 2050.
14. Soil Carbon Sequestration
Use farming tricks—cover crops, no-till—to stash CO₂ in soil. Healthy soils could absorb 10% of global emissions.
15. Mineralisation
Turn CO₂ into stone. Seriously. This is done by injecting CO₂ into reactive rocks like basalt. Over months or years, it mineralizes into solid carbonate.
16. Carbon Capture Utilisation and Storage (CCUS)
NOTE! This is not a carbon removal method. Usually this is capturing CO₂ at a point source of emissions. E.g. Grab CO₂ from factories or power plants and either reuse it or bury it.
Reuse examples:
Jet fuel: LanzaTech ferments CO₂ from steel mills into ethanol, then upgrades it to fuel.
Concrete: Using CarbonCure Technologies, Marshalls injects waste into concrete bricks to capture CO₂ in the form on a solid mineral within the concrete.
17. Blue Carbon
The basics: Carbon stored in coastal ecosystems—mangroves, seagrass, salt marshes.
Why it’s cool: Mangroves sequester CO₂ 4x faster than rainforests. Plus, they buffer storms and nurture fish.
The crisis: Half the world’s mangroves are gone, cleared for shrimp farms and resorts.
Success story: Indonesia plans to restore 600,000 hectares of mangroves by 2024, offsetting 10% of its emissions.
18. Biochar
In case you missed it earlier, Restord produces Biochar in Cornwall. Recently nicknamed the “black gold” by Bloomberg (we were featured in this article by the way, so do check it out), biochar is produced by heating biomass in the absence of oxygen and often burying in the soil for its agricultural benefits.
Biochar has other benefits beyond agriculture and they are listed here. Biochar can lock away carbon for 1,000+ years.
19. Artificial Photosynthesis
Simply copy what plants do naturally. Use sunlight to turn CO₂ and water into fuels or chemicals. In 2023, UC Berkeley built a system that’s 10% efficient—matching sugarcane.
20. Peatland Restoration
Peatlands are swampy areas that store twice as much carbon as all forests combined. Drain them for agriculture, and they emit CO₂ for decades. Block drainage ditches, rewet the land, and let the peat rebuild.
Scotland plan to restore 250,000 hectares of peatland by 2030.
Conclusion
Understanding these 20 terms will hopefully equip you with some initial information to advocate for carbon removal in your next sustainability meeting. Share this guide to spread climate literacy, support certified carbon removal projects, and hold policymakers accountable.
How to use this guide
Bookmark it: Next time someone drops “BECCS” in a press release or a LinkedIn post, check the meaning here.
Share it: Know someone who is curious about sustainability or carbon removal? Share it with them. Fun fact: Everyone should.
At Restord, we’re making biochar and exploring its real-world impact with UK farmers, businesses, and councils. Follow our journey on Grounded: A Climate Startup Journey, our award-winning podcast. Listen on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
