A bonus episode of the Reversing Climate Change podcast. You can listen on Spotify (subscribe there for ad-free), Apple Podcasts, or wherever else you listen. Paid subscribers get the ad-free version right here on the page.
Alexsandra Guerra hosts this one; I am not on it at all. Volans is a think tank and advisory firm that, in Roper’s description, translates emerging trends into something a business can act on, and her case for removals is the plain one: every scenario says cut emissions hard and scale removals at the same time, so waiting for the first to finish before starting the second is not on the menu.
Nine minutes, and it has aged better than most things said about this market in 2019.
Nori has been in touch with the good folks at Volans since our early days. They've offered a lot of help as fellow travelers, not least of which was buying in the Nori Lightning Sale. Learn why they support Nori in this episode with Volans' Executive Director, Louise Kjellerup Roper.
More from the show
Ad-free episodes and other benefits come with a paid subscription.
Carbon Removal Newsroom, the news show that ran alongside this one, is over. Its episodes are still up, on the feed Climate Workers Anonymous now uses.
Carbon Removal Memes is still goofing around.
The books that come up on this show are collected on my Bookshop shelf.
🎧 Apple Podcasts · Spotify · YouTube
Paid subscribers get this episode ad-free. The ads in the free feed are inserted by Spotify when you press play. They are not in the file I make.
Full Transcript
Alexsandra Guerra: Hello, and welcome to the Reversing Climate Change Podcast. My name is Alexsandra Guerra, and I'm here with an amazing guest in this bonus episode, Louise Kjellerup Roper, who is the Executive Director of Volens. Hi, Louise. Hi. How are you doing? Good. So glad to have you on. This is exciting because we have some cool news to share with our listeners. Now, can you tell them what exactly is Volens, and why is carbon removal so important to you and your colleagues?
Louise Kjellerup Roper: Sure, I can. So Volans is a London-based think tank and advisory firm. We basically help businesses react to the future now. So we translate emergent trends to make them relevant for business and push towards societal goals really all around for businesses. And the reasons that carbon removal is something that we've been preoccupied with for a while is Is because the science is so clear. Every scenario, every report tells us that we not only have to radically reduce emissions, but we have to scale up the carbon removal at the same time. It is not an either or. There was a time when people said, no, no, we just have to reduce emissions.
And we'll be fine and get to a 1.5, but that's no longer the case. We are not on track with either our emissions or the amount of carbon removal that's going on. So we really need, we, as small as we are, want to support those carbon removal solutions as fast as we can.
Alexsandra Guerra: Thanks for that explanation. I think you're totally spot on. We say something here at Nori a lot. Emit less, remove the rest. So it's definitely, as you said, not an either or situation. We have to do both. So can you tell us, why did you participate in Nori's Lightning Sale? And for those who don't know, Nori is doing a Lightning Sale. It's our first ever chance for people to directly pay farmers to restore carbon into soils as a source of carbon removal. And Louise and Volans participated in this as one of our first buyers. So can you tell us, why did this appeal to you, Louise?
Louise Kjellerup Roper: Sure, absolutely. So, as a basic concept, we believe that all businesses, of course, need to internalize the cost of the negative impacts externalities like carbon emissions. So, we've always had a program in place to kind of purchase offsets to cover the carbon footprint. We also know that the quality of carbon offsets is variable and most don't actually go towards carbon removal. So we feel, having seen Nori's proposition develop over the last year and a half or so, we know that It's one of the highest quality providers out there. And there's huge potential in the market creation that you guys are doing for carbon removal. So it was really important to us, both as a business, because we want to do the right thing and have the highest quality of internalizing those CO2 emissions, but also because we wanted to support that market that we believe you are doing.
It's so important.
Alexsandra Guerra: Oh, thanks, Louise. I'm blessing.
Louise Kjellerup Roper: It's actually genuine. I got very excited to hear that we could participate.
Alexsandra Guerra: Oh, thank you. I really appreciate that. Yeah, I think there's a lot that needs to be done with regard to offsets. We need to protect our forests and stuff. But we are trying to do, as you said, something new, which is to focus exclusively on carbon removal. And I appreciate that you You have been such a great support. We've done webinars together. Those webinars have been really fun to do. We've done them with regard to soil. We've done them like a Brady Bunch style one that Lorraine Smith had hosted with you guys and moderated.
Louise Kjellerup Roper: Yes. Really fun.
Alexsandra Guerra: Focus on carbon removal. Aaron Meason from Interface was on there. Okay. So what's your overall impression, given that we were just talking about this webinar and the Brady Bunch style, like what is carbon removal in this space? What's your impression of the carbon removal space and where do you think it's heading?
Louise Kjellerup Roper: So I think, you know, however you look at it, carbon removal is going to be one of the big growth industries for this century. I can't see any way around that. The I'm lucky. I'm also on the Global Advisory Board for the Global CO2 Initiative, which is based out of University of Michigan. And so I'm seeing more and more technology solutions. And the point of that initiative is to also accelerate the technologies that are out there to remove carbon from the atmosphere. So I see that as growing. It's not growing fast enough. It reminds me a little bit of back in the day when I was in the very nascent technology software for security software.
And there's a lot of things going. None of it has, not much of it has really taken off yet, but it just feels like everything is bubbling under. And in the next three to five years, I see the acceleration coming. So I think it's going to be an exponential curve and Everybody's going to want to be part of it, really. But how far, you know, I say three to five years. It could be longer, it could be shorter, but it has to be one of the biggest growth industries for the next century, I'm certain of it. Because scientifically,
Alexsandra Guerra: it's a necessity. Absolutely. And more people should join because there's plenty to do. And so the more people, the better. There's 1.5 trillion tonnes of excess CO2 that we have to remove from the atmosphere. So... If anything, I hope... That's crazy, isn't it? Yeah, isn't that? No, hashtag no pressure.
Louise Kjellerup Roper: Yeah, exactly. It's like, wow. It's just so big. And that's what's exciting about it. It's sad, but what's exciting about it is, as you say, there are so many opportunities for technologies, for platforms, for natural solutions, and for people to do their bit, whether just to support and offset and buy these or to really invest in some of the technology needed.
Alexsandra Guerra: All hands on deck. Great. What do you wish people knew about Volans and how can they get involved?
Louise Kjellerup Roper: What did I wish people knew about Volans? I don't know. I wish people... I guess I wish people... Knew that we are so curious that anybody who has thoughts on where the system needs to go and how to get there from a business perspective, because we're focused on what businesses can do really to shift the system and to become regenerative businesses in the future. But we are so curious that we would love to hear from more people either through social media. [Twitter plug cut from the transcript. It’s still in the audio.] Or LinkedIn. And we will, what we tend to do is to filter some of those, what we hear about new technologies, new initiatives, and we filter them into our thinking and our advice for big corporates and other organizations.
So I guess that's the way to get involved with us really, is to have something to say or something that you find interesting. Or be a business, of course, that needs some advice. We can do that too.
Alexsandra Guerra: Well, you are speaking to the right group of people. We will definitely share this on Twitter and on LinkedIn. And you can share it with your networks as well. Of course. It sounds like LinkedIn, Twitter, is that where people can learn more about Volans or is there a particular website you'd like to direct them to?
Louise Kjellerup Roper: Oh, good thinking. I should have mentioned that website. Yes, the website is volans.com, V-O-L-A-N-S.com, which is a little bit more information about us and some of the big areas we deal with, like the new carbon economy or what capitalism needs to look like in the future. Those are the kind of big things we look at.
Alexsandra Guerra: Awesome. Well, thank you so much for joining us, Louise. And thank you for participating in Nori's first ever sale of carbon removals in our lightning sale, which will be ending in a few weeks. [Nori promotion cut from the transcript. It’s still in the audio, but it no longer applies.] Everything about Volans is also in the show notes in their website, the link to the Nori Lightning Sale. And if you like what we're doing here, please rate and review us on iTunes or Stitcher. And thank you so much for being a fan, helping us get the word out about carbon removal and for listening. Thank you.
