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What is Terraset?
What is Terraset, and where did the idea come from?
Adam Fraser - Terraset is a 501c3 nonprofit organization that uses philanthropic capital to catalyze the nascent carbon removal (CDR) industry. We pool tax-deductible donations from individuals, foundations, family offices, and donor-advised funds and use them to strategically purchase permanent, high-quality carbon removal from innovative projects and companies.
The idea for Terraset came from the desire of our co-founders to use tax-deductible donations to support ambitious, innovative, high-potential carbon removal projects - that was their goal, but there wasn’t a way to do it. There were plenty of ways to purchase cheap offsets, and some great nonprofits were championing the importance of carbon removal - but none were focused on purchasing permanent carbon removal from the CDR companies that need customers and revenue to grow and scale. Through the conversations they had around the idea, they realized there was a growing class of climate advocates and philanthropists who wanted to support the group of forward-thinking, fast-moving startups whose work and growth is essential in scaling the carbon removal market—and to use philanthropic funds, or get a tax break, for doing that.
The donations we receive are tax-deductible because they’re motivated entirely by the interests of wider society. We don’t issue credits or offsets to our donors— we use their philanthropic donations to remove greenhouse gases. This is about contributing to a solution: carbon removal won’t reverse climate change alone, but we know we can’t fix the climate without carbon removal at gigaton-scale. We’re here to help make that happen.
CDR Common Misconceptions
What common misconceptions or challenges have you encountered regarding carbon dioxide removal and how does Terraset address them?
Adam Fraser - A major misconception - or just a lack of awareness - is the idea that carbon removal, and the problem of greenhouse gases in general, is someone else’s responsibility. People think there’s nothing they can do about it. Sometimes, that’s because they think it’s already adequately funded—but that isn’t true. Or they think that the government or private markets will figure it out—which they can’t do alone. Or they just think they can do nothing to make a meaningful difference as an individual or even as an entity.
Terraset exists because we allow everyone to contribute meaningfully to carbon removal. People can give a million dollars if they have it available or give as little as $1 and do it online in less than two minutes. All those donations go towards actual carbon removal and, in the process, help more and more carbon removal companies get off the ground and scale.
But that’s not the only misconception. Those familiar with carbon markets know that there has been increasing scepticism around the legitimacy and impact of the voluntary carbon market. Since the goal has often been about reaching a particular number of credits as inexpensively as possible, large parts of the market have been incentivized to provide low-cost offsets, which are often low quality. That’s not what we are focused on in any way. Terraset purchases high-quality carbon removals - not offsets - to catalyze the CDR industry. We’re for the people who think: “I know carbon removal is crucial, and I want to donate to support the efforts that can make carbon removal scale to the size we need it.”
To achieve that, we have to show major philanthropists the massive potential impact they can have on CDR. Of nearly $1 trillion in global philanthropic giving last year, less than half a per cent went to carbon removal. The entire climate sector—anything you can think of as falling into a climate bracket—gets less than two per cent. That’s a huge delta. One of the biggest problems the world faces, and a solution every credible model shows we need, is only getting a tiny percentage of philanthropic funding. That has to change.
Permanent Removal Solutions
Terraset focuses on permanent carbon removal solutions. Can you elaborate on the specific types of permanent removal projects you typically support with philanthropic capital, and how Terraset has developed its current portfolio?
Adam Fraser - We're committed to supporting projects that take greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere, regardless of the method. Our request for suppliers is evergreen—organizations can submit applications any time—but we typically review them on a quarterly basis in cohorts. Our team then rigorously evaluates those projects, making sure our funding can have a real impact on the planet. Currently, our portfolio includes several Direct Air Capture (DAC) projects, but we're not focused on funding DAC in particular—we’re always on the lookout for new approaches. We also have projects using ERW (Enhanced Rock Weathering) and BECCS (Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage), with more new approaches to be announced in the next few weeks. We're keen on bringing together a variety of methodologies and projects to create as much opportunity as possible to find successful solutions.
Evaluating CDR Effectiveness
How do you evaluate carbon removal projects' effectiveness and long-term viability before allocating funding?
Adam Fraser - We assess each project against a set of seven criteria, informed by research from leading climate groups like Frontier and CarbonPlan. We look for projects that are Additional - meaning carbon was removed as a result of the donation and wouldn’t otherwise have happened; Verifiable - meaning they have scientifically rigorous, transparent reporting on the amount of carbon removed as a result of the purchase; Long-term - they lock away carbon for hundreds or thousands of years; Ethical - they have no negative social and economic impact in the communities they operate in, and ideally have very positive impacts; Scalable - they have the potential to scale and, as a result, become drastically more affordable for the wider market; Validated - because if the top climate scientists are on board, that’s a good sign; and Catalytic - will our purchase increase the odds that a company successfully reaches scale as quickly as possible, and removes a huge amount of CO2 from the atmosphere as a result? And we are very fortunate to have our Carbon Council - an incredible advisory board feeding into the best use of our dollars to maximize their impact at both a strategic and individual project level.
Tracking Environmental Impact
How does Terraset track and communicate the environmental impact of the projects it supports to donors and the public?
Adam Fraser - We evaluate wider environmental impact - beyond the actual greenhouse gases removed - during our project selection process. This is part of our ‘ethical’ assessment criteria, alongside social and economic impact. This started with the primary focus of avoiding negative impact, but we’ve been thrilled by the positive co-benefits that have emerged from many of the projects we’re supporting. In our current portfolio, we’re seeing things like Andes' approach to microbial carbon mineralization improving soil quality and crop yield, and Capture 6’s DAC method turning wastewater and brine into fresh water. From a social and economic perspective, we also examine how companies like Octavia create jobs in East Africa. These co-benefits highlight how tackling a particular aspect of climate change can also solve other societal and environmental challenges, making our mission even more rewarding.
CDR Trends
What are some emerging trends or developments in the field of permanent carbon removal that Terraset is particularly excited about?
Adam Fraser - Regarding scientific innovation, it’s an incredibly promising time with so many brilliant individuals exploring new ways to tackle this challenge. With more and more companies coming to market, the diversity of approaches highlights a field brimming with potential. Alongside that, strides in MRV (Measurement, Reporting and Verification) are giving us tools to validate the impact of these projects like never before. That is crucial for building trust and credibility in carbon removal—areas where the ‘old’ carbon market has had some of the problems we spoke about earlier. Getting that right will lay a solid foundation that not only underlines the legitimacy of current projects but will pave the way for future initiatives.
Equally exciting, given the need to scale as quickly as possible, is the increase in funding flowing into carbon removal. Year on year, we see more investment from a wider range of sources. That influx of capital is a game-changer, fueling the scale and scope of projects we can embark on—but we need more of it, and faster, if we want to see this work achieve what is necessary.
Additional Support
What additional support do the projects you fund financially require to help maximise success?
Adam Fraser - The challenges faced by early-stage, first-of-a-kind climate technology projects — or any start-up, for that matter! — are too long to reel off in one answer. These projects face multiple technical valleys of death and huge challenges moving through the different phases from concept to the lab to pilot to commercial scale. Simply put, more capital of all types is needed in this space—including from nonprofits and philanthropic donations. And, of course, early purchases are just one-way nonprofits are helping catalyze the carbon removal market. There are fantastic nonprofit groups like Carbon180 and Carbon Removal Canada that are focused on having a tangible influence at the government level; there are also international efforts like the Direct Air Capture Coalition that bring together diverse leadership from technology, business, finance, government, and civil society to mobilize around DAC together. Outside of philanthropy, we’re seeing the climate capital stack evolve to include things like grant advances and debt capital that are designed to help innovators hit collective escape velocity. The companies currently at the forefront of this space will continue to innovate—and there are many more like them who we hope to help achieve scale and impact as soon as possible. The carbon removal industry is just getting started.
CDR Challenges
What's the biggest challenge facing CDR’s nature-based/ science-based solutions, and what is required to solve them in 2024?
Adam Fraser - The main hurdle for CDR right now? Scale. We're talking about moving from a place where we aren’t just capturing hundreds of tons or thousands of tons, but billions of tons of CO2. That's a huge leap, and to make it, we need three things: way more money flowing into the field, ways to make these solutions cost-effective, and a narrative shift around CDR itself. We need to change how people—both in the public eye and in the philanthropy world—see CDR. It's not just another item on the climate agenda or a nice-to-have—it's a must-do if we're serious about tackling climate change. We're working to shift the conversation, encouraging everyone to see backing CDR not as a flavour-of-the-month gimmick but as an absolutely key move in our collective fight against global warming.
