YCNCC Leaders Shape Global Dialogue on Enhanced Weathering at Royal Society Meeting

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Photo of XinRan Liu (Undo), Matthew Clarkson (InPlanet), Rachael James (University of Southampton), and Noah Planavsky – courtesy of YCNCC.

Yale Center for Natural Carbon Capture (YCNCC) Scientific Leadership Team member Noah Planavsky co-convened a landmark scientific meeting this week at The Royal Society in London, focused on “Enhanced Weathering in Agriculture for Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide Removal.” The two-day event brought together leading experts from around the world to evaluate progress, share new findings, and chart a path for the future of enhanced weathering (EW) research and deployment.

The meeting was co-organized by Planavsky alongside David J. Beerling (University of Sheffield), Rachael James (University of Southampton), and Chris Reinhard (Georgia Institute of Technology). Together, the conveners assembled a program featuring four interconnected sessions:

  • Session 1: EW Performance and Co-Benefits in Field Trials
  • Session 2: Monitoring and Verifying CO₂ Removal and Environmental Risks
  • Session 3: EW Co-Processes Across Spatiotemporal Scales
  • Session 4: Social Acceptance of EW Implementation and Policy Landscape

Planavsky chaired Session 4; moderated a panel discussion on future opportunities in EW monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV); and delivered the meeting’s closing remarks.

“It was an honor to work with colleagues to convene leading enhanced weathering scientists this week at the Royal Society to assess the current state of the field and explore the key knowledge gaps that we must address in the coming years.”

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Noah Planavsky, YCNCC Leadership Team Member and Professor of Earth & Planetary Sciences.

YCNCC Co-Director and Yale School of the Environment (YSE) Professor Peter Raymond presented during Session 3 on “Rivers, EW, and C-cycling.” YCNCC Postdoctoral Fellow Tim Jesper-Surhoff contributed to the scientific program with a Session 2 talk on “River Catchments as Natural Monitors of Enhanced Weathering: Evidence from the Mississippi River.” YSE and Raymond Lab Graduate Researcher Samuel Tsao also attended the meeting and presented a poster on “How Flow and Temperature Variation Influence Calcite Saturation in River Systems: Potential Implications for Enhanced Weathering.”

“The YCNCC continues to lead on enhanced weathering. Collaboration and coordination on research objectives are essential at this moment as we seek to move from field trials and initial commercial projects to scaled deployments.”

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Peter Raymond, the YCNCC co-director and Oastler Professor of Biogeochemistry at Yale School of the Environment

The meeting underscored both the momentum in enhanced weathering research and the significant collaborative work ahead as the field advances toward implementation and scaling of real-world agronomic and climate mitigation impact.

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Photo of Peter Raymond – courtesy of YCNCC.