Yale University, Center for Natural Carbon Capture

Reducing carbon emissions is crucial for combating climate change, but alone it is not enough to avoid its potentially catastrophic consequences. This raises many questions:  Which natural processes capture carbon from the air and store it in the environment (i.e. negative emissions)? Can we find ways to speed up these processes? How much carbon can be stored that way and for how long? What are the co-benefits and negative consequences of these efforts? How will they affect other parts of the natural environment and the communities of people living in the affected areas?

Initiated by a transformative gift from FedEx and as a part of the Yale’s Planetary Solutions Project, the Yale Center for Natural Carbon Capture sets out to study the fundamental and applied science of natural carbon capture. It aims at developing solutions that will provide one of the many tools needed for addressing some of the greatest challenges of our time.

The Center brings new and exciting research and researchers to the Yale community and connects them with the many existing relevant research labs across campus and beyond. The Center funds research projects, workshops, and fellowships at the University and it invests in outreach and training the next generation of scientists and practitioners. These activities are centered around three Focus Areas: Ecosystem & Biological Capture, Geological & Ocean Capture, and Industrial Carbon Utilization. Continued fundraising efforts aim at securing support for this endeavor well into the future.